Nissan Motor Company Limited

Shinya Oohira

Makoto Kobayashi

Hiroaki Mochida

Masayuki Ootani

Kensuke Ikehara

Yukihiro Fujioka

Wataru Arai

A crankshaft of an in-line, four-cylinder internal combustion engine has five journal portions. The journal portions are each supported by a main bearing unit. Each of the main bearing units includes a cylinder block side bearing part and a bearing cap. The No., No., No.and No.main bearing units employ an iron-based bearing cap, and the No.main bearing unit at the center employs a bearing cap made of an aluminum alloy having a relatively high thermal expansion coefficient. At high temperatures, the bearing clearance of the No.main bearing unit is configured to expand so as to reduce bearing load.

Crankshaft bearing structure of internal combustion engine

A method to modify the geometry of a connecting rod of an internal combustion engine includes providing a connecting rod having a crankshaft bore at a first end, wherein the first end has a bearing cap and a bottom end portion of the connecting rod, mating the bearing cap with the bottom end portion of the connecting rod to form the crankshaft bore of the connecting rod, machining a width upset portion of the bottom end portion to reduce a width of the bottom end portion of the connecting rod, machining a width upset portion of the bearing cap to reduce a portion of a width of the bearing cap, and reducing the width of the bottom end portion of the connecting rod and the portion of the width of the bearing cap to a width smaller than a cylinder bore of the internal combustion engine.

Connecting rod for an engine and method of making thereof

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Shinya Oohira