You can thank the EPA and their 100,000 mile "no pollution", "no maintenance" requirement. Although aimed at reducing pollution, the EPA requirements had the effect of tightening up quality all throughout the engine & air intake & exhaust systems. For example, you used to have to replace your muffler every 15 minutes, and that is no longer required, either. Of course, this mandated increase in quality (including crash tests, etc.) also had the effect of raising the price of a minimal "automobile" from ~$5k to ~$20k. These regulations also had the (perhaps unintended) effect of *standardizing* engines, drive trains, etc., and suppressing innovation. Who could afford the cost of proving compliance? E.g., look what happened to poor Mazda with their Wankel rotary engine. (I'm not a huge fan of the Wankel, but it did represent an attempt at innovation.) One can only wonder at why it took the 21st C. & Tesla before someone finally got serious about electric vehicles. Perhaps heavy regulation exacts an enormous toll on innovation? --- BTW, when was the last time you ever heard of a ball bearing failing? High quality ball bearings are now assumed, but prior to & during WWII, high quality ball bearings were unobtainable. The U.S. put a huge priority on bombing German ball bearing plants, because they were so ubiquitous and so important. At 08:07 PM 9/4/2016, Richard Howard wrote:

Of course. Had to use special "break-in" oil.

Now engines are machined so tightly when they come off the line that they use 0W oil--sort of like the consistency of water.

--R

On Sun, Sep 4, 2016 at 9:51 PM, Bill Gosper <billgosper@gmail.com> wrote:

...

Who remembers when we had to break engines in? --rwg