Well, I've seen TWO bad cranks -- one an oil starvation problem that resulted in spinning the thrust bearing (#2) in the block and eventually breaking the crank, and one were a terrible rebuild resulted in horrible cylinder wall wear and totalled crank bearings from too much clearance. Reground that one to the correct undersize and installed it -- now have 45 lbs oil pressure at idle even when warm -- drops to 30 or so after running on the highway.

As far as factory installations go, unless it was run out of oil or until the knocking rods finally broke, the cranks are almost indestructable.

Peter

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1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!