If you ever want to get scared, check out what a crank looks like at high RPM. If you're interested, the machine to do this with is called a Spintron. What you'll see is a large, heavy, supposedly rigid chunk of steel squirming around like crazy. You'd swear any metal walking around that much would soon fail. In some cases, it's exactly what happens. Common failures include bearing wear, spun bearings, excess crank wear, cracks or breaks in the crank/block/main caps, and more. Although you can never completely eliminate all the causes of these failures, you can certainly reduce them - it's what successful race teams and engine Builders do all the time.
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