Quote:
Originally posted by 97eclipseRS
what does it do 
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It's an odd-shaped piece of sheet metal cut to _almost_ touch the crank and rods on the "coasting" side of the assembly, and it wipes most of the oil from the rotating bottom end. This cuts down on windage and oil whipping, and has a very slight effect of reducing rotating mass. There are stories of V-8 research engines with windows and monitors sailing golf-ball sized clumps of oil around in the crankcase when wound up- there's a helluva wind going on inside there with those big ends whizzing around at a bazillion miles an hour. Once you've gotten every last tenth of a horsepower out of a motor, you have to look for the last lurking strays from the herd.
Of course, you also have to be aware the trail's well-salted with horseshit.