The lower metal housing of an engine that contains the crankshaft and stores lubricating oil.
From crank (the rotating shaft in an engine) + case (an enclosing container). A 19th-century mechanical term combining two concepts to describe engine construction.
Your car's crankcase is like the engine's life-support system—without fresh oil in there to lubricate the crankshaft, an engine will seize up and break irreversibly in minutes.
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