Engine bearings
 

I want to get everyones preferences for engine bearing manufacturer and style. I have been doing a lot of research on this lately and now I believe I have found the best bearings available for our over boosted toys. So what bearings do you like and why?

I like the ones that work. *shrug* Anyone and everyone I know has always used Clevite.

Mike which bearings do you run in the engines you build? I know Federal Mogul makes 4G63 bearings besides Mitsu & Clevite but have yet to read about anyone running them.

Not us, not anymore. We have found two bearing manufacturers that destroy the clevites for quality and are similar in price. I no longer will use clevites because I don't like the fact that I have had to spend a half hour on "adjusting" them to get them to satisfactory condition before using them. Each set I was getting for a while there was getting progressively worse.

The ACL's are a much nicer bearing for finish and they seem to maintain tighter tolerances during manufacturing. I have another manufacturer's bearing set being sent now as well so I can verify what I have read and seen with them. The material is not the typical tri-metal, the tolerances are claimed to be tighter than anyones and they are the top supplier of bearings to top fuel applications. They are said to work equally well in long duration high RPM use as well as the DD's. I will have examples of all of them at the shop soon so anyone interested can compare. These are the bearings we will be running in Curtis's 2.14 if they are even close to what they sound. I will tell the manufacturers name after I see a few more responses, I am doing a bit of a blind test to see if anyone suggests them without me saying what they are.

I guess im not allowed to guess?

No your not, and actually, it isn't about guessing which bearings I am talking about. I want to hear what people are using and recommending, if someone mentions the ones I am referring to from their own research or use, that would just be good info.

I only use muffler bearings.

Well I have worked with IR Torrington (owned by Timken) bearings quite a bit at school and have no problems with them.

That may be too advanced of an answer for this thread ;)

I have heard of King('s?) bearings before, but I am not using them. They were not the standard Tri-metal setup so they maybe what you are talking about.

Re: Engine bearings
 

I was looking for someone to post with experience rather than guessing, thanks ya goob. Kings are the bearings we are probably switching to. We have a few sets on the way for Curtis's 2.14 and Gary's 2.3 and one set to keep in the office with the clevites and ACL's for comparison. The Kings were recommended to me by a good racing outfit that I trust. After doing a bit of research on them I am pretty confident they will be much better than any of the other options.

Re: Engine bearings
 

Hey mike? Same pricing? Wow thats kind of shocking I know when i used them in my 351 ford they werent exactly cheap. Way to go if that is true they are very high quality bearings.

Chris

Re: Engine bearings
 

I will know for sure when we recieve them of the price, we are not direct with them however, our source uses tons of them so they get really decent pricing.

Re: Engine bearings
 

As I thought, the pricing was actually better even than the clevites. Can't beat that, the best bearings out there for less money.

Re: Engine bearings
 

Great deal....

Re: Engine bearings
 

Well, I wanted to follow up on this, I used the Kings in a 2.3 I sent out Tuesday to TN, I am extremely impressed with the quality of them as well as the price. The ACL's are the only other bearings I will use from now on. The H rated ACL's are sweet, they just are only available for 7 bolts for the moment. That is said to change soon however. They cost twice as the Kings and it is questionable if they are better or not, I am going to keep checking into both and talking with the engineers till I find out then it will be one or the other.

Re: Engine bearings
 

Do you have any more feedback about the King bearings?

Re: Engine bearings
 

I used clevites in the motor I built 2 years ago. The motor was in my galant and then the red 1g. I just used plastic gauge and did not see any reason not to use them but I will be getting Kings for the 2 motors I need to build. I also used a set of ACLs in a 7 bolt, very nice bearing and I hope it holds up for the 2g owner.

~John

Re: Engine bearings
 

so mikey? how are those kings holding up? any issues yet?

Re: Engine bearings
 

Chris Cabe spec Mitsu bearings! :D

Re: Engine bearings
 

whoo hoo im famous.....

chris

Re: Engine bearings
 

I'd be interested to hear how the Kings are holding up. Crankwalker was using them in his 2.4's a few years ago and I've heard several have shit the bed.

Re: Engine bearings
 

No issues with the KIngs or ACL's at all and I don't expect any. Both are excellent bearings.

Re: Engine bearings
 

What exactly didn't you like about the Clevites?

Re: Engine bearings
 

I know the ones I saw while there had some issues with packaging. I think Miek had some bearings that he wouldn't trust in an engine due to the damage caused by this.

Re: Engine bearings
 

Ahh, I can understand that. The package they come in looks like it would cause scratching on the trailing edge of each bearing from rubbing together. I inspected mine carefully for this, they looked good fortunately.

Re: Engine bearings
 

The packaging was the least of it. Clevite seems to thing QA doesn't matter, they send the bearings out with burrs that take a half hour or better of prep to get to a useable condition. I have recieved them as complete sets with all without grooves etc. You would think they would catch it but they didn't. The kings and ACL's have noticably better finish quailty and tolerances. The materials are as good or better and the kings are less in price and the standard ACL's are the same. To move up to the H rated ACL is only another 20 or so. I don't see a good argument to run Clevites ever.

Re: Engine bearings
 

Hmmm, one set I just looked at were pretty good, I just had to deburr the oil hole a bit. I've got a few more sets I pick up tomorrow, hopefully they're as good or better than the first.

Re: Engine bearings
 

I might be a little bit more picky that you :) I havn't found once set in almost 30 that I would just put in and run. They all needed prep, some were bad enough that they got shelved as junk. I havn't had to deburr the oil hole on any of them, just the ends and corners.