Its a long story but what are the best rod bearings, main bearings & thrust washers to get, and where to get them. I always liked clevitte 77 but its getting hard to find them.
bearing question
- Thread starter quicksilver
- Start date
I've been hearing good things about King bearings... If you're hell bent on clevites my machine shop can order them locally and have them drop shipped to you.
kamil said:
No, not hell bent on them at all seeming how I just developed a rod knock with them (not nesseciarly the bearings fault though) Where can you get King bearings at? Are many of the higher hp guys running them? Do they come in a good variety of oversizes?
Its rarely a case that a certain brand will be superior to another, the clearances are the critical part. I would talk to your machine shop, and order whatever bearings will give you the oil clearances you are looking for. That's not to say there should be no consideration given to the quality of the bearing, but the brand should not be your main determination on which bearings you get. Just my $.02
toyota is the best bearing and yes it is little more expensive
you will get the correct bearing for each individual crank and connecting cause they have different thickness to it.
clevite is standard so you won't be able to match the right bearing to the caps on the rod or crank.
you will get the correct bearing for each individual crank and connecting cause they have different thickness to it.
clevite is standard so you won't be able to match the right bearing to the caps on the rod or crank.
crank is going to get turned anyways. No one has gave any input on thrust washers yet eather. I know that titan makes some performance ones. has anyone used these?
Quick, run clevites. King is manufacturing aluminum bearings, which cannot hold up to race conditions over time. They have about 20 thous of Al, with no babbit, so they save production cars from scuffing the crank with low oil pressure, but they smear when pounded.
ACL makes a good bearing, but I have had bad luck with them. By comparison, the most mileage I ever got out of an ACL bearing was 3,000 miles. My clevites, in similar conditions lasted 10,000 miles. These conditions were drag racing with a faulty oil pump. Just my experience. Clevite has been doing it a long time, and they're good at it.
Things like the fact the the rod bearings come in a box of two , with protective packaging between the shells, makes me fond of clevite. ACL shrink wraps 12 rod bearings to a cardboard back as if to be hung on the wall in a mini mart.
The number one factor is clearance. Have the machine shop measure your crank and determine which size clevites to order. DO NOT LET THEM MACHINE IT YET. then order the correct undersize bearing. hopefully .010 under will work. I'm running .010 on the mains and .030 on the rods. The undersize of the crank actually yields a stronger radius on the crank pins, making the crank less likely to crack. (i've cracked 3 7m cranks myself)
So, order your bearings, install them in the rods and mains and have the machine shop measure the inner diameter of the rods and mains with the bearing shells installed and torqued properly. Then have them remove .0015" from each measurement, and cut the crank journals to that number. 1.5 thousands is perfect for a high strung 7m. Most machine shops will try to tell you to run it looser, because they are used to small block chevy's, which they run at 3 thous or so under racing conditions, but don't let them sway you, a 7m that loose will self destruct no matter what bearing you use.
Order clevite mains, rods and thrust washers, they all are the same design, and high quality. Other bearings work too, but I really prefer clevites because of their high standards and reputation.
Make sure they don't cut the crank to standard measurements, tell them it is a custom grind.
Hope this helps, -Jake
ACL makes a good bearing, but I have had bad luck with them. By comparison, the most mileage I ever got out of an ACL bearing was 3,000 miles. My clevites, in similar conditions lasted 10,000 miles. These conditions were drag racing with a faulty oil pump. Just my experience. Clevite has been doing it a long time, and they're good at it.
Things like the fact the the rod bearings come in a box of two , with protective packaging between the shells, makes me fond of clevite. ACL shrink wraps 12 rod bearings to a cardboard back as if to be hung on the wall in a mini mart.
The number one factor is clearance. Have the machine shop measure your crank and determine which size clevites to order. DO NOT LET THEM MACHINE IT YET. then order the correct undersize bearing. hopefully .010 under will work. I'm running .010 on the mains and .030 on the rods. The undersize of the crank actually yields a stronger radius on the crank pins, making the crank less likely to crack. (i've cracked 3 7m cranks myself)
So, order your bearings, install them in the rods and mains and have the machine shop measure the inner diameter of the rods and mains with the bearing shells installed and torqued properly. Then have them remove .0015" from each measurement, and cut the crank journals to that number. 1.5 thousands is perfect for a high strung 7m. Most machine shops will try to tell you to run it looser, because they are used to small block chevy's, which they run at 3 thous or so under racing conditions, but don't let them sway you, a 7m that loose will self destruct no matter what bearing you use.
Order clevite mains, rods and thrust washers, they all are the same design, and high quality. Other bearings work too, but I really prefer clevites because of their high standards and reputation.
Make sure they don't cut the crank to standard measurements, tell them it is a custom grind.
Hope this helps, -Jake
IHI-RHC7 said:
Yeah, This helps alot. I ran ACL before and got about 10,000 miles out of them. Now rember this is over a 550 rwh that gets abused at the track evrey weekend. I'm with you on the clevlites although I didn't about the loosness factor. heh, built too many small block chevys myself. lol. Do you have any imput on thrust washers. I know crank walk isn't much of a problem on a 7m but I got mello's old dd clutch and It is alot stiffer than my old RPS. max clutch.