Sup guys, I've had a customer of mine tear his engine down after roughly 20,000 miles. He does a lot of testing and swapping of parts for his car so this was a perfect candidate to show the abilities of the coated bearings. The results...well I'm speechless. I'm extremely happy with the performance the coatings I apply to the bearings in how they hold up and protect. This engine that these bearings came out of are from a 500HP VG. Mind you, clearances were properly set but along with that the coatings did an amazing job in keeping the bearing protected and allowing the lubrication to have as little friction as possible. As you can see in the image, a high luster of burnishing has occurred with NO bearing fatigue or scarring of any kind. This coating in a lack of better words....KICKS ASS. I'm working on getting more images to show more detail as well. But for now here is a glimpse. I urge all of you that are undergoing a build to seriously search in your area companies that offer a dry film lubricant coating for your main/rod bearings. It can be a huge difference in longevity and reliability. If you can't find anyone that does this type of coating feel free to PM me. I wanted to show the importance of coatings and how they help a sacrificial part prolong its life. This isn't a plug for me to conduct business. Valuable info is all I'm expressing here.
Aren't some commercially available bearings coated with something like that? Like the idea providing it wears at least as well as regular bearing materials and the coating is not put over a bearing that already has a coating of some sort.
bearing manufactures don't offer a coated bearing from the factory however Clevite has an H Series bearing that has a heat treatment done to it for their racing series bearings. As far as coatings manufactures dont get involved with that aspect. Here are a few more images I received today..
Very interested in this coating. I see that there is some wear of it, and it is likely to have been translated in to the oil. what are the bores and cams like. Is it is hardness higher than the white metal? Is the coating just as ductile. I note that there is an impact indentation on the centre bearing of the first photos. Is this a before or after coating item, it looks pretty fresh. \ What does the crank look like? what level of polishing did you use on the crank for the coating bearings? Would this help support preventing oil cavitation at higher RPMs? A lot of questions I know, looking into this at the moment myself. What is the product you use?
There was no detonation present in this engine. The one image you show is imbedment of FOD. May have been a small particle of material that got lodged somewhere but the nature of the bearing is to absorb such FOD. The coating isn't harder than the bearing but its a dry film lubricant that increases lubricity while load increases. This is a win/win situation for any application. These bearings were brand new prior to me coating them. The crank looks in excellent condition. It had been mic'd, and balanced, then under went a thorough polishing regiment. Cavitation would result in the oiling system and how its designed....the bearing is nothing more than a sacrificial item in its path. You'd have to fix/alter the oiling system in the engine to alleviate the cavitation issues all together. Feel free to PM me if you have a list of other questions you'd like answered.
ACL offer these sorts of coated bearings in a limited range as do one or two others. It certainly seems like a good thing but I for one would be wary of anything other than a factory coated bearing.
ACL has Calico coat the bearings. ACL does not offer coating services branded under the ACL name. Calico uses the same coatings I use in the industry. The only thing wrong is the use of the ACL bearings. Fatigue very easily and don't last under high RPM/Load conditions.
Yet in other circles people are very found of ACL bearings - especially the race bearing, the only bad thing is they damage easily from debris according to other people in the industry
The finish on ACL race series bearings is the underlying metal that is usually covered by a flash coating from other manufacturers, it is not a coating. And FYI, ACL make Clevite bearings right here in Australia. Clevite do not make their own bearings, they are just packaged bearings.
clevite is owned my mahle which I'm not exactly sure who makes them here in the US however they have a CLE part number to them. All of the bearings we use in the are a trimetal bearing.
ACL is also owned by Mahle, the Clevites are the same beaing as ACL Duraglide. Also as a side note, all ACL pistons are done by the parent company with final machining done by ACL. And Mahle aslo make all genuine Cummins pistons.
Can you point me in the direction that stipulates that the duraglides are the same as the clevites? Mungyz I just think your antics on your attitude comes off a bit rude at times. I've not once showed any attitude or lack there towards you in any way shape or form. But judging by your responses you wouldn't really care either way. Boys will be boys I guess.
Can't give you a link or anything like that, but I will see what my brother can dig up. He has been in Oem engine part supply for almost 20years so has got alot of this sort of info in parts topics.
Why did he pull the motor down after 20K miles if all was well? Just having a squiz inside for the hell of it?
yea pretty much. As I stated in the original post, he tests a lot of parts out and does this from time to time to help me and himself out on new parts that come up. Even procedures he runs as tests as well. its the only real way to see if the coatings being used are doing the job correctly. As to drz400y, please email/PM me this information as I find it very odd that ACL would be making a Clevite bearing. I look forward to your response.
They have only been doing it since Mahle acquired both Clevite and ACL. More than likely a cost thing, why have 2 companies on the books doing the same job? Why ACL got the nod over clevite I have no idea, but one thing is certain, it would have been a decision made by a bean counter. Not that it matters either way, Clevite invented the tri-metal bearing and was originally distributed by Vanderfel outside the US who was later taken over by Automotive Components Limited in the south pacific region. It would be my guess that ACL have been using clevite bearings for a long time, it just so happens with the Mahle buy out of both Clevite/ACL, that they are now made by the ACL division of Mahle.
