Engine bearing selection help
 

Looking to purchase rod and main bearings for a 502 gen vi all STD. A lot of bearings out there to choose from and want to purchase the best ones. Are the clevite p-series the way to go?

i use the h series,even on stock crank&rods.

2nd the H series!

H series it is!!

Thanks Guys

The only advice I've seen against H bearings are running them on stock cast cranks. Supposedly they will hurt a soft crank. A nodular or forged crank, h is the way to go.

H- typically are slightly narrower for larger radius's also. I've seen people nitrate cranks to surface harden some (will add .0001" or more) and help guard for wear concerns with "H".

IMO, on a stock engine, clearance is more important. Take the time to plasti-gauge all journals. Never rely on STD bearings being equal. I usually buy 2 sets and sometime -1's to get the clearance I want depending what i'm starting with.

Stock engine and crank - i'd use "P".

king bearings. do some googleing.

Ok, plastigauge? Really??? Your buying several sets of bearings to get it perfect yet your using plastigauge???
And as far as king bearings go, the internet hype about the bimetal bearing being made up of 2 thicker layers for better embedibillity (sp?) sold me on them until I torqued up the rods and mains, measured with a dial bore gauge and found the clearances all over the map. Went back grabbed a set of calico coated h bearings and all rods were .0024-.0026 mains were .0025-.0028

Not to start a bearing debate. Because I think proper setup is key. Straight mainline/ cylinders and proper clearance. But I've used Kings with no issues. Every time I pull the bearings out they look new along with crank journals. As far as plastigauge goes. That might b ok for a stock automotive rebuild but past that I don't think so. To much margin for error and it's so much faster using a dial bore gauge. Why in the world would you use plastigauge?

IMO King bearings are "rebuilder" quality bearings .When you buy an average priced "rebuilt" engine a lot of times they will have "Kings" in them ...They are inexpensive and work ok in non highly stressed engine ....I normally use Clevite...The series ,depends on application.....M.O.

H here also. My supra would squash p rod bearings all day long. When they finally came out with an h that was the end of that issue.

That's funny I've seen them used in a $125,000 motor from the beginning.

Also, a lot of high horsepower forced induction engines start out with a king because they are more forgiving when you have a bad tune-up. Once the tune-up is right they sometimes rebuild with a H bearing.

King extreme work very well

Actually I measure and plasti-gauge. If a rod is tweaked, or crappy bore job, you'll pick it up, not with a bore gauge. Just curious why the margin of error opinion? I always thought it as a insurance policy to catch errors. Has plasti-gauge failed you?

Looking Back at his original question - he is rebuilding a STOCK 502 engine. No supercharger as others referenced experience with. How many stock 502's go 700+ hours with "P" bearings? Reality, any of the bearings mentioned will work perfectly fine. IMO, tolerance, oil quality and not over heating the crap out of it is more important. If this was for one of my customers, being a stock engine, i'd be more then ok recommending a "P" bearing.

Actually King bearings are widely used in the racing fields from F1 to some of the top engine builders for the dirt tracks. They have a seminar every year at PRI that is standing room only and many performance engine builders attend. I know as I attend their seminars every year. They are big in the racing fields but do not get involved into huge marketing about it. Probable could find a lot of stuff on youtube about them plus some of the PRI seminars because I always see in person they are filmed. Anyways FWIW

http://www.kingbearings.com/products/racing/

I thought the diff between the P and the H was the width and needed to run the correct with how the crank was machined ?