Race Engine Forum UK

It seems that the bearing supply is drying up, as the Clevite 77 bearing are no longer available, at least here in the US for the 124 1.8-2l engines. I contacted the factory supplier and he confirmed that they are no longer being produced. I have made an inquiry to Mahle Motorsports in the UK about producing Vandervell VP2 bearings for these engines as they are now manufacturing performance race bearing for other classic/vintage engines. Do a search for Vandrvell Racing bearing, or maybe Guy will post the link. There are some very informative articles in the technical section.

Question is what are you using for main and rod bearings these days? Is there anything available in a higher performance grade than stock?

Thanks

Ted

I have lead coated brgs aval but I am not publishing the source & part no. Sorry but once I start doing that I might as well shut the firm.

G

Guy,
That's great! I was not looking for you to post your source, but just checking what is available for the near future.

Thanks

Ted

Update:

I received a response from Mahle, for those who may be interested in future availability.

Hi Ted,

Thanks for your inquiry.

We do not have a plan to make these parts just now, but I have passed you inquiry to my colleague in the aftermarket who defines our motorsport range for consideration.


Kind regards

Allen Graham
MAHLE Engine Systems UK Ltd.
Applications Engineer / Account Manager (Race Unit)

Riccarton, Kilmarnock KA1 3NA Ayrshire, Great Britain

Hi Ted,

i'm also interested in these bearings from Mahle.
please consider me in for ordering .

regards my friend

Forgive me for asking but is there some reluctance to order brgs from me?

G

Please let me clarify that this was just an inquire to Mahle, to see if they had any plans to produce a modern race quality bearing. I am not in the business of buying or selling performance parts or want to be. I will leave that to Guy, best wishes.

VBR

Ted

Hi
It seems that there were a misunderstanding here
We always need a reliable parts as good as OE parts for our performance cars, that's why we are glade to source it from a well known manufacturer like Mahle.
We will be more than glad if Mr. Guy supervise this matter so he become our sole supplier of high performance parts to our dolls .
Thank you Mr. Guy for your complete support.

Gents,

I work for Federal Mogul as an Engineering manager working to supply components to many EU OE customers and we make a number of automotive parts under the brand names of Ferodo, Champion, AE, Nural, Goetze just to name a few. Mahle only got into bearings through plants they bought from us many years ago when we merged with other companies as the monopolies commision was involved.

As for updated bearings or any OE parts, usually after many years of production the companies tend to update their materials to replace obsolete materials or mateials that are forbidden so in most cases the parts you buy today are made with superior materials compared to the original OE ones. Im not sure why anyone would contact Mahle for bearings when they are primarily a piston manufacturer, a good one albeit.

The bearings supplied by Guy are the best for these engines and testimonies from many happy race clients who have done years of trouble free racing should give you the confidence that what you buy from Guy is tried and tested in very durable conditions.

I can tell you as part of a validaton test a lot of these engine components have to go through is incredible, some customers run an engine at full power (ie 6000rpm wide open throttle) for 500 hours on an engine test to approve their engine components, all parts must achieve their specified hours....the 500 hours relates to spark plugs believe it or not specified for 100,000km. Bearings and pistons etc usually have to do at least 2 or maybe 3 of these tests. How many of you drive your car at full power all the time.

The point Im trying to make is this....good OE brands are test proven thats why they are OE....cheap brands well they just copy the good OE brands with less testing. What would you rather have?
So ultimately if you dedicate the time an effort to build an engine put good quality parts in and buy from people who can recommend the best..not your Halfords or MotorWorlds etc.

And anyway we all ask Guy for advice that he gives this freely so when buying parts think of it as supporting this technical information when you buy from him.

just my thoughts :) and not intended to criticise anyone just explaining what OE parts have to go through for validation

Sandro

thank you Sandro

excellent explanation.