Good info, thanks.

 

re-BUMP! i need more insight, im stuck on the same situation right now. have to do a rebuild

 

Can't you get hold of ACL ? Clevite are a good alternative

 

i have ACL race bearings going in my nitrous B18C
std size for the mains so far, still have to do my rods.
mains came out good at .0022 and .0024 for the middle main.

as long as the clearance is in the region you want it, OEM or ACL race is a toss up (everyone has their preference tough)

 

Yeah, and if you REALLY want to spin up some rod bearings, throw some nice, soft Clevite P's in there. You can def wreck your crank that way! Lol

 

Which Clevite bearings are you on about because the ones i'm thinking of wouldn't just spin up.

 

The "P's" seem to be the regular "Tri-Metal" bearing for passenger car applications. They are the only Clevite available for some engines such as the 2.0L Neon. It appears they are just waaaaay too soft, and even with no trace of detonation on the plugs a turbo motor can take them out in short order.

 

I wouldnt even think about clevites in a motor of mine. OEM rod/ OEM/ACL mains. I just made 750 WHP 575 tq on them and the motor is a very happy camper.

 

Ok i see.... Well to be fair most of the cars i know running them are not turbo. I always though they were basically the same as ACL Duraglide. You learn something new eveyday lol...

 

The race bearings are just coated with some nonsense i have used standard bearings in a ton of mid to high hp builds without one bearing problem... top line, kings and acls are all made by tge same company btw. Honda bearings are nice if u cant deal with you clearances being a little loose. I personally could care less as long as im maintaining oil pressure and my engines arent cheap.

 

choose a bearing that can get you the clearance you desire I guess. the king bearings seem to measure out to "pink" honda bearings, at least the ones I have had. The acl's measure out to "green" in honda's spec. Or you can go with acl's "x" race bearings that give you 1 thou more clearance than the honda "green".

 

I don't like ACL race bearings, i think there to hard. Any crap left over from the machine work that hasn't been flushed out will score up the crank instead of embedding its self into the bearing.

 

I think that embedability is the reason the Clevites are so soft. For me, the factory Mopar bearings seem like the best option (since Honda doesn't make bearings for me, Lol). They are an aluminum silicon material or something, that is hard enough to stand up to the pounding from the combustion forces, and they don't beat up the crank too badly. This bearing issue is interesting. I wonder if ACL Aluglides might be similar to the Mopar bearing material?

 

They probably are, & there probably made in the exact same factory lol. What engine do you have ?

 

Neon 2.0 liter. DOHC in my case, but the bearings are all the same.

 

OEM serves me well in my 310hp single cam... had ACL when building but had major clearance issues.

 

Too tight?

 

That may be due to the clearances not matching up or too tight. Luckily my ACL's measured out to 0.0017-0.0015 for my rods. I wonder if purchasing an aftermarket rod helps getting the clearances more the same since the big end on Honda rods can vary slightly. I never took my OEM crank bearings out. Although I'm not hitting major HP, my ACL bearings are now 60K miles old.

My next build I may do a mix. I like both, but if the ACL's don't get the clearance spec I want, then I'll purchase an OEM bearing for that location.

 

I don't know if anyone here remembers Earl Laskey or not (RIP ), but he was pretty much one of the most trusted words around here when it came to engine building.

Earl was a fan of using OEM bearings, and I don't know why you'd choose anything else. They are a little more expensive, but you can properly size them on the first try. I have been running them for 4 years on my built motor, never an issue (obviously).

 

It shouldnt matter if the clearances spec out. I remember reading or hearing that OEM/Clevite/ACL are manufactured by the same people so the actual quality of the bearing is mute.

 

from reading sounds like i'm having the same problem of bearing choice. I know oem would be better. but i ran across a company that have king bearing. If any body has a little more insight on these bearing.

 

There is some difference in acl std or race. My old engine had some oil pressure problems and it ate rod bearings, when i switched to race bearings and they last way better.

 

Looking at the relative quality of Mopar vs. Clevite, I would say they are not made to equivalent standards. I'd expect the Honda bearings to be at least in the same league with the Mopars, so I doubt they would appear like Clevites either. Clevites are an obvious step down the quality scale from the Mopars. As for ACLs, I've never actually had any in my hands...

As for the speccing out properly making the issue moot, maybe Hondas are different than most other motors, but maybe not. I've seen a lot of evidence on here that you need a good hard bearing for high boost applications, and also that "if you build 'em loose, only you will know, but if you build 'em tight everyone will!" Seems like an extra thousandth of clearance or so is real nice insurance when you're making 5 times the horsepower or more than the motor was intended to make.

 

OEM Mopar bearings are made by KING

 

Does anyone know if there is any relationship between crankshaft harmonic's and not having a set clearence like you would with oem bearings ? e.g. ACL clearence ranging from 1.4 to say 1.7 and OEM all at 1.7

Honda sure went to the extreme on following the strict clearence of .0015 on all rod and main bearings.