hi, i think i have a rod bearing going out as i can here a very light knocking, and i know the bearings in the motor now have at least 140k miles on them, my engine is a jdm b18c, should i replace with an OEM GSR bearing? OEM Type R.. are they the same? or an aftermarket performance bearing thats better than stock?

 

AS LONG AS THE KNOCKING NOISE IS COMING FROM THE BLOCK,ACL BEARINGS ARE ALWAYS WHAT I USE.JUST CHECK UR OIL CLEARANCES BEFORE U INSTALL.GOT TO PUT THE PROPER SIZE BEARING IN.

 

THANK YOU..

 

anyone else?

 

Honda bearings all the way. they are better then anything out there, but the price is more then 4x's the price of the ACL's.

 

WOW I DIDN'T REALIZE THERE WAS SUCH A PRICE DIFFERENCE. I AGREE WITH THE ADVICE TO CHECK YOUR CLEARANCES WITH A BORE GAUGE AND THEN VERIFY WITH PLASTIGAUGE. HAVE A NICE DAY.

 

OEM bearings for sure.

Also, you might want to have the bottom end checked out if you have a rod knock. You could be spinning a bearing and if you dont take it apart and find out where the noise is coming from, it might be too late and your motor will be worthless.

You cant just buy new bearings are throw them in. Youll have to resurface the crank as well. And since your resurfacing the crank, you will also need to buy main bearings as well.

A full set of OEM bearings, rod and main, from a dealership will cost between $300-$400. Then youll have to pay a machinest to resurface the crank and possibly clearance the bearings. If youve never done it, send it to a professional. Honda has a bunch of different bearing sizes to choose from. Which is why there better than ACL. ACL bearings come standard or oversized. So your pretty much taking a risk as to what your clearances are. Only issue with going to a dealer and buying bearings, all they know are the color codes, they dont know the actual bearing sizes and apparently that arent able to look them up, you need to know what color codes are what sizes, which is why your best bet is to bring the bottom end to a machinest and have them tell you what bearings to buy.

 

this might help

 

true, but if the dudes never checked bearing clearances before, that info is worthless.

Best thing to do is take your motor to a machinest who has experience with that stuff, and have them tell you what bearings to order. Then when your installing them, plastiguage them to be safe, never trust other peoples work!! I did that once with a buil motor, it lasted for about 10 minutes off the dyno because a rod bearing clearance was too tight, it wore down and spun the bearing, ruined a $3,000 bottom end.

 

you do not need to have oem. yes it would be nice, but ACLs work fine. they use the same materials and are the exact same design. the only difference you can order individual bearings at different sizes if needed. from what i have seen with all my builds and friends builds is that if your motor is in good shape when you tear it apart then your crank and rods are not damaged and you just need bearings that will fall into manufacturers suggested specs/
remember, your crank is never really in contact with your rods and block, it is floating on a boundary layer of oil when it is running.
bearings get damaged mainly from improper lubrication under start up on a fresh motor, debris getting into your oil some how and getting trapped between your crank and bearing,
having tolerances to tight/loose or severely inconsistent between each other
and using the wrong oil. i do not know why some people insist on running a thicker oil than what is recommended, its just stupid

i hope what i have said will help. and you already have the best bearing design you can have. the gsr rod bearings are far narrower than the ls and and b16 rod bearings. this creates less friction, which means more power. not alot, but every lil bit helps.

 

This is the kind of stuff youll most likely experience with ACL and other aftermarket bearings.

Aftermarket bearings come with 2 choices, standard and oversized.

So you choose one of the two and maybe get lucky that theyre in the ballpark.

Or you could chose OEM and get a precisely measured bearing for each journal.

Maybe its just my oppinion, but id rather spend the extra $100-$200 to know im getting the correct part instead of cheaping out and basically taking a big risk with a very expensive and time consumed build.

 

thats why i said you need to check your clearnaces first. measure your crank, your rods and your journals. if all fall within spec then rock it. so before you even buy your bearings, measure your clearances atleast three times and take the avg.
if you need to have your crank turned or a line bore, then you probably need to match the proper bearing.
im not saying ACL's are better, but there is nothing wrong with them as long as your tolerances are in spec

 

When it comes to bearings usually you start working with one kind or another and those are the ones you like because you are most familiar with them. I don't think there is that much diff between the two, however I use the OEM bearings on stock rebuilds because I like to. I believe in the quality. THe fitment chart is very easy to use. The precision of the orginal tooling is what I like. THey are more expensive, but how many times are you rebuilding a stock engine. The cost difference is worth it to me.

 

oem bearings do not cost that much more.....I just ordered a set from http://www.hondapartsnow.com/ (they are the cheapest with shipping) Your looking around $10 a bearing half....that comes out to around $180...how much are you really gonna save buying aftermarket? IMO Bearings are probably the single most important piece of the engine