Bearing questions..

don-f

don-f

Well-known member
I am slowly redoing my 1970s Civic for vintage racing. I am gathering parts to put the engine back together. The car was originally built by Jamie Housman in the mid 80s but had deteriorated over the years and other owners. When I got it, it had a supposedly "fresh" 1.3L engine that had massive amounts of bearing material in the oil pan. I am redoing the oil pan with trap doors to hold more oil around the pickup as I think that will help, but I have bearing questions also. I read in a few places that Vandervell bearings were made of superior material and are the bearings to use if they can be found. So I got a few sets of ancent rod bearing from eBay. They have dark stains on them and look like they may have expired. I am wondering if I should just use the hard japan bearings that seem more common and seem to age better? King bearings actually makes a HP main bearing set, its on accident as the main bearings fit another later more popular Honda engine. So the Mains I have covered. The rod bearings I am looking for a direction as there are not a lot of choices that are performance oriented. Clevite 77 bearings for these cars are just reboxed hard Japan made bearings. Someone said that the old CP series rod bearings from Federal Mogul were also a softer tri metal bearing? I can find a few sets of those rod bearings that are not stained also. I cant find anything to confirm this, maybe they are like the clevite bearings, good for popular cars but reboxed crud for the odd balls. I had a friend that ran 70s civics in GT5 in the 90s. He told me he used the hard aluminum Japan bearings but had to replace them every two races for safety or things sometimes went bang. Seems like a lot of work for an engine that only runs to 8000 rpm and makes about 100hp at the wheels? Something else may have been wrong, not a lot of in depth development on old econo boxes from the 70s. Not expecting anyone to know about 70s civics, but maybe I can learn from the work on other makes to make reasonable choices on the civic?
 
I don't have any specific input as to bearing brands or the impact of surface corrosion(?), but do have some general input.

Having been involved in sports car race engine builds in the 70s / 80s and again more recently, I think that there has been a big change in thinking that affects the bearings.

Back then, the thinking was large clearances and thick oil. Today the thinking is more towards smaller clearance and thinner oil, probably enabled by much improved oils like synthetics.

I THINK that it is fair to say that the net result is that the bearings in the smaller clearance / thinner oil setup have a much easier life, and that it is easier to keep the bearings supplied with enough oil to keep things happy. The geometry of the larger clearance setup concentrates the load much more severely if the oil supply lags and the full hydrodynamic bearing effect starts failing, and I think that the thick oil did a poor job on startup. Both things contributed greatly to bearing material fatigue.
 
I have had good luck with the OEM Taiho tri-metal bearings (R452H for 1300) using factory recommended clearances. The main considerations are the loss of the factory heat treating with ANY undersizing (a reground crank MUST be re-hardened) and cold start ups. Spinning the engine with the starter with the plugs out to get oil pressure is NOT your friend. Either run your dry sump pump, charge with an Accusump or start the engine right up.
 
Thanks for the information. I think there are a few different Honda 1300s in the 80s but I will look up that brand.
 
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