What's the story with main bearings these days?
After searching a few forums, I'm reading that the quality of available bearings has taken a dive - No. 2 main is no longer steel backed! Which leaves me concerned and dismayed to say the least.
My late WD, AS41 case @ 0.50mm over, has been running the same bottom end for over 13 years (have split it to replace cam & lifters only in 2008).
I've ordered a 69mm CW crank from DPR machine and they can supply steel backed Silverline mains. My concern is that I've read else where that their No.2 steel backed shells do not have a 360° groove at the crank surface.
I'm not sure of the sizes I will require, the case may need line boring to 0.75 and the crank isn't done yet so I don't know how far under it'll be. I've found that in the past, odd sizes were sometimes difficult to source from either Tooleys or Fermans.
The set that's been running in this motor was sourced from Lionel (RIP): one gruff old bastard, but one of the nicest blokes in the VW trade I've ever had dealings with. I miss him, but I digress.
So, are steel backed Mahle items still kickin' round on our sunny shores in maybe 0.50 / 0.75mm on the case & either 0.25/0.50mm on the crank ?
Any help is much appreciated.
snowman9 Casual Dubber
38 posts · joined Dec 2009 ·
