Rod bearings?

L

lewis_jennings

Member
 Lisburn
Hi everyone,

Before I supercharge the car I'm going to do the rod bearings,

Wanted to see what everyone here recommends/has tried.

Don't want to spend big money on a bmw set.
Was thinking of acl bearing. But seems to be loads of different prices about. One company selling them for 400+, another selling for 160 pounds.

Not sure what I'm looking for so any help or info would be great
Thanks
 
Not many people have had a second set of bearings changed to give any meaningful data on what is good or bad or better so much of a muchness really. King or ACL are most popular options. Had King myself.

Bearing themselves should be around the £150 mark. I expect £300-400 included bolts as well and maybe even oil. Either way, I doubt there's much to be gained buying them yourself, I'd just phone round garages you trust and ask for an all in price. Anyone half decent will have done plenty of them before and probably have a set price.
 
As above, ACL & King seem to be equally recommended by specialists (Hack Eng & Redish included).

£400 sounds like it includes ARP Bolts. As Andy has said, I'd not bother getting the bits yourself, just get a reputable specialist to supply and fit.
 
Alright nice one thanks lads!

Do you recommend replacing bolts also?
Im quite friendly with the specialist and after a bit of banter he agreed to charge a little less in labour if i threw him in the bearings so he didn't have to get them. He's also installing my supercharger kit so I said id give him everything at the same time to do.
 
lewis_jennings said:
Alright nice one thanks lads!

Do you recommend replacing bolts also?
Im quite friendly with the specialist and after a bit of banter he agreed to charge a little less in labour if i threw him in the bearings so he didn't have to get them. He's also installing my supercharger kit so I said id give him everything at the same time to do.
Click to expand...

As I understand it, the OE BMW big end bolts are single-use stretch bolts. However, the ARP bolts are reusable.

Either way, I would categorically not re-use the bolts already in there!
 
Ed Doe said:
lewis_jennings said:
Alright nice one thanks lads!

Do you recommend replacing bolts also?
Im quite friendly with the specialist and after a bit of banter he agreed to charge a little less in labour if i threw him in the bearings so he didn't have to get them. He's also installing my supercharger kit so I said id give him everything at the same time to do.
Click to expand...

As I understand it, the OE BMW big end bolts are single-use stretch bolts. However, the ARP bolts are reusable.

Either way, I would categorically not re-use the bolts already in there!
Click to expand...

Good to know! Time to go on the hunt for the bolts too :cry:
 
Always change bolts.
Tbh I would go for OEM bolts, not arp ones.


Dont forget to have your oil pump pressure piston checked for wear. They are prone to wear.
 
GuidoK said:
Always change bolts.
Tbh I would go for OEM bolts, not arp ones.


Dont forget to have your oil pump pressure piston checked for wear. They are prone to wear.
Click to expand...
What's the thought with oem over arp? Just out of curiosity.
Will mention about the piston also when I drop it in :thumbsup:
 
lewis_jennings said:
What's the thought with oem over arp? Just out of curiosity.
Click to expand...
ARP specs 2 ways to torque the bolts. The preferred way is to use a stretch gauge (basically a micrometer that measures how far the bolts are stretched).
The other way, the way they describe when you dont have a stretch gauge, is to just use a (1) torque spec.
Stretch gauges are often used in shops that build race engines.
And despite it's a ~£50 tool, I assure you that virtually no normal shop/garage will have one. So they'll be torqued with 1 single moment.

The bmw bolts are torqued to a series of torque moments, and an angle spec (and that done twice). That is a normal way to torque rodbolts, also with other brands (except for the s54 it's done twice).
BMW is very specific in this torque sequence method. This is a repeated stretch method.
So I don't think the arp bolts are an upgrade.

Be sure that the shop is familiar with the oil regulator piston. In Germany this is pretty normal with BMW specialized shops, not sure about the uk :?
The piston cannot be sourced at bmw. So if the shop can't source it from abroad, you'll probably have to pay for a complete pump (almost £600).

The wear on the piston looks like this:
23131-foto-04-01-16-19-13-04-jpg.jpg
 
There will be plenty of people running both set ups, if your concerned I’d give someone like Hack Engineering a call and have a chat with them about what they recommend. They also have the various parts they can sell you if you want to skip looking about for them on the internet. They build lots of standard / race engined S54’s so they know their stuff. Redish will also be able to give good advice among no doubt other places.
Ring around and get some advice if your worried about it, they’ll be more than happy to help. :thumbsup:
 
I recently had acl rod bearings with arp bolts from redish, and pretty certain they used the stretch method, but yeah definitely redish and hack are both highly recommended and I'm certain hack sell a bottom end kit comprising acl bearings and arp bolts on their online shop :thumbsup:
 
I had my shells replaced last year at an excellent BMW Indy.

He fitted ACL shells but OE bolts. I asked about ARP but he reckoned OE were just as good.

I had new engine mounts fitted at the same time - the old ones looked pretty tired after 78K miles!
 
Tempted to do the same - car is on 47k miles, what are peoples opinions on getting the bearings done before supercharging?
 
How many owners in the last 47k? Has it had bearings before now?

Personally for the peace of mind I'd do them, it's a comparatively cheap replacement compared to the complete s**t-fest if they go...!
 
I will have to see if my guy has the tool to stretch the arp bolts.

I was looking at this set for only 345, but might now just ask the specialist what he knows or recommends. If oem bolts are cheaper might be worth my while going with them

https://store.vacmotorsports.com/mobile/vac-motorsports-high-performance-coated-rod-bearing-kit-bmw-s54-p3812.aspx



Do you notice much difference in feel after getting bearings changed?
 
:lol: Yeah as above. Not sure what you mean by feel but if you mean performance then no, it's purely for piece of mind it won't feel different in any way.

VAC are probably ok, but really I wouldn't overcomplicate it. Just get whatever is easiest, I presume your not going to track the car so it'll make little difference. ACL and King are well used, VAC not so much in my experience. Like I said most of these are relatively long term untested anyway so no real knowing if one is better than the other.

https://www.hackengineering.co.uk/product/big-end-upgrade-package-s54/

£315 for example.

Don't forget you'll need a oil sump gasket, oil filter, oil, and there's various o-rings you can replace while your in there. There's plenty of garages that will offer this service all in to save you faffing around buying all this stuff separately so unless your garage is doing a particularly good price I'd look elsewhere. *just seen your in NI so maybe not so many then!

You might also want to replace engine mounts / gearbox mounts, cpv o-ring while your getting all this done.
 
AndyBeech said:
:lol: Yeah as above. Not sure what you mean by feel but if you mean performance then no, it's purely for piece of mind it won't feel different in any way.

VAC are probably ok, but really I wouldn't overcomplicate it. Just get whatever is easiest, I presume your not going to track the car so it'll make little difference. ACL and King are well used, VAC not so much in my experience. Like I said most of these are relatively long term untested anyway so no real knowing if one is better than the other.

https://www.hackengineering.co.uk/product/big-end-upgrade-package-s54/

£315 for example.

Don't forget you'll need a oil sump gasket, oil filter, oil, and there's various o-rings you can replace while your in there. There's plenty of garages that will offer this service all in to save you faffing around buying all this stuff separately so unless your garage is doing a particularly good price I'd look elsewhere. *just seen your in NI so maybe not so many then!

You might also want to replace engine mounts / gearbox mounts, cpv o-ring while your getting all this done.
Click to expand...

Yeah mainly just would you notice a smoother drive, especially when cold. As I know my car, and a friends are quite lumpy when cold.

I'll probably use the link you sent me actually 👌seems a good price!

I'll be asking the mechanic about the rest of all that, hadn't even considered it! I'll probably order up engine mounts and trans mounts while I'm at it as you said. No harm in doing it right.

Yeah everyone in NI know how to charge :x

Appriciate the help everyone!
 
When I talked to both Mr Vannos and JC Racing both said the same about rod bolts use ARP and do them up to the torque as in their opinion there was no difference in the two methods so to save time and labour cost they torqued them after getting the same results with the stretch gauge method over many engine

JC Racing also said that BMW motorsport use thread lock on the bolts not grease in the race engines if you want to know the spec let me know and I will dig it out as that is what I did
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom