i have one in the works now, it will be available in the next few weeks,

it is designed to work on external oil pump engines as it replaces the stock oil pump, no machining is required to the block, crank or any other part,

it requires a 2 piece timing chain/oil pump drive (rollmaster or similar) as the oil pump drive is replaced with a bearing carrier, it is clearanced to suit double row chain and factory timing covers etc,

some final machining of the spacer is required to set end float of your engine but it is not a tricky job to do and anyone with a lathe can do this.

im only doing this as my engine chewed a thrust in 1 60ft pass, a 1/2 track pass and a full pass..

 

Would that not suggest you have issues elsewhere? There are literally thousands of race motors out there getting the shit beat out of them without using a roller crankshaft thrust bearing. I'm not saying it's not a cool upgrade, but typically when a thrust gets killed (especially in 1 pass), you've got some issue behind the motor (converter/trans).

That said (and assuming all is well with the drivetrain behind the motor), are there really any quantifiable benefits of converting to a roller crankshaft thrust bearing?

 

Pm sent

 

Problem can be fixed with stock thrust bearing, add oil pressure to the thrust side of the bearing
Limit converter charge 2
I didn't exactly what you did, fixed mine with these 2
Other way to fix is machine block add rolller behind first main, but it's not needed

 

How did you add oil to the bearing

 

I just pulled my engine down for a rebuild, and noticed a lot of wear on the trans side of the thrust bearing-I was leaning toward it being the converter,
it was a 13" turbo 400 switch/pitch setup-I thought maybe a little ballooning was going on-they mentioned something about charge pressure reduction
I will be using a reg 400 with a balloon plate in the converter, maybe that will be a cure

 

95% of people should not even have to think about this if setup right. 10sec rx is a different ballgame than vast majority here

It would be scary to know how much fuel I burned through my car this summer of 160+mph street pulls at full power this year and alot of trans brake stuff. And my thrust didn't move from its 5 thou setup. Looked new when pulled apart.

No filing or bearing mods of any kind, just transmission setup correctly

 

If you run a external oil pump then there is no reason not to bolt this in and be done with it, if you don't then mod the stock thrust or get the block and crank machined to take a Torrington behind the first cap.

 

We did some pressurized thrust mods when I was at KUP. They seem to work very good for a plane bearing setup. We had one come back in for freshen up that had about 200 passes on it and still had good thrust clearance but did have some heat checking. There are others that will say all thrust bearings are not created equal. The pic below is a BBC vs LS thrust and obviously bigger is better but if you look closer the BBC is an ACL design I use in all the engines I build and it doesn't just feed some oil to the thrust side like the other bearing but maintains the outer edge to keep a hydrodynamic wedge of oil between the thrust bearing and the crank's thrust surface. It also has indentions at both sides of the parting line to feed oil to cool the thrust surfaces. These are also 3/4 groove bearings which I have been very successful with also. The new Billet SBC I am working on uses the BBC mains.

Not much difference, LOL

 

Early on, we had thrust bearing issues with Turbo Buicks. After engine builder, trans builder and torque converter builder blame game, I started looking closer at the crankshaft and found that if it was reground, the thrust face looked like a saw blade. I just couldn't get my crank grinder to quit "touching/trueing" the thrust face. Out came the 500grit to 1500 grit paper to clean up the surface. No more thrust issues.
So, if your crank has been remachined, look closely at the thrust surfaces. You will be amazed at the finish. With a magnifying glass it looks like a buzz saw! Polish it out by hand. 30 minutes of work and it'll save your thrust bearing.

 

My crank is a Callie's ultra billet polished like a mirror.. It's defiantly not rough

 

Ls7r uses a 3 pc thrush washer..

 

So what did you do to that hurt it? Did you spin a stator tube or somethjng?

 

220psi converter pressure... for some reason the box picked up 140psi when it was fitted to the car..

 

This is how im thinking about doing mine, also hitting the crank with some sand paper to smooth it out like mentioned.

As far as converter charge pressure goes, im going to wire in a pressure sensor and a nitrous purge solenoid on the cooler circuit. Where when the sensor sees above a set pressure it triggers the purge solenoid to open returning fluid to the pan and regulating pressure in the cooling circuit.

 

Hutch's pressure relief valve is $100, Tee on the lower cooler line with a fitting tapped into the pan or governor cover, simple inexpensive

 

i have a pressure relief valve and a spool up dump valve now but still not going to take the chance again when you can bolt something in and fix the issue

 

Serious question:

Lets say we do the little file mode at the parting line of the bearing to feed a little oil to the thrust. If there is still a major issue behind the motor pushing the crankshaft forward, will it actually save the thrust face on the crank and the bearing itself, or will it just lessen the amount of damage that will inevitably ensue?

 

i have no idea, im not willing to take the risk either

first drawings are done

 

That looks trick, nice work

 

Interested in seeing final product and install

 

ERL designed and installed a thrust system similar to this on my motor over 3 years ago. I still run converter pressures over 220# at times and never see an issue.
You can put the pressure relief valve in but it reduces the hit from the converter. Had a friend last year with thrust problems that was advised to put in a relief valve that was set to low IMHO and lost over a tenth in the 1/8th.
I have used bearings with all kinds of modifications to the bearing over the years. While i'm sure they help the torrington thrust bearing took care of the issue and my bearings always look like new when I freshen up.

 

Thanks for the reply, interesting you run the high converter pressures still,
I thought that the relief valve would take something away from the converter in the hit,
I have got a adjustable relief valve and spool dump valve now so have some experimenting to do

 

final revision is off the mill ill have it test fitted in the next few days and providing no issues ill get 10 run off.. ill be on a plane to the USA on the 15th and can bring them with me,

 

Damn that's beautiful!

 

I got all my engine parts back from the machine shop, and meas. the old thrust bearing-it was warn .015 thinner than the orig., so I will be doing
some preventive work-just changing to a new converter will help, and I will add a relief valve to control charge pressure

 

Pricing is $595usd, Ill be in Dallas, Oklahoma and possibly Arizona for the last half of Feb, can also ups them when I arrive

 

Coming to tune??

 

Although the design is very interesting and should work well.... Wouldn't a lot of the guys having this issue and also having an external oil pump be running a jesel belt drive? In which case this design will not work?

 

If they are running a belt drive then they can Machine the block and crank to get a bearing in there..

I don't run a belt drive so no problems fitting it

 

test fitted, ready to do a run of them,

 

test fitted, ready to do a run of them,

So what are you doing in the typical thrust bearing spot? Still using a normal bearing? or something special?

 

That is slick.

 

Very nice!

You will be in DFW tuning, what ECM's will you be tuning?

 

No I'll be in OK tuning, these cars are fitted with Haltech's