Con Rod Big End Shells

Hello all,
I'm in need of a new set of big end shells. I see that RGM offers sets made by King which Roger says are the best available. I note that he sells them for less than half the price of AN items.
Does anyone have experience with the RGM (King) shells? Negative or positive experience.

Thanks,
Ed

There is a difference between the two, both are Trimetallic ie steel/leaded bronze and finally an overlay plating so 3 layers. AN's leaded bronze is cast, King use sintered leaded bronze with a rolling operation to compact the fused particles. They also differ in the overlay plating, AN is a soft lead/Indium, King will be a Tin/Lead which may be hard tin/lead.

The result is very little difference, the sintered bronze will be 5% down on fatigue strength but this is like a dam, as long as you never exceed the limit then no difference in wear levels and a Norton engine will not get near the limit so effectively no difference. The Lead/Indium is good for the first few miles as Indium is an excellent anti seize agent but soft and wears quicker than the tin/lead especially if its hard tin/lead. As soon as the bronze is exposed the shells need changing.

For a road bike RGM will wear better, for a race bike regularly rebuilt the AN would be better but close call.

Al/Tin is an even cheaper option for a road bike and will perform as well.

Fit a good filter helps all these types of shell bearing but the Al/Tin the most.

Coated King shells in my V8 , highly reguarded brand .

kommando said:

For a road bike RGM will wear better, for a race bike regularly rebuilt the AN would be better but close call.

Click to expand...

Just fitted a new set of standard AN shells to my race motor......

To be honest, the last set were not in there very long, and could have gone straight back! But by the time you have stripped it to change main bearings an extra £75 odd (inc taxes) seems a reasonable investment!

So as far as I see it, your saving would be £42 by using RGM King shells. I can see that being worthwhile, particularly if you are changing nothing else.

Of course, I bought the package from AN, but if you buy your mains from RGM as well, there is a bigger saving! Like £85 total before shipping. Same main bearings?

Maybe as a pensioner, I should be more 'thrifty'?

Breaching the fatigue limit results in fatigue cracks in the leaded bronze layer, if you see no evidence of cracks in the leaded bronze layer on inspection then King's sintered bronze with the better wearing plating layer is the better option unless you increase the HP or rev limit (more testing and strip down for inspection of bearings for fatigue cracks).

Thank you Kommando, Shelby and Steve for your observations and info. I will be using Carillo long rods and Wiseco light pistons. I will also be using a slightly hotter cam.
Any of you think these mods will make a difference in shell choice?

Ed

kommando said:

Breaching the fatigue limit results in fatigue cracks in the leaded bronze layer, if you see no evidence of cracks in the leaded bronze layer on inspection then King's sintered bronze with the better wearing plating layer is the better option unless you increase the HP or rev limit (more testing and strip down for inspection of bearings for fatigue cracks).

Click to expand...

I know you discussed Glacier in an old thread. Can you contrast Glacier, King, and what AN sells. I use and have been happy with Glacier B2101LC and I only work on street bikes.

The LC on the end of a Glacier aftermarket number means its a King type sintered leaded bronze with a tin/lead overlay, King copied Glacier as its much less capital outlay for a sintering line over a casting line. When you have the same number but the last two letters are SA then its a bimetallic shell bearing with a steel back and a single Aluminium/Tin lining. 95% of all automotive shell bearings are Aluminium/Tin bimetallic, its only racing and diesels that use exotic higher fatigue strength Aluminium/Tin (add a bit of copper and solution heat treat to improve the base Al/Tin), trimetallic and the highest strength one Splutter.

The leaded/bronzes are dying out, car scrapping rules mean you can't use lead except in the aftermarket in more and more countries, new Aluminium/Tin variations are getting stronger and the expensive Splutter is stronger than leaded/bronze already, plus both these are lead free. The number of bronze casting lines globally is reducing so eventually you will be only left with sintered Cu/Pb before that too disappears.