Rod Bearing Controversy
 

I searched for this but must have used the wrong key words. Was there ever any concensus as to what to do for rod bearings given the recent discussions about the Glycos? I'm ready to buy some.

What is wrong with Glycos? I just got mains and rods from Pelican in Glyco.

Apparently some have had some issues. There was a thread on this very subject only a couple of weeks ago and even Wayne got into it. Run a search on Glyco rod bearings and you will find it. I think the date was 7/2 or around there. Has images with it.

Here is what was wrong with my Glyco rod bearings, which had Calico coating on them. Compare to Glyco mains with the same coating. This is on a motor with maybe 2 hours, mostly chassis dyno.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1408334895.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1408335005.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1408335122.jpg

Walt,

Have you determined if it was the coating or the bearing? From the pictures it looks like the coating didn't adhere to the bearing.

Naw, it was the bearing. Looking up bearing failure or the like on Google produced a site which showed a picture of fatigue failure or stress failure or the like. Looked just like this.

Some part of the substrate isn't up to the loads imposed. In my case that included 8,200 rpm on the dyno, but the engine with earlier production runs of Glycos (by maybe 8 years?) which was run to that had no issues (bearings good enough to make me regret the teardown). So it appears Glyco reformulated things for rod bearings which included a weaker layer in there somewhere.

Don't know if this would happen on a car not run beyond the stock rev limit (~6,500-7,000) of these early cars, or only occasionally run up that high (as in not raced).

Has anyone determined when this started happening? Walt, do you happen to have the manufacturing date from those bearings?

I would be interested to know that too!!

I bought a set from Pelican late 2012, they are installed, but the engine has not been started yet.
This makes me a bit worried...

the 996 gt3 bearing will work for rods & mains on a 3L. I had gycos shipped, did a bit more research and went with the gt3 set and shipped the other stuff back. the glycos I got had a few visible scratches on the bearing surfaces and many other knicks & such that I did not have to even put my reading specs on to see.... the gt3 units were significantly nicer. only seems to reason that the tooling for the new stuff is newer, less warn??. I think horrible storage of them prior to packaging, and possibly old tooling contributed to the blemishes I experienced. by tooling I mean the molds and such they are produced with. I assumed they are pressed into a mold when near molten..

Ditto, except that I bought mine early this year and just got `em installed last weekend. Figures that I've already sealed the case, installed the P&Cs etc :(


I just came across this thread. Wasn't aware of any widespread(?) issues until just now. I did have one bearing half that was suspect and was fortunate enough to come up with another one. I have to admit that I didn't hesitate buying or installing them because I figured (hopefully not too naively) that Wayne wouldn't stock, sell and ship them if they weren't up to snuff.

Worried ...

Have seen two cars lately, each with less than 3,000 miles on fresh motors, both ate rod bearings for no apparent reason. Suspecting faulty bearings.

Also, friend just got a new set of Glyco's and there is some tarnish and one looks slightly scuffed.

I'm not rebuilding my motor right away but others are now wondering what to use...

This was one of the threads FYI -

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/911-engine-rebuilding-forum/813520-glyco-rod-bearing-wear.html

When I rebuilt the top end of mine 4 or 5 months ago I used Glyco rod bearings that were bought from Pelican around around 4 years ago. They were vacuum bagged in plastic on to a piece of white cardboard that was inside the box.
That protected them really well and they were in beautiful condition with no nicks or marks anywhere.
They are working perfectly in my '87 930 with excellent oil pressure and this is the only picture I have that shows a little bit of one of them.
I balanced all the rods to within 1/10 of a gram on a triple beam scale. You can see where I removed metal to do that.
I also had the rods resized and new wrist pin bushings installed and honed to fit the new wrist pins at a local automotive machine shop and Raceware rod bolts are installed in them. http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1408586095.jpg

I think the fact that the bearings were purchased quite awhile ago is the key; something bad has happened at Glyco since then. I think all of the questionable bearings were acquired much more. Recently than that.

Well, this is not very encouraging. I did a rebuild with the Glyco bearings in my 3.2 last year. Everything went OK, they looked fine, mic'd out fine, and plastigauged fine. I've had no indication of issues, other that a bit more metallic sludge on the drain plugs than I might have liked over the first few oil changes.

Would an oil analysis tell me anything useful? Is it worth doing that?

I'm in the middle of doing a rebuild of my 3.0 and the glyco rod bearings are still in my cart. What is the recommended alternative?

I have been told that the current problem is with the 2.4/2.7 and 3.2/3.3 rod bearings only.

Tom, the 3.6 rod bearings are included in that group.

A good solution is in the works!

Timely. I'm going to need a set of good rod bearings this winter.

"originals"
 

Guys, do you know what happens if you source the bearings directly at Porsche?
What do we get?

On the back of the Glycos are what appear to be date codes. Nobody has provided any detailed lot or manufacturing date info in any of these threads that I've seen.

I have 2 sets of 3.2 rod bearings, both Glycos. 1 set I just took out of an engine to change configurations, and a new set of Glycos waiting to go in. Replacing bearings as good measure.

The set that came out of my engine is stamped 04-08 on the back of each bearing.
The new set is stamped 10-12.

We could surmise these are month and year...Walt Fricke, what are yours stamped? Flip the thing over and tell us.

I can say that my 04-08 and the 10-12 set have different sized stamping numbers, and slightly different relief stampings to orient the bearing to the rod. So they clearly did not come off the same manufacturing equipment, but that means next to nothing. Happens all the time.

We need concrete date code and country of origin data to start pinning it down. Otherwise you guys may be chasing a problem with bearings manufactured 2 years ago that have sat in inventory. Who knows.

With luck, I'll have something for you.

Mike

I have been told that the 3.0 rod bearings still have acceptable quality.

Hope you're right! I'll give it another week and place my order.. fingers crossed

Has anyone contacted Federal-Mogul Glyco about this? I looked up their web site and they have a complaint site. Federal-Mogul

So why are we getting reamed by the suppliers?
 

The 2.7 std Glyco's are $59.00

The Clevites are now $460 or a little less.

I am going to try my dealer tomorrow. I might get lucky.

John

Keep us posted, Steve. I have a set of Glycol's Molycoted and ready for install. Got them from Pelican last year. After all this, I'm not too keen to install.

I sure will.

When I have them in hand, I'll post it on my website and in my forums.

Mine have the Glyco symbol, and STD, and below that 71-2349 on one end. On the other, 5024 and 1796B. Those don't look like simple date codes.

What's the deal with Clevites? Are they considered good bearings? And why so much more I wonder?

I got a thick folder of work order receipts with my '87 930 when I bought it in July 2006.
One of them is for a top end and transmission rebuild dated 3-20-2000 when the car had 99,018 miles on it. New rod bearings are in the list of parts replaced.

When I rebuilt the top end last May the car had 129,592 miles on it. I replaced the rod bearings and saved the ones I took out.

I just took this pic of the numbers on the opposite ends of two of the ones I took out. The one on the right says 07-99 so if that is a date code it makes sense.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1409074509.jpg

Coming back to that point: Has anyone tried the quality Porsche provides actually?

Like any other situation, I feel it is important to get both sides before labeling something as NG.
In regard to my previous post, I sent in a request for information and thread links to Federal-Mogul Glyco. They received my request and called me this morning. They told me Glyco is handled by the European branch, and it is being forwarded to them to analyze. One comment that the representative made was that they don't approve of coatings being applied, but when I get further information, I will Post it.

Are there others reporting Glyco rod bearing failures?

Does not seem to be wide spread.

John

Got a rod knock with new glyco bearings 200 mi on the engine this weekend
Will take it apart and let you know
Steve please pm me your contact
Thanks

Just look at my signature file below for everything you need. :D :D

I received a response from a representative at Glyco today.

"Dear all,

Pictures on’ the thread links’ could be caused by fatigue. But this has to be checked by warranty where parts could be inspected if problem is due to material or ….

We never had any problems with bearings for Porsche applications.

Regards

Johan Doms"

So it is hard to say it is a problem with the Glyco bearings. It would seem no one has sent back their bearings under warrenty showing a defect in manufacture or material at this time.
Walt, ertech, or anyone else with problems, have you considered contacting Glyco?Federal-Mogul

The bearings you get from Porsche are Glyco bearings in a Porsche-labeled box. These bearings must go thru some sort of quality/measuring check because you can see marks on them from being measured. The check done on the bearings leaves a faint stripe across the width of the bearing

Interesting, but that would not necessarily mean that the quality of the material is different, its just a geometrical checkup, correct?

You are correct. Bearing is same exact manufacturing process. Porsche just ensures the bearings they put in their own boxes are of the best measured quality that meets their standards.