I mentioned in a post I was ordering new bearings for one of my four strokes last week. I got an email from W8EYE telling me about a bearing company he has used, it turns out it is mail order only but I decided to give them a try. I ordered my bearing SET on a Thursday night, got the shipping confermation Friday morning and the bearings were here in Mondays mail!! Not only are they fast but they were almost half the price of my other bearing company. On top of that there were four bearings instead of just the front and rear main bearings, they also tossed in the cam bearings with the set.
Yes, I'm very impressed!!
RC-BEARINGS.COM
I even got a cool little set of decals with them!!!

Yep, Paul is great to deal with.

Wow...what a cost difference!!!

Whats the difference between the standard, stainless and ceramic?

Unless your really into the high performance there is no reason for a sport flyer to bother with the ceramics but they are very good bearings. I have used stainless on rebuilds when I lived in a harsher area to help combat rust but over time I have discovered all I really needed was the standard. If you go to any of the big bearings company web sites like Boca you can read what the engineers say about the different materials used and the whys. I get about 8 years or more of heavy use with the standard cheap old bearings so anymore I just order the standard sets.
I was just very impressed with the service I got from this company and how fast they got them to me and there prices. If only they had a phone number or returned there emails I would be more impressed but then I would have to pay more for the product, I guess on line ordering is OK whit this type of service.
Now, if I could only get those last three head bolts out of this engine things would be about perfect!!! It's always something to spoil a good day!!

In a plane engine, not much at all. Tolerances or ABEC ratings mean alot more than the material used.
I would doubt that many RC bearing applications even have a ABEC rating thats true.

Thanks greybeard!! Just in time. I have an OS 46 thats been sitting around for some time... now I know where to go once I start it up if I have any issue.

so far i have changed bearing in three motors from rc bearings and im happy... i just buy the stainless,,,, i only went hybrid ceramic on a"special" engine

Just clarifying, Gene. It was DEADEYE, not W8EYE! Glad you like them.

Thank you, I went into my email and PMs but I had hit the magic button and lost all my messages and couldn't remember who told me about this company. I remembered it was an EYE though so I was almost there!!
I started my rebuild yesterday but have three head bolts that are stuck. I have heated the case in boiling water and even used a small torch and still can't get them out. So far all I have are some scraped knuckles for proof that I am working on an engine. When I used to work on cars it was said you didn't really work on one until you drew blood, no blood yet but missing flesh should count for something!

Gary,

I would suspect that the ABEC ratings are true, as RC engine bearings are just standard commercial bearings. They are not RC specific.

Jack

Have you tried shocking them? Get a broad ended punch, put it againt the head of the screw and whack it with a small lighweight hammer.

Oh, and a shot of PB Blaster will help!

Yes I did and the hammer wasn't all that small!!! I used to be an engine builder for an after market VW company and at one point I had a set of tools for removing stuck hex head screws, sort of like easy outs but these worked. They seem to have grown legs sometime over the years and walked away. I have a machinest in my wood working club and as much as it pains me to give the engine to him to remove these nasty screws I will just have to lower myself. I have one more trick to try before I give up though. I have had this engine apart once and I never use locktite so I question how these screws got so tight in there. I know I cleaned all the threads on both screw and hole plus I torqued them all the same with an inch pound wrench. One shouldn't be any tighter then any other??? This is a first time for me having this problem with an old engine???

You can allways try temperature cycles. Freezer to oven etc.

I didn't do anything to it today at all but I plan on going to the auto store and looking for some of that freeze in a can stuff I used to use then heat the engine in boiling water, take it out and hit the screws with the can of cold. Can't remember the name of the stuff but I should always have a can of the stuff on hand. I may give the boil and freeze thing a try too. My radio is being sent in for service so I will have a couple of weeks of being grounded so I have time to play with this engine.

I wouldn't try that. The thermal shock might be too much for aluminum creating possible stress fractures. Being were looking at dissimular materials, steel bolts and cast aluminum, they have different thermal expansion/contraction coefficiencies.

thanks for the tip ,prices look great.

I have used RC-bearings also. I was replacing the bearings in one of my old ASP engines, and the bearing sizes listed were for the newer style crank. I measured the bearings, and ordered them seperately at about 1/4 the cost of Boca. I ordered two sets.

The information on the site was invaluable too.

Gene, try an old trick that I picked up on my apprrenticeship back in the 60's. First grind the tip on your allen wrench flat, giving the end to side a sharp angle, not the rounded ones normally on hte wrench, make sure it square, If t he wrench is shinny from use, grind it down past the shinny part to give a new surface to work with. Make sure you keep the wrench cool when grinding so you don't upset the temper. Don't clean the sharp edge and leave the pull over from grinding.

Now, put the wrench in the screw head and gently tap it a couple times to make sure it's seated. Use an cressent wrench tightend to the allen wrench and place it on the L and use it for a handle and not the wrench handle.. A piece of thick steel tubiing will work also, you want to take a much spring out of the wrench as possible. This all gives you the best leverage on the screw. NOW tighten the screw. Just enought to feel it move, then unscrew it. If this doesn' work, find a machine shop with a wire EDM machine and see if you can talk them into buring them out for you.

Don

Don, done that!!! No go!! Aero, you don't spray the head, you hit the bolt head and it shrinks it a bit when it cools. Boiling water doesn't heat the engine enough to do any harm due to rapid cooling.
Just went and saw the Transformers, there went three hours of my life I will never get back!!!

If the heads aren't stripped yet I'd buy a brand new allen wrench, shove it in tight then use a crescent wrench on the long end for leverage to turn it out. If the head gets stripped out with an allen wrench you could take a dremel, carefully cut a slot on top and use a screwdriver to get them out, an old trick you've probably used before, it works great - but obviously in this instance you've got fins to deal with so it'd have to be the perfect size screwdriver, then just buy new bolts after you get them out.

Edited to add:

With the slot cut screwdriver method, if it still won't come out, I clamp the screwdriver handle laterally with vice grips and then hit the head of the screwdriver which hits down on the head of the bolt at the same moment you turn it out with the vice grips. Obviously all this takes place with the engine safe and snug in a vise.

The best way to get a stuck/stripped bolt out is to notch it on the edge with a cold chisel then give it a lateral rap with a hammer to unscrew it. But in this case you'd need a really small cold chisel to do that :-)

Westcoast, the scrws are burried in the head, you can't get a dremel in without slicing the head some in the process.

Gene, try shortening the short arm on your allen wrench as short as you can get it and still clear the rocker cover mount. Use a box end wrench on the allen as close as you can get it to the head and the while you have a good deal of pressure, whack the allen / box with a small hammer. The shock may break it loose for you. Of course, you need at least three hands for this, or the engine mounted solid so it isn't going to move.

Sears/OSH/maybe Kmart as they all sell craftsman now, has a set of scrw removers that are 1/4" drive and look like a counter sink with reverse cutting edges. You may try one of these and see if you can get it to bite. You may also want to try using a power screwdriver set to a mid torque rating and use it like a mini impact wrench. Increase torque until it goes.

One last thing, is the 1/4 drive allens you get in the set. Your bolts are probably metric, so take the inch alen that is slightly bigger and carefully grind the face of hte bit to fit the metric screw. OR use the one that is just to small and cut some shim stock to get it to fit. Then put the breaker bar on the sucker.

Don

Gene, I just checked the smalles of the Craftsman Removers. It will bite into the head of a #2-56 socket head, so the head bolts won't be a problem for it, however the body is almost 1/4", so it may be iffy getting to the screw under the rocker cover, assuming it is a four stroke.

Humm just realized I never ask what engine it was, I just assumed a four stroke. If it is a 2 stroke and the heads of the scrws are not to deep, Westcoast's idea of slotting the scrws and using a scrwdriver may work.

Don

That's interesting because without even thinking about it I thought it was 2 stroke. Interesting how the brain works!

With the engine going through hot and cold cycles through it's life, it is not that the screws are too tight, but that there is corosion due to electrolosis. Your best bet would be to use some WD40. If there is a gap between the head and the cylinder, spray it in there and give the head a tap with a hammer. Do this several times, it may take a few days to get the WD40 to work into the threads.

Also when you put in new screws, coat the threads with antiseize.

PB blaster is way better than WD-40. Ive repaired 2000 pound cast iron gas meters thats been outdoors for 40 years and got the cover bolts off.