Features material from Ron Sledge’s standing room only presentation to race engine builders Cedar Grove, NJ – King Engine Bearings, a leader in automotive, aviation and high performance engine bearings has released the video of a standing room only technical seminar conducted at two race industry trade shows in December 2011. Ron Sledge, King’s performance and technical manager, presented “Race Engine Bearing Lubrication, Clearances & Tolerances” at both the Performance Racing Industry Trade Show (PRI Show) and International Motorsports Industry Show (IMIS) events.

The hour long presentation is now available to view, free-of-charge at www.kingbearings.com/tech_materials.php. Sledge shared his knowledge of engine bearings and race engine technology accumulated over his 30 plus year industry career. He told the audience of race engine builders, “My goal is to help you produce engines with the most horsepower, torque, and durability.”

His seminar looked at bearing performance considerations for racing applications, including: oil viscosity, oil type (synthetic vs. mineral), oil pressure and temperature, proper bearing clearances, proper surfaces finishes and bearing assembly tolerances.

Sledge talked about the importance of wall thickness. “Inconsistent shell-to-shell bearing wall thickness can have a negative impact on clearances between the bearing and the journal on main and connecting rod bearings,” explained Sledge. He said that common tolerance for wall thickness at the crown varies by up to .0005” (.00025” per shell).

“King Engine Bearings sets a higher standard of controlling the wall thickness, narrowing the average variation to .0002” (+/- .0001” per shell) from the target dimension,” said Sledge. “We call this ‘Bull’s Eye Tolerance.’”King Engine Bearings is known for its extensive line of high performance engine bearings for circle track, drag racing, monster trucks, tractor pulls, off-road and off-shore racing applications.