-- Better Bearings for your BMW

BMW Bearings	Calico, VAC, WPC	BE Bearing Design	Buy BE Bearings	Contact Us
Explains engine failures	Previous attempts and stopgap measures	Our bearings aren't a stopgap, they're a fix	Custom bearing selection and purchasing details	Who are we and what do we do here?

Take aways of this article:

Factory bearings have too little oil clearance, and too hard.
Multiple stopgap measures have been attempted.
VAC/Calico coated bearings reduced clearance but added a protective coating
WPC Treated bearings increased clearance by a fraction, but considered a short term stopgap measure
VAC Clevite coated bearings don't increase or decrease factory clearance but do add a protective coating
Thinner oils may help mitigate margingal bearing clearance issues, but are a stopgap without providing a solution

Factory bearing primer
VAC/Calico Coated Bearings
WPC Treated Bearings
VAC Clevite Coated Bearings
Proposed Solutions: Thinner Oil

Design Criteria

For our flagship S65/S85 bearings, we wanted to take the best of all worlds, but them together, and make the world's greatest BMW Bearing. To do that, we set many criteria we felt were important.

Lead/Copper, Tri-Metal design

We consider the world's best bearings a Tri-Metal, lead/copper bearing. The steel backing is coated with copper, then topped with a soft lead. The lead is embeddable, meaning small particles can embed themselves in the lead without causing any damage to the crankshaft. Look in the best automotive engines, and you're likely to find a Tri-Metal bearing design.

Used Oil Analysis (UOA)

Another reason we chose the Tri-Metal lead/copper bearings is to track the metals in the UOA like Blackstone. Owners with 2008-2010.5 vehicles still have the lead/copper bearings and can track their bearing life with the UOA. The newer tin/aluminum BMW bearings are virtually untrackable in the UOA. We wanted our bearings to show up in the UOA, and another reason we chose the Tri-Metal, lead/copper design.

Factory BMW oil recommendations

There's a lot of discussion about the best for the S65/S85. BMW specified 10W60 weight oil, and many people believe this is too thick for the bearing clearances. Others believe BMW chose it for a specific engineering reason and refuse to switch regardless of the too-thin oil clearance. For better peace of mind, we wanted our bearing owners to know they can safely use 10W60 oil with our bearings, just as BMW had specified in the first place.

Clevite TriArmor® coating

For increased bearing life and durability, we chose to add the Clevite TriArmor coating. TriArmor is a low-friction coating offered directly from Clevite with a Clevite warranty. It's ideally suited for start-stop engines and protects the crankshaft and bearings at critical times of low oil pressure and/or during start up.

Design specifications

Clevite designed our bearings