How much were they? I like the idea of a matched pair. If I'm not satisfied with the surface area contact from the Silverline thrust halves from separate sets I may change.
I’ve sent a message to Vee Wee asking if their 160VG0025 bearings are double thrust, I’m not holding my breath for a reply but you never know. The 'equivalent to part number 021198541' suggests a standard single thrust.
£29 with delivery from Brickwerks for the wbx set and Mahle T4 ones were Coolair standard T4 set.. Wbx are the same apart from one pair smaller! So have to get a full stock set to go with it.. could have stuck with the new silverline ones i started with but went safe option of similar manufacturer. Mahle seem to finish the corners on theirs a bit more, I'll add some photos Fri/Sat when I get back in the garage. Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
So........ I tried some plastigauge and got a range of clearances from .0025"-,003", the .003 was at the thrust bearings, are these OK? I cant find a spec. Then I tried some engineers blue. You can tell the side which the camshaft was resting on and the weak marks for the top half of the case when torqued up. Machined the bolt heads for clearance. PS For those setting the axial clearance of a camshaft for the first time, I found a difference of 0.002" tighter when the cases were torqued up. Sorry for all the photos
I haven’t received a reply from Vee Wee but I’m almost sure the pic of their 160VG0025 bearings showing a double thrust is a type 1 or wasserboxer, what you’d get is a type 4 021198541 single thrust. But I’d like to be proved wrong.
I spent an afternoon and a couple evenings trying to get a HD double thrust set of Mahle bearings to fit. I’m pretty sure it would require filing a wider chamfer on the bearing saddle which is beyond what I’m willing to do. I’ve pretty much given up on it as it’s just too much fettling to get it to work.
As long as your oil pump and cam gear/bolts won't clash if you completely lost the thrust part of the bearing the worst than would happen is noise as it clanks too and fro. You'd have fix it of course but there'd be a lot less to fix!
I must have been lucky.. pretty much just fitted straight in...once I filed a tang hole in the saddle which was only a few strokes of the file and a couple of taps each way on the cam.. Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
I really don’t know why you would lose the thrust surface of a cam bearing if the end play is set up properly, the cam is straight, the thrust surfaces don’t have any runout, etc aside from very high mileage. Mocking up the oil pump in the case half to check the clearance with the cam is also a requirement. I found that the HD style bearing to be a little thicker. The non HD type was a much better fit. It could just be the set of bearings I received or how my case was machined.
Not familiar with HD?.. I just used the thrust shells from a Waterboxer set ...side by side with the stock Mahle type4's mine looked identical Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
Type 4 store call their double thrust cam bearings ‘HD’ https://lnengineering.com/type-4-store/hd-double-thrust-cam-bearings.html I guess that’s what orwell84 is comparing with a single thrust.
Yes, that’s what I meant. They are probably quite good. Fitting them may be beyond my current skill level.
A cam with a steep ramp angle and strong springs exerts a high axial load on the thrust bearing - unless the gears are straight cut. Could you explain please, what is thicker?
Measured up the same..25.50mm inside 27.97mm outside ..cant remember which was which from ID marks ! Could look for the stock 'half' shell in the box of unused bits in the garage Sent from my SM-T580 using Tapatalk
The thrust bearings seemed to be made of a thicker gauge metal in the HD set. I wasn’t installing them for a high performance application. But yes, that makes sense for a more aggressive cam.
Theres a very good write up on the installation of double thrust cam bearings over on Samba, it goes into great detail, if you'd like to read it let me know I'll try and find it. After reading it I did implement some of the vital checks prior to final installation. There was some minor fettling to be done on the "wings" of the thrust bearings. For my own piece of mind I torqued the halves together with only the cam and bearings fittted to ensure free rotation with the clearances already set.
This one? https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=694420 Think the bearings in this are more like the HD ones above. There an oiling groove added down the middle of the thrust bearing... this isn't on the waterbox's ones. I didn't need to do most of the work in this article, more like Gnasha just following the checks. Didnt like the need to tang the bearing.., mine came with that on and the receiving hole in the case was easy. Corners all chamfered ready Sent from my SM-T580 using Tapatalk
yes that was the article from Samba, excellent write up a little too intense for me IMO. I wasn't going to do any case mods etc, the only area I scrutinised carefully was the thrust area and the mating faces of the bearings. I did do a little fettling, more for my peace of mind. IIRC I used Silverline bearings, cant remember if they came as a set or I made it up from two sets.
I have the greatest respect for anyone who is prepared to spend days fitting a cam bearing shell. I've seen a fair few engine failures and read about many more but IIRC the only cam bearing failures I'm aware of are on that Samba thread. Something else will break first - it's not a part that becomes more stressed when you load the engine?
