sedanaddict

can you talk for yourself or can you just quote some advertisement every time you post? do you have any personal experience or just ad copy???
i have only used ceramics on chassis bearings. they work well in that application.

Rick Davis

Have two RB C-5 modifieds that are a year old with quite a bit of time on them and the hybrid ceramic rear bearings feel as good as new - very impressive. Ordered some Boca ones when they first became available a couple of years ago and they felt so radically different in clearance from standard Nova units that I never even installed them.

Rick Davis

soc123_au

iTrader: (2)

Beat me to it

I have Acer ceramics in my JP (.21) are they any better? I am not sure, they are as good as standard, but I havent noticed any noticable performance gain. I am hoping the longevity factor makes them worth the coin. I have also used acer ceramics in my NTC3 & they were awsome, I could always win the how far can your car roll on its own contest. Didnt make me any faster on the track but. I need some bearings that are magnetised to follow the perfect line around the track

fraz

Thanks for the input Rick. Who makes the hybrids you run? Are they directly from Nova and factory installed for RB? Also, how much extra money did you have to put out for them? If you get good quality ceramics it should be worth it in the long run.

jmf

dremelboy

well since we are on the subject of ceramic motor bearings here, i can assure you the ones from boca are no where near as good as the orignal ones used from novarossi or rb.

the ball size from boca are extremely small compared to the novarossi ones and i have had them personally crack on me and destroy a brand new piston and sleeve set rody had just installed in one of my 1005-rc motors.

DO NOT USE BOCA CERAMIC MOTOR BEARINGS, i have never in 2 years of having dealt with them gottenthem to admit that the bearings are junk. go ahead and use them in a 650.00 motor if you want, but dont try and cry or complain when one of the balls cracks under load

for whatever reason, novarossi based ballbearings are very tough compared to the ceramics

just my 2 cents

Doomah

yes good call about the boca's, the balls are most definitly smaller than the rb's/nova

TitaniumR

Hi SOC and all,
Just want to share a little of what I think.

I worked a little bit selling ceramic balls for bearings about 5 years back. Balls are mostly Silicon Nitride- one of the hardest(meaning brittle, less tough than steel). What we do is pack the powder and sinter(heat to about 1800deg C if I recall correctly) to fuse them and then polish them into balls. The races have to be steel(softer than the ceramic balls) otherwise all will break into pieces. I think this has not change much. Yes they do have slightly better coeficcient of friction than steel balls and last longer(10x because ceramic is harder) in high speed application like dental drills -40000-60000rpm which will eat up steel balls very quickly.

So where there is impact and shock, steel balls(softer than ceramic and tougher) might take the abuse better. My FX-21-03 comes with ceramic bearings, break in properly, ran 7 tanks after that and there was some play on the crank. If I continue, it might be a disaster. I've since changed to standard bearings and has been working well. I have also not notice any performance difference between ceramic and steel bearings.

So I would still think quality steel bearings makes a decent deal here in our sport and will not rob you of competitive edge against ceramic ones - save the money for something else unless one has a fat budget. Sorry if I offend anyone.

Motorman

iTrader: (1)

I build our bearings from scratch using only the best S2 grade cerbec Si02 balls. It makes a difference over a stock bearing. This is the only way to control what goes into the bearing and to insure it is abec spec'd correctly. your right the bocas are over priced and the abec spec is to sloppy. Currently the only bearing I focus on is the big one and haved used full ceramic hybrid and ceramic,carbide ball hybrids. Ceramic/carbide works the best as when using ceramic balls only the ball bearing tends to load up the races. when you compliment it with an every other steel ball the steel ball keeps the races scrubbed.

yes they are worth it if done right.

TrickPonYracing

iTrader: (2)

Finally a real answer will you make nova based bearings for us? or know someone that will with that quality?

going4#1

Motorman has got the right idea. Use quality material get quality results. The idea of a mix sounds really good and I might give it a try on the next bearing replacement.

Like most of the posters my experience with both Boca and Acer has been mixed. Sure some of the Boca have been great but some have been a real waste. especially given their price. I mean, $8 a bearing and some have died pretty quick. I've bought a few sets from Acer before and was happy with the results but can't buy gold for the price of tin. My experience is they don't last as long as a racer would like i.e. forever. The shields tend to come off a bit too easily. But then again, if you want to try ceramic I'd recommend Acer. $90 gets you a set plus shipping. Some guys charge $200 and up for a similar set and the bearings don't seem to last any longer.

thamjk

Yes I do agree. Ceremic, no doubts harder then steel but in our case here our ceremic bearing hard is just at the balls only not the whole bearing. Meaning the inner and outer rings are still made from hardern steel which is softer then the ceremic. You probably don get any wear at the ceremic balls but not at the other metal parts that forms them as a bearing.