Re: bronze cam bearings 55-56

Posted by Fish'n Jim On 2013/12/15 14:04:01

That's a "it depends" question. Babbit was one of the earlier bearing materials, just after greased wood, steam era. It's rise goes back to methods they had to manufacture bearings(casting), ease of tooling, methods of lubrication, and shaft speeds. The more modern babbit styles came after WW2 due to it's limitations in higher energy motors.
"It depends" on the coefficients of friction, coefficients of expansion, clearances, forces, lubrication, rotational speed, temperatures, vibrational dynamics, etc. to predict bearing life, not just the bearing surface.
Babbit's depend on tin and with tin, you get lead, antimony, and a few other elements which are no longer mentionable to environmentalists. They still use tin plating in diesel service for coating the pistons after hard chrome for lubricity.