Engine bearings material?

[peterl95124]

all my split bearings have always been made from "bearing bronze", here in the U.S.A. that's CA 932 also known as SAE 660, about 7% tin, 4% zinc, 7% lead. I tried to go cheap once early on and use brass but noticed that it tended to gall a lot so quickly switched to bearing bronze before trying to even start the engine. brass on steel is a big no-no is what I found out later. in general aluminum on steel is also a no-no, except 7075 seems to work, so I always make my con rods out of 7075 and run them directly on the crank pins without an additional bearing (A trick I learned from BAEMClub). so if I were to use aluminum for a split bearing material it would have to be 7075 (5% zinc aircraft aluminum). Note that we always use crank shafts that are drilled for oil passages from the mains to the pins to keep those con rods lubricated with pressurized oil.

 

[Zeb]

I always liked using oil-impregnated bronze (SAE841) for on-the-fly sleeve bearing projects.
Babbit would be interesting to try on a model engine. Might be overkill but oh so smooth.

Galling charts have stainless and brass way up there in the not so good.