Retorqued my ARP'S

Mountainman · **Posted:** Wed Apr 22, 2020 9:22 pm

Losing a touch of coolant, so I decided to have a look at everything. Found the coolant leak after I pulled the top (typical hose off of thermostat). But, it was nice to see that the rockers were 100% after about 50k miles of shell rotella t6. I switched to liqui moly anyhow, but let's not get talking oils lol.

I didn't break any loose as they all moved about 1/16 - 1/8" with the 125&130 ft lb. routine. I was happy that they all moved about the same uniform amount. Anyone feel like crunching the numbers on how many pounds of clamping force that small turn represents? I'm curious if it's substantial. I still have the top off and I'm thinking about pulling at least one loose, reapplying ARP goop, and seeing if it goes further, but not sure that I want to mess with it.
-side note, lucky I got in there, as my new littens timing belt tensioner had not only let its grease out, but it didn't have any bearing drag, which I see on almost every one I've ever disassembled (dozens) that have 100k+ miles. It was running dry! Good thing I have new ones on hand! Looks like I got a bad one, or they cheapened the design, but this was one of the ones that were still being built in Canada. Maybe I'm thinking of something else, but I thought the new ones were outsourced to Asia?

geordi · **Posted:** Thu Apr 23, 2020 1:40 am

They still say "Made in Canada" on the back - BUT the bearing has been Chinesium since 2014. Here's how to tell: Look at the bearing seal, the rubber will say "NTN Japan" in a nice font if it is an original / pre-2014 bearing. If it is China, the rubber will just say "Litens" in a very simple impact style font.

There is a very hard-to-see silkscreened "China" on the inner bearing race edge, BUT it appears that Litens has been very careful in positioning the central core to cover that up with the wide portion before pressing it together. Since they are still technically "assembling" it in Canada, that's how they are getting away with keeping the Made in Canada on the back, b/c they WERE using Japan bearings before and assembling them in Canada.

Yours is the first one I've heard about that had a confirmed issue, but I've seen grease ejection before on others. SOME grease ejection seems normal on most bearings, but they shouldn't feel like they are running dry. Typical Chinesium, cutting corners everywhere.

Mountainman · **Posted:** Thu Apr 23, 2020 12:40 pm

Yeah, I've noticed the grease also on the original ones, but always some bearing drag, and this at about 50k miles is scary. My rear speed sensor wire has broken repeatedly due to really rough dirt roads at speed, so I'm not exact on the mileage, but it was only 4 years and I've been working from home the whole time. 40-50k max. I'll report back on the country where it was made. I'll be replacing my belt and checking the tensioner every 50k now. Takes about 15 minutes with my electric fan set up and relocated serpentine tensioner.

geordi · **Posted:** Fri Apr 24, 2020 1:20 am

If you don't take it swimming in rivers, you could leave the outer cover off entirely. I've had my outer timing cover off now for at least a year and it makes it easy to inspect things.

Mountainman · **Posted:** Fri May 01, 2020 11:27 am

The tensioner was definitely stamped with china, and then I have another one that came from a lost member with 35k miles, and its almost as loose as mine with around 50k. A third one I had lying around which is also loose had the China sanded off of it at the factory apparently. Very obvious sanding disc marks like they were doing a big batch of them. Can't sand that face like that after its assembled... :shock:

geordi · **Posted:** Sat May 02, 2020 1:19 am

They shouldn't have any marks on them like that from a sander, the Chinese aren't trying to hide their involvement - and they are only making the bearing AFAIK. The "china" should be a small silk-screen only on the edge of the inner race of the bearing. But in all cases, if the blue rubber just says "Litens" on it in a simple font - that's the Chinese bearing, 100%.

Unless someone was using a dremel though, I can't see how a sander could get to the inner race (or not destroy / damage the rubber!) just to try and get that silkscreen label off. The outer race of the bearing is raised compared to that inner race. That seems like an amazing amount of time and effort to hide the source, rather than just sourcing the bearings from Japan as before.

Mountainman · **Posted:** Sun May 03, 2020 2:38 pm

Yeah, maybe it just had a burr and was sanded prior to assembly, as I have 3 Chinese ones here and they are labeled China, except that one the surface just has the sanding scratches.
The surface was definitely sanded prior to it being assembled

Retorqued my ARP'S

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