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Tue Jun 18, 2024 12:03 am

Not sure if this is of interest to anyone, but there are a bunch of posts on Facebook VW groups this morning saying that Silverline have gone out of business.

(I'd guess there's a fair amount of stock out there with resellers to meet short term needs though.)

Tue Jun 18, 2024 7:19 am

Source posts?

Tue Jun 18, 2024 7:51 am

Millionmph wrote: Source posts?

Yes. A quick search and I can't find a thing yet.

It's also hard to even find any compan info on "Silverline". The one main link I can find, while it's a bearing company, I am not 100% sure it's the same Silverline.

So....Dellner Polymer Solutions out of the UK who makes some very cool polymer qnd metal based shaft bushings and bearings....acquired a company call "Silentbloc" quite some time ago. Silentbloc acquired Silverline in 1997....so the company blurb goes. They note that Silverline has been in the bearing business for 80 years.

You can buy Silverline ball bearing pillow blocks at Grainger and MSC. Same company?

No mention of automotive bearings in any of the literature I have found in a quick search.

Ray

Tue Jun 18, 2024 8:32 am

I just talked to a parts vender and he says it's true. He also said that one big VW supplier bought the entire remaining supply from Silverline. I don't think it's going to be a big deal. Mahle/Clevite are making VW main bearings.

Tue Jun 18, 2024 12:24 pm

I heard that clevite has no intention to make oversized bearings and will continue to make the STD/STD in china. Seems some how motorav has something to do with it as the lack of oversized bearing means you HAVE to buy a new case.

Who was making the 356 bearings for AA? They pushed them on a lot of vendors but I never herard if they were any good or not. Maybe another manufacturer in the mix?

Tue Jun 18, 2024 12:34 pm

Well we still have Mahle and Kolbenschmidt dont we?

Tue Jun 18, 2024 12:49 pm

I spoke to one of my saleswomen today. She confirmed that Silverline is Closed. Where she works has limited their remaining stock to selling only (4) sets of bearings to each vendor like myself.
Of course most suppliers have instantly raised the prices on what they have left.
Get them while you can.

Tue Jun 18, 2024 1:57 pm

Jesus they'll have us pouring babbits for these soon LOL

Tue Jun 18, 2024 3:03 pm

If only std/std bearings will be available soon, all the used cases will be worthless.

Silverlines QC was/is bad. I had to buy 3 sets to get one set in spec

Tue Jun 18, 2024 3:04 pm

AlteWagen wrote: I heard that clevite has no intention to make oversized bearings and will continue to make the STD/STD in china. Seems some how motorav has something to do with it as the lack of oversized bearing means you HAVE to buy a new case.

Where did you hear that because my personal stash of Mahle/Clevite mains of various line bore and crank sizes made within the last few months sorta suggests otherwise. They are a mix of Mexico/China production. All steel backed internal grove center mains.

My thought is if the Mahle/Clevite gang continues to produce and ramp up production at the level of quality I am measuring, good riddance to Silverline. If Mahle/Clevite can't or doesn't want to keep up, I guess this is getting less fun.

Tue Jun 18, 2024 5:17 pm

New Mahle line bore sizes have been available. They are straight mahle, no clevite. They come in blue and white boxes, and they have been available for a while. The ones I have used measured out quite well.

Brian

Tue Jun 18, 2024 5:46 pm

Brian_e wrote: New Mahle line bore sizes have been available. They are straight mahle, no clevite.

Are the center mains aluminum or steel?

Tue Jun 18, 2024 7:26 pm

Aluminum centers, just like the last generation of red and white box mahles.

The clevite/mahle are steel back and ID grooved. They are also 3x the money, made in china, and the last few batches had a strange different outer coating. Almost like spray chrome.

Brian

Tue Jun 18, 2024 7:37 pm

I thought Pat downs bought all the silverline bearings

Tue Jun 18, 2024 8:13 pm

I just bought a set of clevite mains for $43…will report back

Tue Jun 18, 2024 8:32 pm

RLFD213 wrote: I thought Pat downs bought all the silverline bearings

He bought all of the last batch of celvite/mahles that might have been made in Brazil. I got a few of them as well, and they are different than the current ones from china.

Brian

Tue Jun 18, 2024 8:52 pm

Wait what?

The Mexico/China Clevite/Mahle bearings I have are steel back center, internal groove, in line bore sizes ranging from STD to .060. They were $41 or $53 depending on which size I bought on RockAuto.

I built an engine with the "weird chinachrome texture" bearings and it hasn't overtly grenaded yet so... here's to hoping? They measured awesome, better than the last 4 sets of Silverlines I had to use to make one good set for my personal engine.

Wed Jun 19, 2024 11:28 am

AlteWagen wrote: I heard that clevite has no intention to make oversized bearings and will continue to make the STD/STD in china. Seems some how motorav has something to do with it as the lack of oversized bearing means you HAVE to buy a new case.

Who was making the 356 bearings for AA? They pushed them on a lot of vendors but I never herard if they were any good or not. Maybe another manufacturer in the mix? CB Performance has the Mahle/Clevite bearings in Std/Std, .020/Std and .040/Std. No undersize crank sizes yet.

Wed Jun 19, 2024 11:37 am

There are still a lot of NOS bearings around.

Wed Jun 19, 2024 3:16 pm

All the clevite that I bought in std say made in usa. The .010/std case say made in mexico. Both usa and mexico look the same. Got them from Jegs a couple years ago.