ORLANDO, Fla. -- King Engine Bearings, a manufacturer of high-performance engine bearings in the U.S., introduces Gold Performance Engine Bearings -- a new advance in race engine bearings that leapfrogs all previous bearing designs, according to the company. Specifically, these new bearings feature vastly improved fatigue strength that allows them to tolerate pressures far greater than any other performance bearing available today.

The new main and connecting rod bearings from King feature a new and unique tri-metal construction, including a proprietary particulate metal matrix composite non-Babbitt overlay with stunning new properties. While appearing in a typical gray/silver color out of the box, King Gold Performance bearings polish to a beautiful golden luster after a short period of use, while maintaining their original tolerances and bearing clearances.

The .0005" overlay is able to handle loads up to 18,000 psi, far beyond the capacity of any other performance engine bearing. Its maximum working temperature is 540 deg. F., which is 50 percent higher than other tri-metal race engine bearings. These properties and others allow King Gold Performance bearings to operate under the most demanding load and temperature conditions in racing.

The other two layers in the new Gold Performance bearings include a high-strength steel backing and a .015" copper-lead intermediate layer, surface-diffused with a hardening element for improved fatigue strength. Gold Performance joins King's existing family of race/street engine bearings including Pro Series and Xtreme Performance bearings.

"Gold Performance bearings are intended for those racing applications in which traditional high-performance tri-metal bearings experience overlay fatigue and failure, due to extreme loading for extended periods of time," explained Michael James, spokesman for King Engine Bearings. "They are for use with forged steel crankshafts only, and are not suitable for use with cast iron cranks."

"We expect Gold Performance bearings to solve many engine bearing problems in circle track competition, off-road and offshore marine racing and some classes in drag racing," he added.

Gold Performance bearings can solve problems include surface fretting, cracking, flaking, cratering, overlay migration or extrusion, crankshaft damage and temperature-related failures.

"Most important, while King Gold Performance bearings will not add horsepower or torque to an engine by themselves, they will allow engine builders to stretch their imaginations and engines' capacities and add power with techniques not previously possible because of likely bearing failure," the KING spokesman concluded.

King experts also shared that championship circle track engine builder Ron Shaver has run tests on the new bearings and heartily endorses them. "In a week-long dyno testing session we were replacing a competitor's tri-metal racing bearings every two to three hours under constant high load, while the same King Gold bearings showed no signs of fatigue, even when run in a narrowed configuration," Shaver reports.