Leaving the seals on....

Ted Hamilton

Ted Hamilton

Oval and Sprint Racer
So, I've rotated my 'new' bearings by hand, and also tried rotating 'empty' bearings.... very very little force differential, although the 'empty' one spins longer. Decided to look up how much drag bearing seals (rubber type) cause:

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How much is 15W, you ask?

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There's 2 bearings, so say 30W. So, the bottom line is that I'm going to try leaving my rubber seals on.
4/100ths of a HP isn't even measurable on a dyno (consistently.)

Perhaps this will start a 'seal is a seal' argument like the 'ratio is a ratio...' LOL

So, fess up -- who leaves the seals on? Who switches only because the herd does? Who has found any measurable differences?
Would be interesting to put 2 new bearings on and do a coasting roll test and see if a difference could be observed.
 
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FWIW, there is a non contact metal shield bearing variant if you want no-contact but OEM seal. Perhaps the 'best of both world'.
Never clean a bearing again, and use it multiple years. (Just don't pressure wash it directly.)

Mechanical Horsepower (US/UK): 1 hp = 745.7 watts (approximately 746 W)

Therefore, a clone with 12.5hp == 9193W. So, your OEM shielded bearings are consuming 0.1-2% of your engine's theoretical output. Contaminated and underlubricated bearings may be costing lots more...
 
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I took the shields off my younger son's rear axle bearings but had to put new ones in this year as he has a habit of off-roading! He's been much better this year however staying on the pavement LOL
 
I remove my seals on the front of my karts. Because we have a premier and it has dust shields. But we didn't have dust shields I'd leave them in or just remove the inner shield
 
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