[ace.cafe]

Good news - we managed to source the 3 crankshaft bearings locally at 30 % of the cost and better quality - for all 3 about 50 US Dollars.

Be very very careful with buying bearings.
The bearing market is saturated with fakes that appear to be real, and are sold to unwitting bearing distributors.
Every time I read a story about how "cheap" somebody got a set of bearings that are somehow retailed at well below factory wholesale cost, I cringe.

[Roeland]

Ace,
The bearings are NSK & IKO, both made in Japan; all purchased from a reputable country wide dealer. I'm not sure about IKO, but in my books NSK is rather good?

[Roeland]

Bearing numbers:
1. TAF 354520 (IKO needle roller bearing)
2. 6305 ZZC3E NS7S 304 (NSK ball bearing)
3. NU 305 EWC3 (NSK cylindrical roller bearing)

[ace.cafe]

They should be good if they are genuine.
 

[Roeland]

They are all tested during the production run and carry a guarantee.

[ace.cafe]

They are all tested during the production run and carry a guarantee.

That's good.

[Roeland]

Ace, we considered sourcing a separate big end bearing with outer race but the engineering workshop recommends changing the entire conrod - even without checking it? Hence we ordered one with the European bearing. Thanks

[ace.cafe]

Ace, we considered sourcing a separate big end bearing with outer race but the engineering workshop recommends changing the entire conrod - even without checking it? Hence we ordered one with the European bearing. Thanks

Okay, well I don't know their reasoning, but I guess they have some reason.
Anyway, I think that the one with the European bearing is a stock conrod with a race in it, so I don't fully understand what they mean, but I am not going to second-guess them. They have their reasons. Maybe they don't have the facility to do the installation of the race and the precision honing for clearance.