Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

I just got my silver M90 about a week ago, and i also have a bit of slop. It does appear to run fine however. With that said I do plan to replace the bearings as I am unsure of the quality. China has thousands of bearing manufactures, some very, very good and some not so good. I will probably go with Boca ceramic bearings., as they are a known quality.

Of all the roller and needle bearings that I have replaced over the years, I have never seen one that used oil for a lubricant. They have all been packed with grease. I see where many have added oil cups to the mains and as 70Rcode  stated you might or might not get any oil to the needles.  I plan to pack the Bocas with "Superlube" synthectic grease as that has worked well over the years on my trailer wheel bearings. I get thousands, if not tens of thousands of miles on well packed bearings,I would think one could go a long time with these small engines with grease packed mains.

Am I missing something about using oil on the mains?