What is normal engine bearing wear. I put in my 350 and only have about 10 miles on it. I heard some loud knocking noises so I checked for spun bearings. The rod bearings look good, the mains look unusually worn though. They are turning silver already. What is normal wear for like 10 miles.

 

did you measure your clearances? doesn't sound like you did, that'd be first thing i did

 

In 10 miles, they should look brand new, heck, even after 80,000 miles, they should probably look new.

As ede says, you may have had incorrect clearances, or something else amiss in the block or crank.

 

DIRT, METAL shavings from machine work? Just like sandpaper on bearings. I just got my block back from the machine shop, clean? NO, it was degreased and seemed clean, but still a lot of grit from the machine work. Can't use enough soap and water on one. I'm sure glad I didn't have them install cam bearings for me.

 

speaking of cam bearing installation, i was flipping thru the jeg's catalog, and they carry a cam bearing installation tool. costs around 70 bucks or so.

found it.. it's on page 119 of the jeg's christmas catalog, part number 778-66794, sells for $71.99

would something like this be useful?

 

Think you'll be pulling that one back out.
The bearings should show no wear at all.

Loud knocking is bad.:nono:

 

i install my own bearings. don't remember what the tool cost now, it's a off shore copy of a snap on cam bearing installer. shop here charges 25 dollars to install cam bearings, plus they have to clean the block and i have to wait 2 weeks for it. it saves me time and i can make money doing it, or keep my money in my pocket. the big question is can you justify buying one, but for me there's no bad reason to buy tools.

 

I bought mine off of ebay, 34.00. They want 30.00 here to install cam bearings + retail for the bearings. Since I had two blocks needing cam bearings, it was cheaper to buy the tool. Even if I never use it again, I still got it. The one I bought only does small chevys or anything that has the same size bearings.

 

Would main bearings that have too small clearance make a knocking sound. I did not spin any and am still troubleshooting to see where the knocking is coming from.