I have a guy who took my 400sbc to a shop and says "every bearing in the motor is bad"
Not spun just "down to the brass" everything needs to be replaced.

Now this is the same motor I put 10,000 miles on it in the last 4 years. The thing ran just fine, it ran strong. Idled fine. So you can see my skepticism in everything being bad.

Would it be normal for the motor to run fine and yet have all these "bad bearings"

Also from other engines I've seen, bearings get wear at the top and bottom where the pistons push on the rods crank the hardest because they are changing direction. Isn't some amount of this normal even on a good used engine?

 

Sure, perfectly normal.

 

Why did you pull it and bring it to him? How was the oil pressure at a hot idle?

 

It's not normal if you have adequate oil pressure and use a quality synthetic oil.

Symptoms would be low oil pressure and noise.

 

Oil pressure has the needle pointing straight up on stock gauge. You can have spun bearings and still have great oil pressure so that doesn't really help.

I don't trust the guy. I know the motor ran in the car fine for 4 years and yet it "has bad bearings and the crank needs to be turned 10 under."
To me these two things don't add up.
How can something be bad and yet run fine. By definition it contradicts itself.

 

"Spun" bearings is very rare, and very destructive. You won't have good oil pressure with truly "spun" bearings.

What you should get is measurements of all bearings and journals.

 

so you had the motor taken to a shop? and it was torn down and the bearing are super worn? if so, go take a look for yourself and if you can see it then they need to be replaced. or is this guy telling you this without tearing into the motor? cuz he could be trying to scam you

 

Since the engine is out, now's the time. If the crank and bearings show signs of wear, I'd have it turned and get new bearings. Do you really want to put it in and find out he was right a few months down the road? I've regretted lots of things I didn't do right the first time, but none that I did.