rod bearing wear

depends on what type of bearing you are talking about and brand. typically most people now run clevite v series (hard) bearings. some people still run the soft m series bearings, but i wouldn't recommend it. they just have too much of a tendency to try to delaminate. i had one try to come apart on me in testing on the fc, now i've got all the bearings v series.

if the bearing is wiping, in the sense that there is a fine ledge of metal you can feel with your fingernail, that probably came from a lack of oil at some point in the run. check the level of oil you are running, and if it is loosing oil pressure at the end of the run. if it is slightly 'shinier' than the rest of the bearing, some times that indicates the rod was slightly over torqued. recheck the calibration of your torque wrench. the latter can be a minor problem, depending on the degree.

also, another thing to consider is how many runs the bearing had on it? the guy i learned from, tom conway not only had us check the width at the bottom, but the end to end distance. if a bearing gets below 2.505 it looses it's tension in the rod end. if it has been beat out more than .005 (clevites typically come out of the box .838 - .840)(measure after dressing babbit) throw it away and richen that cylinder. if that wear is on every cylinder, richen the main and/or take timing out.

you could be talking about the bearing rolling the babbit, but i dont think that's what you're referring to. the v series dont do this as bad, but the m bearings need to be dressed up after every run. scrape the rolled babbit off, then measure the bearing to make sure it is within .005 of original width.

another rule of thumb is bearings are cheap and cranks are expensive. if you have any doubt, throw it out. i've probably thrown away quite a few bearings that were 'runable' and may not have caused a problem. i've also never had a car i've done bottom end on kick a rod due to a bearing failure (knocking on wood).