Nick... it's evident from your previous question about the engine being locked up, that you have no engine building experience and this question confirms it. I assume that you have invested a lot of money in parts and machine work and it would be bad to mess all that up by a shoddy assembly job. I suggest that you find a competent mechanic and let him assemble the engine. BUT to answer your question.....you will need to find out the clearance specs for the main and rod bearings. Then purchase several sticks of the appropriate sized plastigage. Remove all the main bearing caps and clean all the oil or assembly lube off the bearing and crank. If you put any lube on the upper bearing half, then the crank needs to come out and that needs to be cleaned off. With crank in place and dry, lay a 1 strip of plastigage on each crank journal parallel with crankshaft and slightly off center. Install all main bearing caps and torque to spec. DO NOT rotate crankshaft while plastigage is in place. Remove caps and using the paper that the plastigage was in, measure the width of the crushed plastigage strip. If within specs, you're ok....if not...find out why. Do the rod bearings the same way, 2 at a time and dont rotate crank with the plastigage in place
At least, the oil pan must be removed and you will need a feeler gage to check the gap.
in most cases you can do the repair in your truck or car by removing the oil pan. but if you are gonna check them you might as well replace them . check for shaving in your oil pan . might be an indication of failing bearings
It depends on what you want to check for. If you feel the bearing are loose or worn out it is better to have a place that does engine rebuilding do it but it will cost. If you want to DIY then you have to drain the oil, drop the pan and disconnected all the piston bearing connected to the crank shaft. take it to a machine shop and have them use a micrometer to check for being truly round and the correct size which you will have to find out from the manufacture first. To tell you the truth it is not worth the time and trouble besides you don't know how long the car will be laid up.
in most cases the engine needs to be removed
