can you replace bearings just by removing oil pan and or what can you get to through oil pan? Is this a typical problem? rod bearings?

 

If you can get the oil pan completely out of the way, then YES you can replace the rod bearings without pulling the engine. However, if your rod bearings are bad, then you problably havea crankshaft that should be resurfaced. Thus the engine needs to come out anyways. Unless your just going to put new bearing in and pawn the vehicle off onto an unsuspecting victim.

 

If the damage is bad enough you will need to have crank turned as already mentioned, but also if you do go ahead and take the engine out and do get crank turned you may want to look into haveing connecting rods resized as they may be mishaped too if the bearing is damaged bad enough or if it has spun. also be sure to use your plasti gauge before installing the main or rod bearings to check oil clearence.