[Walt Fricke]

Mike - I think the answers are no and no.

I could see the possibility of making a set of go/no go gauges you could stick in through the spigots to check the crank. You'd have to be pretty good at fabricating something like that out of flat stock with a very precise slot in the end.

On the other hand, don't most crank journals stay within tolerance for a long time absent being run without oil, or with very dirty oil? If a rod let go, you are probably best off splitting the case so you can clean out the debris. The bearing on that rod may well have almost evaporated, with lots of small stuff in places you don't want it to be. That may have left that journal looking abused, warranting at least polishing it?

I can think of a similar way to measure bolt stretch, but it would be so tedious as not to be worth it (if even possible). The free bolt length is, of course, easy - measure before installing. But a bunch of gauges (because the new bolts vary in length)? ARP has a substitute torque spec method, which ought to be adequate, as not as definitive as measuring stretch.

Pulling the heads off is the biggest labor time consumer of a rebuild, at least if you have to deal with the valves and have to pull the rockers. Once you are that far, the extra time for splitting the case is pretty small.