i'm building a 500 tall deck medium effort stroker for a friend, and the kit provided me with clevite ms-1795 v main bearings. according to summit they're vandervells, or a reasonable facsimile. what do you guys think about these? they're half grooved, which i don't care for, but if you guys say they're good, i'll use 'em. shouldn't see more than 7000 rpm.

7000 rpm??? swap them for full groove.

Those are soft bearings that are especially made for racing. Don't let the half groove shouldn't scare you. It's a good bearing. They will not last as long however. I use that bearing for mild supercharged engines because of the embedability.

this engine will definitely be race only. these bearings are expensive, that's for sure! i have no experience with half grooved bearings in a race application, hence my paranoia.

For a normally aspirated RB bracket engine where I'd want the bearings to outlast the rings, I'd use the MS2233HG main bearing, Calico coated.

I'm not a fan of V series bearings.
i'd recommend the clevite MS1277HG if it's a later block that will accept the larger thrust surface.