Well, that bearing really doesnt look terrible(I've seen much worse), but It doenst take much to make it knock. Oil starvation is the main culprit of damaged bearings, so my guess is just that. I forsee 2 things: 1- the lenght of time with oil outof the pickup tube and oil pump- 2- the viscosity of the oil that was used. 15W-50 is pretty heavy oil. An idea is that it took too long to get oil into the bearings, since the entire oil system had to prime and then pump the really thick oil. It doenst take but seconds of poor lubrication on a bearing to damage it. How does the crank jorunal look? At least if that ok, then its not a big deal to fix. I run the Mopar bearings also, and have had no issues with them. Used normal Dino oil for break in, and switched to MObil 1 synth, 5w-30 after 3000 miles. I *highly* doubt switching to synthetic oil actually did that. The motor was fully broken in at over 1000 miles. The bearings really dont "break in" so to speak anyway, its mostly for piston ring/cyldinder wall break in. Oil starvation most likely. Stupid Q, but you did have proper torque on the rod bolts, correct?

13.5 @108 MPH-2.2 60ft(stupid FWD!)
S16G @ 18 PSI/FMIC/Running on MegaSquirt II (Now with sequential
fuel injection)
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-1998 Mitsubishi Eclipse RS-T- "Toy"
-1992 Plymouth Laser Turbo AWD(SOLD)
-2000 Honda CR-V(daily)