I have read a few times that if the pistons don't go first it can beat the hell out of the bearings.

I spun a bearing recently and my a/f was peaking at 15.0 the richest it got was @ 13.5. Is this lean enough to do damage and if so would the stock pistons be able to take more abuse than the bearings?

 

Lean induced detonation kills bearings, but a lean mixture (without detonation) usually just melts parts instead.

 

Hmmmm. Have to ask Bryan if he can tell by my chart if it was pinging. PCM was pulling some timing sometimes.

 

pcm pulling timing means it was reading some detonation and responding by pulling timing.