I need to take my sump off (again) anyway, and I want to check my engine bearings (main and possibly big end) since I've reason to believe they might be damaged.

Is it best to take the bearing caps off one-at-a-time, examine the shell and journal, then replace and torque-up before doing the next one, or (b) just release the torque on all of the bearing caps and then individually remove each one, check and replace, then tighten and torque them all up, as in the manual?

The manual procedure assumes an engine rebuild, so the block will be the other way up, and the bearing caps won't be supporting the crankshafts weight.

I'm not sure which procedure is less likely to cause distortion with the engine in the car.

Perhaps there's no difference?