To reiterate, DRIVE NO MORE. Heck, if you need to get it somewhere else for repair, have it towed. Do not drive, do not idle.

If you have front-to-back in-axis movement in your crank, you may be able to replace the thrust bearings. If you have any sort of side-to-side out-of-axis movement, your bearings are entirely shot, and I'd be worried about the crank (and perhaps the connecting rods and main journals themselves!)

I is *possible* (but difficult) to drop the oil pan with the engine installed to diagnose the engine, but you may as well just yank the motor. If you have more than just a little non-rotational movement, you'll want to tear that motor all the way apart to clean the metal out of it. Best case (and somewhat unlikely) scenario: you need new bearings, and can re-use everything else. Worst case scenario: you find out what else is damaged, add up the bill, and find out that it is not worth fixing. FWIW, taking an engine apart goes quite quickly, and should not drive up your diagnostic cost too much -- reassembling an engine takes considerably more time and more care.

Randii