The hydrodynamic bearings could suffer critical damages operating in contaminated environments that cause machine breakdown. In such hard operating conditions, hydrodynamic bearings with grooved journals are less sensitive to damage compared to plain bearings. The wear resistance of the grooved journal bearings is several times greater than that of smooth journal bearings. Contaminants existing in the oil film are moved out from the bearing clearance by the groove created on the journal surface. The presence, shape, and geometry of the groove strongly influence the bearings performance. The aim of this article is to study the selected static characteristics of bearings consisting of a journal with the helical groove on its surface. The static characteristics were determined based on the flow simulation in the oil clearance. A three-dimensional, adiabatic model of the oil flow was assumed. The oil flow was described with the Navier-Stokes continuity and energy equations. The equation system was solved by the finite volume method. The numerical model of the flow was verified experimentally on a test stand. It has been established that the grooved journal application leads to a decrease of load capacity in whole range of eccentricity and for all examined clearances. The oil flow rate increase was mainly observed due to spiral groove presence on the shaft.