Insert Bearings

I spent most of the fall of 2008 fitting the connecting rod bearings to the crankshaft. I coud not find new bearings from the major manufacturers, Clevite and Federal Mogul. I would like to have a new set of bearings (number 12 187). The ID is 3.5 inches and they are about 3 and 1/4 inches wide. I bought brass shim stock, 7 thousands of an inch thick and cut 30 shims. To make the bolt holes in the shim without tearing them up, I clamped the shim in between 2 halves of the connecting rod and drilled though the bolt holes in the rod.. The design of the bearings is different from the babbited rods that I have worked with. To fit these bearings correctly the insert shells would be fit to a 3.5 inch mock up journal. Then the rod cap shimmed to fit the journal. I collected all the inserts that I could find from the 2 engines. Four of five sets of shells were destoyed from overheating and when the Whitcomb engine siezed. I matched up the remaining bearing shells by striations in the inside and outside of the shells. After pushing the pistons out of the blocks I numbered the rods and pistons trying to keep the pistons in the same holes that they came out of. I put the bearings in the rods and number the shells to match the rods.