I thought about this all night and decided to remove #7-8 rod caps and inspect them. Some of you probably already figured this out, but I found #7 bearing lower half in the upper position and the lower in the top. Rod bearing #8 was correct. This was the whole problem with no side clearance. After switching the bearing halves, the side clearance was correct with .012″ clearance (spec. is .010-012″).

The new Clevite 77 High Performance rod bearings do not have the chamfer on one edge any more. They are now cut off where the chamfer use to be and the part number is changed from “H” to “HN” (narrow). Now you have to read the small writing on the back of each bearing half to make sure you are installing it correct. I got 14 out of 16 right. Had I not taken the side clearance readings, I would have had trouble. I had two sets of old readings to compare them with (my journal).