Healey 100-4 NOS Main Bearing Concerns

[mwagon]

Received NOS set of Vandervell main bearings, but surface finish color has some dull grey areas & the remainder typical semi shiny silver. All were well coated with packing grease, so I'm not sure if this is a concern. I can't feel any ridge or change in surface finish when running finger from dull silver surface to shiny.
Other concern is that all main caps are all the same width accept one. The rear main area can accept a wider Cap, but maybe this is a packing error, that there should have been two wider Caps included for the rear.
Any one with experience with both questions?

 

[Randy Forbes]

Lead is soft and porous, so it *may* have absorbed more of the preservative grease in some areas than others. Gentle cleaning in something like lacquer thinner should help to see a more uniform finish; I wouldn't recommend soaking them though, just some very gentle rubbing with nothing more abrasive than a paper shop towel.

I spent most of yesterday putting a "uniform" (dry-film lubricant polymer coating) finish on these bearing shells yesterday.

Six (6) car-sets of BMW 3.2 Litre S-54 connecting rod bearings:

 

[mwagon]

Thanks Randy. Here's a like to a couple photos, but what you described seems like my situation.

https://s1241.photobucket.com/albums/gg516/morevert/

 

[Randy Forbes]

Bearing manufacturers always proclaim (in the paperwork supplied with the bearings) that you don't have to remove the protective coating, but I've never yet assembled an engine, that I didn't polish the bearings smooth before installation, so that's some hundred times, and counting!