I wish we could do a archive search about plasti-gage from about 8 years ago. The 'top hands' at the time were really rough on anyone using plastigage. They insisted that all bearing clearances should be measured with inside micrometers or snap-gages.
Dad always used plastigage and got along fine. I used snap gages and plastigage just as a comparison on my 261 and my readings were almost identical, so for the effort, plastigage wins. I am not building 10,000 rpm race engines, but I've built a lot of diesels and have had NO bearing clearance problems using plastigage.
I have always heard that if you change rod bolts that you should have the rods resized. I cannot personnally affirm or refute this on gas engines. I have not changed rod bolts on the ones I have overhauled, but again, I was not building a 10,000 rpm race motor. On John Deere diesel engines, rod bolts are tightened using a torque-turn method. Rod bolts are tightened to something like 90 ft/lbs and then the bolt is turned another 1/4 turn. There is no nut on a diesel, the threads for the bolt to mate with are cut into the connecting rod. This stretches the rod bolt which means the rod bolt cannot be reused. BTW the same torque-turn method is used on John Deere head bolts also.
On the gas engines I have built, I used the green plastigage.
