"i'll never use a lip seal again after having two fail".
famous last words of mine! well, i DID end up using a lip seal again. i could not 'roll' the graphite seal in with the crank installed, (engine in car, oil pan only off this time in car)

so here's how it went. we couldn't get the graphite to roll in, tried several different tools. i like them, have one in my gto that had a pesky leak, and it was the only seal that worked. (engine out 6 times for that one!)
there we were, car apart, seal wouldn't fit, so we started checking the lip out again. i installed the block half, greased the crank, and rotated it. i had a nice witness mark all around, with it just barely riding the 'ridges' and 'smooth' section of the crank. the witness mark was literally half on half off. i lightly rtv'd it all around, spun it in 1/4" offset, just a small dab of rtv on the seams at the outside edge only, and rtv'd the side seals and perimeter of seal cap, and on it went......

oh, the one big change, i used a mancini rear main bearing, the one with v grooves diverting oil to the front of the motor. it is a full groove bearing, not just half groove like the clevites i have in there now. plastigauged for clearance, looked good, so in it went. one other thing, my oil hole was really enlarged in the upper half of that rear bearing that came in the motor, and that main oil feed was the one that was sleeved due to porosity in the block. it has full 3/8"s tube diameter on that main. so, i left the stock oil feed size hole in the mancini bearing, hoping to maybe 'control' oil flow to that main a wee bit. we hoped that the oil diversion, smaller feed hole, and a proper install, might pan out for us this time. i was running out of ideas, so we felt it was time to think outside the box for fun......

all buttoned up, have driven the car for 300 miles on these latest mods, and the result is:

FINALLY A DRY REAR MAIN!!!!!!!!!

very happy about this latest turn of events. more to come.......