I'm one who drills the thrust as standard procedure
I drill a .041 ish through both the bearing and the block then open up the bearing face a little or make a cup. I guess you could banana grove
I also chamfer the parting lines toward the rear
the oil always wants to go out the front of the thrust in a stick shift car
but I had customers loose thrusts in automatics
one reason Mopar went to the wider thrusts which should be used if block is later vintage
I like the dead blow tap method to set the caps thrusts
glad you did not need a line bore
did you thread chase or bottom tap the holes?
