Rod Bearing Questions

[Josh Brockman]

I am in the process of changing my rod bearings in the SE-R I bought for
$1200, due to a mild knock (I was hoping to get at least until summer out of
the motor). Anyhow, I have some questions. I noticed the old bearings that I
took out were non-nissan, but I didn't think much of that until later in the
job - here's the weird part. I bought a full set of all three bearing
grades, so I could use plastigage to get the clearances right (by trial and
error with increasingly tighter bearings) . I was just finishing up #2, when
I noticed that I could move the rod side to side on the crank pin a bit (not
front to back, i know that is normal, but side to side). Anyhow, this really
confused me since I was getting readings that were in spec with the
plastigage. Is it possible that the plastigage could give a correct
clearance reading even if the bearings are not correctly sized? My worry is
that the crank may have been ground at some point, hence the non-nissan
bearings. The markings on the bearings I pulled from the car are as follows:

            0.25
ACL

    2960
  11N096

That's a rough ASCII rendering of the placement of the markings as well. Can
anyone decipher that? Do I have a regrind bearing here? Anything you could
tell me about that would be very helpful. Especially where to find more of
these regring bearings, if that's what I have. I need to get it back on the
road, even if the motor is already doomed. I can't really afford to get a
new motor until I absolutely have to (rods perforating the block, etc.)

Thanks for the help..
Josh Brockman
'91 SE-Rs