ok well this car has 80k miles... and as far as im concerned this engine ran fine with only small ticking which could be a rod bearing, but most likely was a valve issue with my cylinder heads like i mentioned to phil.
all the bearings had normal wear (exept for one which has a pretty deep scratch on both halfs of the bearing, presumably from the dirt it accumulated after sitting.) and none spun. so i would assume replacing them with standard size bearings will be acceptible. i'm going to pull off my oil pan since i didnt torque the bolts down on the gasket, and im going to remove a couple rod caps and check to see if theres any more scratches on the new bearings or on the crank, because i turned the engine over a good deal by hand, so if theres any damage to the crank, it will surely show itself on the new rod bearings. but i doubt it.