For cleaning a block, you really need something a bit heavier than brake cleaner for the first couple of round, a degreaser, I use odor free kerosene generally, though distillate works well and there's a few other commercial degreases too. I'd suggest staying away from water based degreasers, they can be good, but they generally leave no protective film after cleaning, distillate (diesel fuel) is very good in this regard.
When you are ready to assemble, after a few clean outs with that mentioned above then go to something lighter like brake cleaner. I've used commercial type drgreaser in aerosol cans, though more generally I use paint thinners and paper wipes.
When you think you have the all the parts clean, clean them again. No matter how clean you think you have it all, it's never clean enough, but you need to reach a point that's acceptable.
Check the shells are clean on the back and also the block tunnels. The shells are usually supplied with a heavy preserving grease that can be difficult to budge, this is where I find paint thinners and the paper wipes particularly good.
Before fitting the shells, you need to measure the bearing tunnels for roundness and in the case on the Mains, that they are aligned. Although you had your crank ground, you need to check it for size and roundness as well as hourglassing and barrelling. Check everything, assume nothing.
When you fit the shells, they can shave on the hard edges of the bearing tunnels, so be careful of that swarf, clean it away. I would suggest checking the nip on the bearing shells before fitting the crank. Fit the shells in their respective tunnels then without the crank and be sure they are dry on their backs and in the tunnels, torque up all the fasteners, then back one off, the cap should then spring apart leaving a gap, which you can then measure with feeler gauges or a DTI. You need this to be in the range of 0,003 to 0.008". It's this nip that holds the bearing shells tight from spinning and also ensures they take up the right shape.
When assembling the crank in to the block, first time around, leave on set of Main Shells out, but otherwise assemble in the normal way, though leave the cap off the bearing that has no shells. Then using your DTI, position that on the journal and slowing spin the crank while feeling it that it's smooth and you need even torque from your hand to spin the crank, check the DTI while doing this, it should be rock steady, any indication of movement here shows the crank has a bend in it or it was not ground correctly. You can also do an initial crank end float check here, you can do it with feeler gauges though a DTI is a better method.
It usually take me around 3 to 6 hours to fit up a crank and do all the checks and make all the corrections. This here is a quick overview but isn't exhaustive.
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