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With the old oil splash systems, prior to aluminum foil & pastigage, millions upon millions of Babbitt bearings were adjusted on huge & small vintage industrial & steam boat steam engines & vintage internal combustion engines all over the World as follows:
1. Wipe off only the "excess" oil in Babbitt bearings & on crankshaft.
2. Adjust bearing clearance one at a time by carefully removing & installing shims from both sides.
3. Bearings are correctly adjusted when:
a) There is absolutely no up & down motion "felt"; &,
b) The crankshaft turns freely with extremely little or no binding; &,
c) There is easy movement from side to side between the crankshaft & the bearing with no binding when moved by hand.
4. Also, check each bearing by slowly rotating the crankshaft just in case the crank shaft is egg shaped -- if egg shaped, have crankshaft re-ground.
5. Provide final tightening on all bearings according to torque specs & check again to insure easy rotation, no up & down movement, but easy side movement by hand.
Out of curiosity, the last Model A engine I put together was the first one that I tried testing bearing clearance with "fresh" non-hardened Plastigage from an auto parts store -- both the mains & the connecting rods were "right-on".
I then threw away the Plastigae & will never try testing with same again.
Others may have different ideas & different methods, but through varied experience with vintage oil splashing system engines with Babbitt bearings, the above works.
WD-40 can remove Plastigage which is difficult to remove from Babbitt bearings.