I made a jig to cut down the width of the cork strips to .350". I angled the cut about 5 degrees and created a trapezoidal cross section. The narrow width ended up about .330" with the top width about .350". I set the strips up such that the narrower strip face entered the groove first, and the wider acute angled edge wedged into the bearing housing. When I stuffed them up into the main bearing housing grooves, I found that between the housing bolts, the strips were a snug fit and the ends of the strips beyond the housing bolts nestled into the groove pretty well. I had to adjust their position a couple of times to make sure that the strip was centered along the groove and just butted the engine block at the ends. The last inch or so of the strip ends wouldn't stay in the groove, but they still lined up with it. So theoretically, if the pan was lined up directly beneath the bearing housing grooves - fore and aft and port to stbd - the strips should be guided right into the grooves at the ends. Additionally, the lubricating qualities of the silicone gasket maker would aid the alignment of the strips. This is theoretical only because you can't see what is going on in there while you are closing up all of the gaps. It seemed to.make sense anyway!
To avoid having the pan cut the strips, I filed a small, probably .020" radius at the top corners of both semicircular mating surfaces (where the horizontal pan joint meets the edge of the semicircle). This eliminates the sharp edge of the corners, and reduces possible damage to the strip ends as they are being compressed and pushed upward during assembly.
I made four 5/16"x24 tpi. studs by removing the heads of 1-1/2" bolts and inserted one into the block adjacent each corner bolt hole.
With the strips smeared up with silicone on the top, ends, and sides, and pushed into position, with the ends a bit outside the grooves, the bottom flange of the block was beaded with Permatex, with an extra dab up in the corner at the strip ends. The side gaskets were slipped over the studs and stuck to the silicone beads. Then the pan flanges and semicircular joints were beaded with silicone. I put the pan under the engine and used some wood blocks to hold it when I pushed it up over the studs leaving about a 1/2" gap between the side flanges. Then I grabbed the floor jack and some more wood and slowly raised the pan up to about a 1/4" gap and inserted the long corner bolts finger tight. Lastly, I pulled the jack out, added all but 4 of the bolts and took everything up evenly. The studs served to guide the pan up nicely and keep the pan from shifting. When silicone started coming out of the joints I took out the studs and put the rest of the bolts in. After about a half hour I closed up the joints and torqued all the bolts.
Hopefully it won't leak. Haha!