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Please apply a sealant because if you look at it ( the piece that holds the rope seal)it is made out of aluminum and sits in a machined groove in the block. I had one to deal with in a 51 Merc with a leaking rear seal and no sealant was used. The rope wasnt leaking. The clearance between the aluminum retainer and the block was where the oil was coming from. A miserable situation because when I attempted to apply sealant and roll in the retainer into the block with the rope seal, the rope created pressure that scr*ped the d!mn sealant off. To get it to stop leaking I ended up loosening the main bearing bolts to let the rear part of the crank droop down to get enough sealant up in there. Use brake clean to remove any oil in the block, blow the groove out clean and dry, install the rope seal in the retainer and push it in as hard as you can by rolling a pipe or shaft back and forth while pushing down hard to get as much of the rope down in the retainer to give a better seal and longer sealing rope life. Back in the day they would have used gasket sh*llac or as we always called it "gasket goo" and if you were fussy a piece of cotton string with the goo as a bit of a packing and now you can use a good quality silicone sealer. Ideally this is done when the engine is out and sitting upside down in an engine stand WITH the crankshaft OUT. Then you can apply the sealant, place the retainer into the block and push and roll the rope into the retainer with as much rope installed reducing the amount of excess rope you have to trim off, then carefully lay the crankshaft down into the main bearings with the bearings and sealing rope lubricated of course. It's not the bottom main bearing cap that's the fly in the ointment. It's that seal retainer insert!! Some engines I have worked on in the past actually have holes drilled on the sides of the main bearing cap. The gasket set comes with a little bundle or piece of cotton string pitched into the box with the set. Now the funny part is you bolt the main bearing cap in place, give the proper torque to the bolts, grab the string and start stuffing! You poke a bit of string in the hole, take a pin punch and a hammer and hammer the string down in the hole, stuff some more and keep hammering until the hole is filled up tight with string like stuffing a Thanks Giving Turkey 
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