Short answer is: No I had to remove material and yes it was out of round.
The long answer is: The Alpha big end that I used was NOS.. as in very old and had the standard OD on the outer race. Since that wouldn't allow me the option of honing the rod big end eye to make it round, I figured (there once was a man from Nantucket) I would just press in the new outer race and hope for the best. In an effort to get the new outer race in straight, I machined up a round piece of MS with a hole big enough to accept the old outer race while supporting the rod. I drove the old race out only by about 1/8 and then put the rod in the oven at 200f. The new outer race went into the freezer. The new outer race was then pressed in, using a flat piece of steel on top. The thought being that when using the new outer race to press out the old one, the old one would help guide the new one in straight. As for rods being out of round, if they are inherently weak in that area, then when you hone the old rod round and press in a new outer race who's to say it won't go out of round again. Maybe in some cases, if it's minor you can ignore the out of round rod and just deal with it after the race is pressed in. Anyway, after it was pressed in, the race was slightly out of round plus it needed material removed to get it to correct size. Because I did it this way, I don't know how much the rod would have been out of round. There is no doubt some luck was involved given this was my first one, but definitely happy about the way it turned out. It's round and it fits. Again, I was surprised how well the "hone" worked. An old rod and valve lapping compound was used to true it up. The only painful part was cleaning it repeatedly between grades of compound. As long as the hone was kept snug in the race, there was no problem moving the rod back and forth in perfect alignment. No rocking or bell end. I just let the rod run up against the bed of the lathe.