Ok, small update as I need a break from thinking about work stuff.
Short block is in at the machine shop. I checked with them last week and they had stripped the short block. Very unusual wear on the cylinders. Looks like really bad piston slap kind of wear. Measurements hadn't been taken yet, so there is no conclusion yet.
My personal conclusion is somewhere along the line, the holes became to big for the slugs. I'm drawing my own conclusion, but hopefully the machine shop can just find another block and re-machine it to my current rotating assembly. That's probably going to be the cheapest solution. More to come on this.
No point in sweating it. Friends and relatives of mine are being diagnosed with cancer these last few weeks, and I know they would much rather have my problems.
I have my J&S Safeguard. Its too cold to want to be in the garage, or I'd be looking for a hole in the firewall to run the wiring already. I don't think it would have worked very well anyway with all that piston slap going on.
I ordered a new oil pump, as the last one is clearly trash from all the different metal bits running thru it. I thought about a high volume pump, but there are risks with to much oil flowing (running the pan dry(might be a wives tale as at 60psi the pump dumps the excess right to the pan anyway)). The stock oil pan can't support a HV pump anyway, as the bottom of the pump will not allow the oil pan to go on properly (A hv oil pump is longer). So, the next best thing is a Melling 10687 race pump. I also read about blueprinting a pump to make sure it runs optimally.
I found a thread over on sbftech (See below for quote) on how to blueprint. The only thing I will do is check the gears heights to the bottom of the pump plate. I'll make both gears the same height, and the bottom pump plate to gear measurement .006. Should be easy. Who knows, the 'racing' pump might already be extremely close. I don't have to worry about a freeze plug as the 10687 pump has a screw in plug.
Here's my shameless cut/paste on pump blueprinting.
"Just so happens I have a book that says the following about blue-printing a pump. It's called Mustang Performance by William R Mathis. Hopefully the info is not too out-dated or anything but here goes; everything here is going to be copied directly from his book.
Step 1. Completely disassemble the pump, inspecting every piece for unusual machining marks, burrs or casting irregularities. This includes the removal of the plug that secures the oil pressure spring (pry it out or drill a small hole and use a slide hammer to remove it)
Step 2. Secure the pump housing in a vice with soft jaws, and carefully radius and blend the oil port with a Dremel or porting tool. The port-to-block exit should be ported out to the diameter of the gasket.
Step 3. Mic the thickness of the two rotors and lap the thickest piece on 180-grit wet/dry sandpaper until the two pieces are matched in thickness.
Step 4. Install the rotors in the housing and check the clearances as follows: rotor to rotor .003" to .006"; rotor to housing end .002" to .004"; rotor to housing, internal .006" to .011".
Use a rotary flapper wheel to increase clearance on the inside of the outside rotor to increase clearance on housing for the outside rotor or to increase clearance on housing for the outside rotor. To decrease clearance on rotor to housing end, lap housing on 180 grit wet/dry sandpaper. Do the same to increase clearance except sand the rotors. Take your tim, and check clearances often. It's a lot easier to take more off than to add it back. Make sure the sandpaper is on a flat surface and use generous amounts of water or cutting oil.
Step 5. Once the proper clearances are set, use a dremel or high-speed rotary file and put a slight chamfer on the edges of the rotors, both top and bottom.
Step 6. If you have the bucks and the time have the rotors coated with one of the slick processes provided by HPC or Poly Dyn. This will significantly improve the life of the oil pump. If you are a road racer this is particularly important to you.
Step 7. Lap the inside surface of the end plate on 280 grit wet/dry sandpaper secured to a flat surface. Alternately, valve lapping compound on a flat steel plate or thick piece of glass can be used. It is very important to get this piece smooth and flat.
Step 8. Clean all pieces thoroughly with Tide soap and a bottle brush. Flush all pieces with plenty of water, then rinse with clean var-sol or spray with a water displacing fluid like WD-40.
Step 9. Reinstall the stock oil pressure spring. Shimming the end with two (2) 3/8" SAE washers. This will bring the oil pressure up to 100 PSI cold. A new plug should be installed. These are generally available at any auto parts store that carries Dorman Freeze Plugs.
Step 10. Reassemble the rotors, coating each generously with petroleum jelly. This will ensure immediate priming.
Step 11. Install the end plate using grade 12 bolts that have been drilled for safety wire. Safety wire the bolt heads.
Step 12. Clean the pump-to-block mating surfaces with lacquer thinner. Install the pump to block with a new gasket using grade 12 studs with nuts and bolts that have been drilled for safety wire. When installing the oil pump be sure to include a new competition oil pump driveshaft. This is cheap insurance against high-rpm failure.
The oil pump driveshaft has a retainer disc on the distributor end that prevents the shaft from being pulled out of the pump when the distributor is removed. Failure to observe the correct installation procedure (retainer end into distributor shaft) will become apparent the first time you attempt to remove the distributor and the shaft takes a bath in the oil pan. When the pump and shaft have been properly fastened, recheck the pump shaft one last time and then safety wire the pump to the block nuts and bolts."
