Hey Fishy, thanks for the advice. From your description it's sounding like I don't want to get mixed up in that kind of repair.
The engine is quite old... I put it in the car 12 years ago intending to pull it out the next year and rebuild it because it didn't make great oil pressure and it had some ticking in the valves. The rebuild never happened and here I am 12 years later still beating on it.
Now it makes some pretty scary noises on start up, almost like the oil pump is losing its prime between starts. The mechanic says it's because it's an old engine with excessive clearances. I was hoping to squeeze a couple more years out of it if I put in a new oil pump, maybe something that pumps at a higher volume.
