Ok, so I got to taking the crank puller, muffler, oil pump housing and gears. The gear teeth are fine but have some minor scratches, hairline around the edges. The old gears spun freely inside the housing with every once in a while sticking a bit then rotating again. I pulled the housing and the gears, they feel gritty compared to the new pump. I looked into the engine to see the cam. The cam slit is rounded out which is not good at all Evil or Very Mad . I checked the drive tang on the top gear and noticed the edges where ground down at a slant, but just the edges. So I said what the flip, lets put the new pump in there just for shits and giggles. I hammered in the pump housing (used a wooden block) and said a prayer right before I put in the top gear. It doesnt spin freely and definately keeps in sync with the cam... but it has some play. From the outside circumference on the top gear at the edge of the teeth, it will rotate about 3mm then stop and wont move, I can then turn it backwards 3mm and then it will stop, so there is some play.
What are yalls thoughts about this as Im pretty stupified by it.
To me this means that this engine will not be very reliable, it may work now, but come several months, the cam slit will eventually finish carving out making it useless. This engine is not going to stay with the car forever. I just had it rebuilt about 2 years ago and the engine has sub 10k on it as it was built by a friend. This engine is just used to putter around town on times I feel like it (id love to use it everyday) but I keep my truck for my daily beater). I want a much bigger engine, and the only thing this means is I start saving for that engine now and buy it when I have the money, or continue using the car in its unreliable state and fix it up good and save for the engine later (new paint coat, underside coating, new race seats, finishing the suspension, small interior details...)
Kinda at a big cross roads here, any ideas would help Crying or Very sad