RTV removal, new oil pump and....

[Schrade]

Personally, I'd put the stick in 'P', and start backing out bolts, regardless of who's going to pay. But that's just me - I never got a nickel for hackin', so I don't know diddly-squat.

But if you're gonna' keep gas going through it, pull the valve covers, and watch how much [oil] comes up at each lifter. With low pressure, it's not gonna' be messy like it should be with normal pressure.

I don't know if you can check flow to the roller/chain...

I doubt that the journals and passages are fouled/blocked. The screen and the filter probably got the dirty jam. That's probably not the problem; but the starvation that happened before then...

 

[djsroknrol]

That's why I left it at the garage last night....I really wanted to drive it on my birthday today.

We never took the shop up on its offer of fixing it and there's a call in to see if the offer is still open. If they do the bottom end at another location, I'm good with it. The only problem is transportation; they have to get it and bring it back...170 miles one way to Vegas for me with no vehicle is rather difficult.

If the offer is off the table, We decided to pull it ourselves and let the hungry lawyer friend in Vegas do their thing on them

A new crank and bearing set isn't a fortune and within days we could drop it back in. I wondered what I'd do during my work furlough......:L

 

[boomdriver]

That's why I left it at the garage last night....I really wanted to drive it on my birthday today.

We never took the shop up on its offer of fixing it and there's a call in to see if the offer is still open. If they do the bottom end at another location, I'm good with it. The only problem is transportation; they have to get it and bring it back...170 miles one way to Vegas for me with no vehicle is rather difficult.

If the offer is off the table, We decided to pull it ourselves and let the hungry lawyer friend in Vegas do their thing on them

A new crank and bearing set isn't a fortune and within days we could drop it back in. I wondered what I'd do during my work furlough......:L

Well, the low oil pressure is from the oil leaking out of the loose main bearings. It gets worse as it warms up. Thats not going to get any better with thicker oil or STP. Those products are designed to slow oil burning in worn rings and valve guides....not replace lost bearing material. The thing about the main bearings is that they are under constant load, so the looser they get the more unbalanced the engine becomes, forcing loads on other parts. If you install a crank kit soon, that will extend the life of the rest of the rotating assembly. The valve guides may be worn but they dont have the stress that the crank bearings have. Cam bearings may be an issue as well.

According to the book, doing a crank kit in-frame is entirely possible, and the FSM describes the process.. It may be uncomfortable on your back, but it'll be faster than pulling the motor. If you have to pull the motor you may as well pull the cam to inspect and look at the timing chain. Thats another real area of concern. Grit in the oil is simply horrific.
Knowing that so much oil circulates without being filtered,
(the bypass is always allowing some oil to go by) you can be assured that the contaminates went thru the entire engine. Thats why I suggested flushing to help wash whats left of the metal particles out of baffles and corners in the heads and the lifter valley.

A crank kit would be the cheapest, fastest way to make the motor road-worthy until the lawyer gets you some satisfaction...it really needs to have a total rebuild in order to be long term reliable.
Sad situation for sure.