I lost an oilpump shaft in an engine once....I put 25 rectangular rare earth magnets on the front hump of the oilpan to keep the old oilpump shaft in place and simply put another one..Good Luck with whatever you choose to do........
I also forgot to add that having a real adjustable valvetrain is the way to go..Years back I fought the notion saying I can get the pedestal mounts dialed in using proper length pushrods and shims...Ha!....I did it but my back paid the price doing it in the car....LOL
When youre dialing in a Comp Cams even doing an adjustable valvetrain isnt straight forwards either.
For the pedestal mounts I had to draw lines on the pushrods at zero lift with rockers down tight then loosen the rockers until theres zero lash and make a new mark then measure and it took so long...way longer than I imagined.....LOL
For the adjustable route theres a rock solid technique to setting a Comp Cams brand camshaft...........Here it is...
When the Exhaust Rocker Arm "STARTS" to press down on the "EXHAUST Valve" set the intake rocker arm to zero lash and then set preload.
Rotate engine until the "INTAKE VALVE" goes all the way down and comes almost all of the way "UP" you set the "EXHAUST VALVE to "Zero Lash" then set "Preload""
Do this for every cylinder..
I made a small error in my prior post I put 15 drops of ZDDP oil in each lifter body....Not 35.....Sorry about that mistake...
Heres a small vid I took of my oil pressure when I primed the oil system as I was rotating the engine with a 1/2" ratchet on a cheater bar before fire up...
View: https://vimeo.com/685081582