Oiling mods for my combo - whats really worth doing?

Well being that the cam bearings were already installed I didn't do any drilling on the mains, except chamfering the feeds so they "line up" with the bearings. I personally don't think it would have benefited me much being so little you gain sizewise by drilling. Even though I just measured my mains at .0027 I feel I'll be ok.

So far I'm held up with the goofy too tight rod bearing clearances (other thread) otherwise I'm ready to assemble!! I'm sure I'll have questions regarding the oil pump assembly once I get there.

Speaking of oil pump mods, anyone else seen a small hole filled between teeth on the idler gear? I'm sssuming this is to prevent falling or seizing on the shaft? T/A told me they never do or have seen this? Lots of good info here for a younger guy like myself that never really had any past buick experience!

 

I am revisiting this post to point out one thing about doing ALL oil modifications on an initial build.

I have built dozens of my Street 1 engines that are for pump gas, have hydraulic cams, stock intakes with Q-jets.
For some they wanted to have some form of upgradeability, the others I mostly used forged Speed-Pro pistons.
They make in the neighborhood of 400 HP and 500 lb. ft. of torque.
All had one common thing . ALL OIL MODIFICATIONS
Why: In some cases the want for more power exceeds current budget and in some cases the want for more power only comes from experiencing real power.
What ever the case the block itself is ready for another 100-150 HP without adding a girdle.
One case in particular comes to mind when a customer that I had built one of the aforementioned engines that had initially only wanted enough power to occasionally tear the tires up calls and want some more power.
He made the mistake of going to the drag strip to see what it would do (a tire smoking 14.80) and in time trials and got outran by a trailered in Mustang with slicks.
You know where this is going.

Long story short, he changed torque converters, rear gears, headers, Hoosier drag radials, changed cams, swapped to a set of out of the box T/A stage 1 heads , SP1 intake (same Q-jet) .
Now runs 11.50's driven in off the street. Don't know if he ever got a chance at the Mustang again.

 

Mike, I agree to the point of doing all you can for oiling. In my case I'll use the excuse that this motor may get replaced in a year or two with a more serious 455. I do plan on some racing with this 430 but I'm fresh out of money for any more performance for some time. I will be stuck under 450-475 hp until this motors replaced. Still a bad excuse but I can't stand looking at my car just sitting there until next summer