Good morning Chip,
I'm with Oly. I don't think you ruined your engine. You saw the oil pressure at zero, but after that you again had 35 pounds. I don't think you would get that result if either the distributor shaft sheared (mini HEI), or the new Melling oil pump failed.
.02
P.S. How do you spend $3500.00 dollars on that engine? Is that a normal amount for that engine, or did you do a lot of fancy things to it?
Good luck with it. Keep us posted.
