Ahh -plastigage -I forgot all about those. I even remember seeing them in the "What's New" section in Popular Mechanics decades ago. I've never had a reason to use them before. Sure beats dropping the crank -thanks.

When I open the oil pump I am thinking I will find a ball bearing jamming it because of that bearing race I found in the pan. Where could that have come from -is that the type of bearing the old style vacuum pump would drop in there? Maybe I should attach a big rare earth magnet to the outside of my oil plug to catch stuff like that.

An audible warning would be a good idea, especially in a car with this many miles -I am going to look into it. Honestly I don't even remember looking at the pressure gauge when this all happened. I was so sure it was fuel related -because I had replaced that return line not 2 miles before -when it lost power, I fully expected to see fuel spewing.