Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

Not that I can hear.

I did about 135 miles at Bedford (pretty decent I think), all between about 4.5 and 7k revs, I think drove to my sister's house, which was mostly motorway so constant 4k-ish revs. The whole time oil temp and pressures were fine, no sign of a problem.

I then was stopped at my sister's for about 2.5 hours, going back out to the car to drive home, when I started it up, the oil temp was about 32 degrees, so had mostly cooled down, but the oil pressure was 1.5psi. I shut it off straight away, but I have started it 2 more times just for a couple of seconds to check whether particular attempts to fix it had worked.

I checked the oil pressure sender and that was on properly, and actually a bolt from the oil pump was missing entirely, so I replaced that and checked again.

My current thinking is that either that bolt has been missing the whole time or it worked its way loose during the trackday.

If it was missing for a period at higher revs, perhaps the oil pump misaligned slightly and just wore away the teeth on the main gear. Once everything cooled down the pump is basically not doing anything at all any more and is now junk.

I don't know whether it's worth taking this engine apart, diagnosing and rebuilding, or just putting another engine in.

Once again I am unemployed and while I'd love to throw a couple of grand at an engine, put the TODA high lift cams I've got in the garage in the engine, convert to solid lifters and rev it to 8k, I need to be sensible with money.