Oil Pressure

I wouldn't pull any bearing caps until you see what the pressure is like with the oil pickup/base pan cleaned and the new pump is installed.

If your engine is not really noisy and the oil light does not come on I would just run it. These engines can run fine for a long time on like 4-5 psi at hot idle. I didn't believe it when this was told to me first but it has proved to be true.

Been down this road................

Thanks for the insight. Trying to keep my life simple and not over do the repairs

+1 to what Optimus said - unless you are certain you hear bearing knock, leave well enough alone. If your oil light never tripped odds are that you don't have any bearing damage.

If your engine is as sludged up as you say, I'd recommend filling it up with an "economy" oil/filter combo and then throwing in a can of Seafoam into the crankcase and running it like that for 100 or so miles to let the solvents in the SF eat away at some of the deposits. Then drain and refill with quality fluid and a good filter. Don't run it for too long - the detergents in the Seafoam are pretty harsh on engine internals.

If possible, use synthetic oil (Mobil 1, Rotella T6) and a good filter (Mobil 1, Bosch) and decrease your oil change interval to 2500 miles for the next 3-4 changes. Fresh oil will help dissolve the sludge and the good filter will keep chunks from reentering the system.

And to top it all off, install an oil gauge that lets you keep an eye on pressures on-the-go.

Thanks it seems that Rotella is the trick everyone recommends. I have never used Seafoam in the crankcase before. I have used other crankcase cleaners though. Any concerns I should be aware of?

Thanks just ordered the gauges both oil psi and coolant temp