All,
Thanks for the ideas so far, not definitive it seems. Maybe I can get away with solder or red loctite since it was in there all this time (20 years) without anything.
Beater, I read pg38 too, says "because of this brace, it is not necessary to braze, weld, ...." But Leo is referring to the 292 setup. With the Nova oil pan, the brace to the #5 main bolt is not there, the pump tube is hanging out in the breeze by itself. This is one area I wish Chevy had taken a cue from Ford, with a bolt-on oil pickup.
The shortblock looks like a just-rebuilt 292, it is 30-over but can still see the crosshatches, everything very clean. But the Nova oil pan had some burnt crust of oil on it, perhaps the old Nova engine expired or was mistreated.
I found some interesting parts rattling around in the oil pan - gear teeth, it looks like (cam or oil/dist gear maybe?) and a core-style plug, withi the crap beat out of it but still clearly says 9/16 on one side. I am guessing the oil pump spring plug? Must be from the previous oil pump since the current one is fine and looks new from the outside. Then a few other disintegrated metal parts. A mystery to see these in a rebuilt shortblock, all I can guess is they were from the previous Nova engine, left in the pan, and somebody threw it back together in a hurry - shoved the Nova oil tube into the 292 pump, put the dirty Nova pan back on with the loose metal in there, and let er run.
I will take a closer look, hope not to find any broken parts.
Still undecided on the pump tube.
