Tom - Did Crain recommend a bronze gear for that hyd. roller or a hardened gear? I blame Ford on this one but indeed your mechanic should have known better on the switchover to. I've only ran solid rollers and use only bronze gears on the the distributor gear. I've never ran a hyd. roller but I'll bet a hyd. roller cam is made from the same billet material as a solid roller. As for the
oil pump, I don't think its even part of the problem.
The only downsides to running high volume pumps are they soak up a bit more horsepower than stock pumps and they bypass more
oil, and that makes the
oil hold heat in the pan. I use a Melling(SP) high vol. in my engine. Also be aware that a hardened distributor gear is a high wear item and needs to be replaced every 20,000 miles or so. So keep a eye on it on your list of engine to-dos.
Hope the damage didn't get into the cam gear. If it didn't the fix may be "less" painfull if you shut it off soon enough.
cobrashoch