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BOUGHT A RACK and then some from zactek . CLOSE

Over the weekend I installed my new M28 head and new head gasket, while I was in there I cleaned everything and reinstalled all new gaskets from the HG, up, resurfaced all of the manifolds and properly set my cam timing and she's at 10 degrees BTDC and she started right up and idled relatively smooth (TPS still needs readjusted, I just ran out of time) I was amazed I got the timing procedure right the first time (thanks to SQC's and PQ's threads) I noticed before everything went south (Belt snapped and she overheated, cracking the head too) that I had low oil pressure, upon initial start-ups it was about 3/4 on the factory gauge, and once warm, during idle, it's reads almost at the bottom of the gauge. My 12A fried a while back and I found a sliver of the rear oil seal in the pan, with only a few tiny metal shavings from the previous cam/head situation. My question is, what should I look into as far as isolating a low oil pressure scenario? Could it be a clogged pressure regulator (is that the one on the filter housing?) or could it be something internally wrong with the oil pump? I really wasn't looking forward to removing the timing cover at this point (took 3 days to tear down and re-install the head and everything is all back together) but I need to figure out why the gauge is reading low.... lifters still ticking too (after running for about 10 minutes) which leads me to believe that I'm not getting the pressure needed on the top end. New timing components were installed about 20k ago, but could this be attributed to the tensioner. Specs, mostly stock, BSEK, JVEK.... 10W30 oil, STP filter (I was told to stay away from Fram and the DriveWorks filters looked generic and cheap so I didn't want to risk it ) I've searched the forums but wasn't successful at finding a solution for this particular issue. Any help is appreciated! Thanks guys. -N8

So here is the dilemma I'm having, when replacing the hydraulic lifters do I need to remove the timing chain / cam gear from the cam itself before taking off the cam towers and assembly? My plan is to replace the lifters and completely clean the rocker assembly. But one thing I was sitting here wondering was... would that timing chain have enough tension to warrant removing it from the cam before taking the towers off? Basically I should be getting the lifters any day now in the mail and I'm thinking through the replacement process and trying to think of everything to make it as easy as possible. Any suggestions or tips are greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time Allen