After modifying the main caps as mentioned above I ran into the problem of the rods hitting the girdle so I did a bit of clearancing on that.
My test/replacement timing chain came today for the roller setup, a day early at that which was nice. Kudos to Rock Auto.
and....it fits! It seems just snug enough when installing. There is very minimal play w/o the tensioner and absolutely none with the tensioner installed but coiled (not even actuated yet, the pin is still in it). It may not even need the tensioner but as I had bought a new one I tested it with it anyway.
Note: It came with that black link from the factory, I did nothing to the chain other that taking out of the box.
I ordered the roller thrust bearing today from McMaster-Carr. Just a small bit of machining involved on the spacer to make that fit. It should be in next week.
I am still a very long way from actually testing this combo but all signs point to it working out so far for minimal $ spent not counting my time machining it to fit.
On the downside today, I decided to fix up a couple of welds on my oil pan as their was a couple of questionable ones that I wanted to be 100% sure of. Long story short, I applied too much heat to too cool of an oil pan and induced thermal stress/cracks in a couple of places. Re-welded it somewhat but I don't trust it. It's relegated to mock-up duty now. It's not worth the risk of using it so I will either get a factory replacement or fabricate one of higher capacity with baffles etc later on or maybe I will cut it off just below the flange and build and weld up a new one from there. It's around $175 CAD or so to buy a new replacement and considerably cheaper just to buy some aluminum and then have me cut and weld a better one up so I guess my decision is probably already made for me I suppose.