Old mechanical thoughts

Brilliant idea, I'm very impressed. I'm rebuilding a 1947 MG TC engine at the moment , but don't have a distributor to sacrifice, otherwise I would borrow your idea.

I am not sure how you managed to pump oil with a distributor - guts in or out.

on the bottom of the distributor shaft was a flat drive tang that drives the oil pump shaft. a long large flat screwdriver can be sacrificed to do the same instead of an expensive distributor assembly

That makes more sense now

They sell the shaft to hook to a drill for most all gas motors to prelube them with a drill. You can get them from any automotive online store just about. Not sure if it's necessary if you have enough lube on everything when you assemble it, if it's started soon after. If the motor sits for months before being started then it's a good idea.

We were taught the same with DD's . I have since found that a CO2 fire extinguisher will stop an engine that's going for it when applied to the air inlet.

In the 70s, I had a commercial salmon and tuna boat. A long way from anywhere, I had a shaft coupling fail and had no shaft movement. The coupling attaching the shaft to the trans had rolled the key breaking the edges of the keyways and also breaking a bolt thru the coupler and shaft that at one time had been a taper pin. The key was now too small for the damaged keyways and the taper pin hole was rounded from the bolt breaking. I had no other keys in spare parts or any proper metal to make one. But I found 2 large taper pins in spares and I had a tapered reamer in my tools. I resized the thru hole to fit and drive in one pin. But that alone wouldn't hold. So pushing the shaft back to the rudder, made room to get the tapered reamer into the existing keyway. I reamed it to fit the other pin, drove it home are rebolted the coupling. I got back to port. Everything was still tight, salmon were running and I decided to wait until winter. I never did pull the shaft and redo the keyways. About 5 years ago I ran into my old boat and current owner. After a long bs session, I told him the story. We went into the hold, pulled up a floor panel and there was my pin/key still doing the job for about 40 years. I think the taper pin made a tighter fit key than a normal key.

I was doing a few last-minute checks at 5AM before taking a single-diesel 34ft trawler from Ft. L. to Cat Cay. Big Jim showed up at 6, so we got underway. Big took the first trick at the helm, and I snoozed in the salon. About 20 miles into the Stream, Big suddenly hollered that "We ain't getting anywhere". I looked over the side; he was right - the engine tempo never changed but we were not moving. Thank you Governor!. A hydraulic hose on the transmission had blown out. What a mess! I checked and yes, we had more hydraulic oil, but what to do about that hose?
Ya know those mooring line chafe guards, the long, white tubular ones that are split longitudinally? I had a box of various hose clamps, so we rigged up a cover for the blown hose. You shoulda seen that sucker pooch out when the pressure built up! But it held, and we made it back to Liquordale. Somewhere I have a pic of that sorry-looking splint.
But it worked.

Heading south in the Exumas on our sail boat into a south wind we were motoring along when the raw water pump started to spray water all over the engine compartment. Bearings totally shot after a rebuild not that long before. Drop the hook, had Happy Hour. Started engine and ran till temp went up, drop the hook and had Happy Hour. Repeated several times till we got to the next anchorage. Wanted/needed to get top George Town to order new pump. Rigged a hose from the A/C pump to the raw water intake on the engine, rewired the A/C pump to run off the inverter and continued on our way.

A friend of mine who happens to be a Yamaha mechanic had a pair of ox 250HP Yamaha's on his 27' Ocean Runner center console that he put a lot of hours on and the mid section got clogged and the motor wouldn't get enough water. He ran the boat for years with the raw water washdown pump attached to the freshwater flush fitting on the motor and pump on so the motor didn't overheat!!!!!!!!