I used rings from pelican, seem to work fine. I'm not well versed on them though. I did have the extra oil passages added to the crank, seems to be an established upgrade. I purchased an aftermarket water pump from allzim.com, $135 I believe. Quite a rough casting but it doesnt leak and pumps water haha.
For the oil pan I purchased a stud kit. As stated, they are quite easy to strip. However, if I had to do it again I'd purchase the studs from McMaster Carr myself.
(4) 60mm M6
(18) 35mm or 40mm M6 (I used 40)
Oil pan went on easy with the studs. Be careful with all the M6 holes in the block. I ended up having to buy an M6 time-sert kit because several of the oil pump holes stripped even at 6ftlb.
Here are some pictures of the rebuild:
imgur.com/a/j9zqc
Disregard the dyno sheet haha. Issue has since been resolved.