Reply to "priming the oil pump"

Race engines require special car & feeding on first firings but street engines aren't so picky. I wouldn't have qualms about spinning it with the coil wire off until the gauge needle twitched, indicating some pressure in the system. Pumps can be primed by packing them with petroleum jelly (Buick recommends this) or spinning the pump with a 1/2" drill and a long drive bit; when the drill stalls, the pump is pressurized.... . But a month is not really long-term storage and while the pan area obviously went dry during your change, the cylinder bores, cam lobes etc should all retain some oil. Just don't rev it to the moon when it first fires- give the thing a chance to fill up all the passages & galleries and you'll be fine.