That's true. I think I'll just bite the bullet and do bearings and rings. I'm currently looking at ACL race bearings and Supertech rings. Are these a good choice?

 

Also I've heard that to beak in new rings you should do a few hard pulls as soon as the engine warms up. When I put the new motor in, if I have to spend an hour or so tuning before doing any pulls, would that be bad for the rings?

 

You normally want load, rather than a "pull"
vary the revs, dont rev the **** out of it, and give it some high gear/lowish rpm load.

In saying that, running in an engine is something that everybody has an opinion on, so you'll likely find hundreds of suggestions.