As Mike on breaking bad said, "no more half measures" Unless you make a major change such as an engine swap, turbo, or supercharger, don't bother.

This topic comes up every 6 months. Last time it was about the 3.0. A bunch of us anylized and discussed the pros/cons of this and one guy even reported on how he spent thousands yet gained 30hp. That thread will answer your questions.

"the conquest is basically the same platform with endless performance components"... Lol. Dig,in and you'll see there are very slim pickings on parts.

"I just thought that if I'm going to tear it down to do a rebuild why not take advantage and make it as powerful as possible..." You know your dealing with a 109hp forklift motor from the 70s. Every mod will only increase output by a small percentage. My buddy had a cobra and on the dyno changed to a k/n filter gaining ~40hp. He averages 650hp, so that's not much past a 5% gain. For you that's 6hp.... Woo.

So yes, the starquest has oil squirters and a coated crank. When doing the turbo swap on my Montero, the donor motor was trashed. I used my Montero motor, no oil squirters or fancy crank, and just dropped in the cheapest starquest pistons rockauto had. I'm at 7psi, going to 16g and 10psi soon. No heat issues, nothing. I prob make 190hp. Fancy internals are for the starquest runners shooting for 300hp. You can sink $3k into your n/a motor, but my sloppy $300 turbo motor will still make more power.

So to answer the question, since the engine is already out and all this effort and more power... Engine swap. It will be cheaper too.

Got a 2.6 go starquest turbo or 4g64 dam. Both are bolt in. Did mine on the street with no power tools.
More from a v6 angle, Chevy 4.3 or mitsu 3.5/8 but neither bolt in.