Is the pickup tube just to close to the bottom of the pan??

 

It shouldn't be, it's only designed to fit one way with the way it's bent it shouldn't meet the bottom of it and have about 1/2 to 1" clearance as it has before. I'll take a peek when I'm motivated to waste oil again and drain it.

 

On mine, the pickup screwed into the pump...... So, it was possible to screw it up.

Just an off the wall thought here... If you have a cylinder leakdown gauge set, I might be tempted to plumb that into the oil pressure sensor whole, and see what kind of leakdown you are getting in the oil system....... I would like to think that you *should* be able to build some pressure there....... The distinct lack of any pressure at all, even after changing pumps, and other such, makes me suspect a pretty significant internal leak somewhere..... Finding it is the fun part..... Maybe drop the pan, and pump, use like a five gallon bucket with some oil in it, plumb that to the oil pump mount, pressurize the container a bit, (keep in mind, it won't take a whole lot..... before it blows it's lid) and with the pan off, might see something interesting? Of course, layin' under there, oil will be raining down on your.

 

Remove the distributor and cam gear, If you don't have one make(or buy) a shaft to drive the oil pump with a drill. Try dropping the pan a bit but still keep it in place with bolts. Try priming the pump, You will hear(and feel) the load on the drill if it is a least pulling oil up.

 

Excellent idea. Can test the entire system, without wasting bearings......

 

Many thanks for the replies. After about a month of sitting on this screwing with everything oil pump related and thinking, I have discovered the issue it was not the oil pump, but the crankshaft replacement itself. Turns out the crank I bought from a mutual friend of my childhood friend was for a 5.2 not a 5.9 so the bearings had way to much clearing on the crank.talking mad game about his 5.9 ram and he was just shooting smoke up my *** cause he was upset I had the bigger engine 🤣. Rebuild back under way.

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So funny story about how I came into possession of said crankshaft. My childhood friend well call him "Dave" and my mutual friend well call him "Phillip"

So about 5 years ago, Dave has a early 2000s ram and was excited cause it had the same 5.9 engine as mine, and he needed parts for it, but no money. So Phillip bought it for him and sat on the crankshaft until Dave could pay him for it because the cranks were in high demand at this point in time were I'm located.

Come later there's a falling out between them and he never pays for the crankshaft. So I purchase the crankshaft for like 100 bucks from Phillip, thinking "I may need this one day and a new crank is like 400 bucks" and so i buy it and it sits wrapped for like 5 years until I finally need it and use it. Come to find out that Dave was just blowing smoke and actually had the 5.2 engine and knew it. So here I am trying to figure out why I can't can't get oil pressure and it's because the 5.2 are slightly smaller then the 5.9 and not interchangeable.

Lesson learned. Always double check your homies parts, and always plastigauge your crankshafts.

🤣