I would doubt a head gasket, since you said you had the hughes kit installed recently.

its possible that you didnt seal the water openings in the block, and head right, youre probably going to have to take your intake back off to clean and re-seal.

 

If you dont mind oil being sucked through your intake, then the plenum fix is not realy needed. But if your like most guys who would like to keep their truck for an extended period of time, I would suggest doing it. My truck had all the same problems, oil pressure dropping at stops, rough idle, ect. After I fixed mine on my bone stock 360, you wouldnt believe the differance. Only took me a saturday to do it(cleaning being the most time consuming). So yea I would suggest fixing it but thats just my opinion.

 

No, I meant do I really need to get the Hughes kit, vs just putting a new Felpro gasket in there and calling it good.

 

Yeah seriously. For the extra $60 bucks its pretty much guaranteed not to happen again. You hand the headache of changing the gasket multiple times.
Do it once, do it right!

 

That is just fixing the symptom, and not solving the problem. If you just do the gasket, you can look forward to doing the job again in a few thousand miles.

Hughes kit is 86 bucks. Install kit is 44, and comes with all the gaskets/fasteners you need. Fix it once. Fix it right. Don't have to worry about it again. This really IS the best plan.

 

+1. Just fixing the gasket is a mistake many people have made. Come to find out they have to redo all their hard work. It is well worth it and you will be amazed by the differance.

 

Did youn do the work or did you pay some idiot to do it ?If you let some idiot do it they proabably drained your coolant got it all down in lifter valley and oil pan . With that said sounds like they didnt change oil or put in new coolant.Check that stuff then go back home and do it yourself,and make sure you use distilled water NOT FROM YOUR GARDEN HOSE .TAP WATER WILL F#&* YOUR WHOLE SYSTEM OVER.

 

I had some idiot do it and I think thats exactly what happened. I already changed the oil but the pressure is still dropping. This weekend I'm going to flush the coolant and oil and go from there. Hopefully thats it, Thanks

 

+1 plenum replacement

tap water is guaranteed to destroy your freeze plugs

 

If you don't want to buy the Hughes plate, do what I did, go to your scrap yard and find a piece of 1/4 inch AL and cut out your own plate. There is nothing special about Hughes plates. The scrap yard gave me the AL and I cut it out on a band saw, drilled the holes and I have not had a problem. The sides I left straight, you do not have to cut around all the bolts. It will fit in just fine with straight sides. The back has to be shaped and the front a little, but not much to fit. I used the FP gaskets from autozone. Has worked great so far.