Truck details in the signature below, but how would I go about cleaning the Oil Pump Screen Tube?
I've got low oil pressure at idle and under like 1500 RPM. Anything over 1500 RPM and it goes away, although its still below 40. The truck has a tick (inconsistent but always there, sometimes goes away for about 10 seconds) which I think is the lifters not getting enough oil, as I just replaced the lifters. I'm okay with dropping the pan, I've already put a ton of money into the truck, another $100 isn't sh*t. Basically just need to know everything I'd need to do?
What else do I need to remove besides the oil pan?
What should I clean it with?
On a scale of replacing a spark plug and removing a busted manifold bolt how hard do you think this should be?

Thank you in advance!

 

Removing the oil pan is pretty easy. Once off, clean the pan well with solvent, as there is likely plenty of sludge in it. With the pan off the motor, accessing the oil pump screen is easy. If it were me, I'd replace both the oil pump and oil pump screen, as they are not very expensive. Also, pickup a new oil pan gasket, too. While in there, you can check the main bearings to determine if any are excessively worn. There are plenty of videos on YouTube that provide guidance on this procedure.

Actually, 40 PSI oil pressure at 1500 rpm is pretty good. Might want to pull the sending unit off the motor and hook up a mechanical gauge to be sure that your oil gauge in the truck is accurate. Are you sure that tick sound isn't an exhaust leak at one of the manifolds or pipe coming off the exhaust manifold??

 

x2 to the above

 

Is it just the oil pan bolts or do I need to remove anything else first?
And no, at 1500 RPM the tick goes away and the oil pressure goes to like 32 ish and sometimes 40.
I just got done replacing the manifolds with headers, although I do need to put a muffler on the truck, its too loud for where I live, so I may take it to an exhaust shop and get a headers back pipe with a muffler eventually, but this sound was the same before and after the manifold to header upgrade.

Here is a video of the tick sound:

 

Doesn't sound like exhaust. Too intermittent and metallic. All the pulleys good? The video makes it sound outside the engine, but if it's inside, it can't be good.

 

The metallic sound seems to be a bad idler pulley or belt. The popping sound sounds like it could possibly be exhaust. It will likely be hard to truly pin down the issue until you get a muffler on it.

 

 

Have you tried a stethoscope? You can use just about anything as a stethoscope, proper one, long screwdriver etc., metal makes for the best conductor of sound. You can at least isolate the sound to a particular area.

 

 

Sounds like it might be helpful to add loc-tite to the rocker bolts to keep them from loosening.