oil pressure issue

[BMcQuillan]

Truck is a 2005 2500 5.9 with a little over 50000 miles on it. After a 6 week period, finally got the Snodepot stainless oil pan installed along with all the transmission lines, trans service, Bilstein 5100's all around, front brakes with calipers, brake hoses, one wheel speed sensor, steering stabilizer,sway bar links, oil service, fuel and air filters.. This was in between a week long trip to the hospital to get a cardioversion to restore my normal heart rythym, but thats another story!. Truck sounded excellent when I fired it up. I ran it for 4 or 5 minutes while crawling around underneath to check for leaks,which there were none. Later that night , I started it again,and the CEL popped on along with the check gauges warning light. The oil pressure gauge was not at zero, but at the very low end of the scale when I shut it off. Checked the CEL with my scan tool, and it was the famous battery temp sender code. I had both batteries unhooked for the period that the truck was apart. I am reluctant to fire it up again without first verifying that I do indeed have oil pressure. I am going to get a mechanical gauge and tap it into the 1/8 npt port on top of the oil filter housing, but I would like to pull a fuel injection relay first to prevent the engine from starting while i check it out. Do you guys think this is a reasonable way to attack this problem? I know the stock sender is really a transducer that just looks for above or below 6 psi. I could just roll the dice and fire it up again, but I hate to take a chance. Any and all input would be appreciated! Thank you. Really enjoy this forum, have learned a lot.

 

[sag2]

So you had the pan off, did you make sure the pick up tube was reinstalled correctly? The only logical thing that makes sense is something you touched in the pan install. I would go ahead and start it with the mechanical gauge as they usually take a couple of seconds to build pressure anyway. Just cranking may take a while to build pressure. If it does not show pressure after a count of 4, shut it off. The Cummins lower end is pretty tough, and a few seconds with no pressure will not hurt it.

 

[AH64ID]

If you got the 0 psi indication on the dash it is likely the pressure was below 6 psi for 30 seconds.

I would get a mechanical gauge on the oil filter housing before firing it up again.

With my manual gauge on the drivers side above the ECM I normally see pressure within 1-2 seconds.

With the timing of the pan being off it is most likely that the pickup tube was damaged/moved.

 

[BMcQuillan]

Just to update, the sending unit was the problem. Hooked up a mechanical gauge off the oil filter housing, and got 75 lbs. when it fired up cold. I had plenty of clearance doing the oil pan, and did not have to take the pickup tube off. I find it hard to believe the pickup could be damaged very easily, as it is pretty ruggedly constructed. Had a heck of a time getting the red tab to slide over so I could get the plug off the sender,and then the sender itself was pretty rusty. I had to jam a smaller socket over it to break it loose.No leaks anywhere so far.