Is the pickup tube metal? plastic? other?

I am not sure if it is a guage problem, but I don't think so. The only way it could be guage related is if I haven't let it run long enough to build pressure. This is painful to do as you stare at an oil pressure guage that reads zero.

There is no oil on the cam, but I haven't tried looking through the fill hole while it is running. I also haven't tried loosening the filter bolts to see if there is pressure there. I'm not sure if these are possible at this point - it requires some accelerator pressure to keep running.

The oil filter & valve cover checks sound easy enough once I get someone over to help me out. This will keep me busy this weekend (so many projects, so little time).

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1985 300CD 279k
2000 F250 powerstroke