1966 New Yorker low oil pressure question

[ascari]

My -66 New Yorker has been sitting for about three weeks. When I started it today the oil pressure lamp won't come off, so I immediately cut the engine. The oil looks clean, level is correct, and the oil and filter have less than 200 miles on them.

The last thing I want to do is drop the oil pan to get to the pickup tube/filter screen since that would to be a miserable job in 90 degree weather without any A/C in the garage. So my question is what are the other common things that could be wrong?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

By the way, it's the stock 440 engine. Before today it always purred like a kitten, no funny noises etc.

 

[CBODY67]

Priority oil feed is to the hydraulic lifters FIRST, then the mains. If no lifter sounds, you're probably ok.

One time, years ago in the middle 1970s, STP came out with a whiz-bang "better" oil filter with two stages of filtering media. So I got one and we put it on when I got the oil changed. The oil light did not go out immediately, as it always had done. No engine sounds, either. After running it a while, we put a normal FL-1A Motorcraft back on it and all was well again. NO MORE STP filters!

Might be a bad sending unit? Might get a pressure gauge and screw it in place of the sending unit and check the oil pressure. What viscosity of oil in the engine?

Just my experiences,
CBODY67