Two things:
1. Jeremy you really need to get a mechanical oil pressure gauge on the engine to know for sure what is going on.
2. I've dealt with clogged oil pickups MANY times on the old Audi 5 cylinder engines. They share the exact same design as the PSD for the oil pump; a crankshaft mounted pump with a remote pickup in the pan. They were constantly clogging due to the mesh being too fine.
The behavior is this: oil pressure will be good at idle, the Audi's always maintained a very healthy 30 psi at idle, fully warmed up. Oil temperature minimum 180f. Weight of oil used is 15-40.
When the pickup starts to get clogged the oil pressure would always be good at idle, but if you raise engine rpm, then the oil pressure would begin to drop. Return to idle and the oil pressure would return. Jeremy you are not having this problem. You are losing oil pressure at idle, not at cruise. I had an extreme case one time come in where the owner thought he needed a new engine the lifters were all collapsed from the airated oil. One oil pickup later and the engine sounded like new with 30 psi at idle and 80 at cruise.
So IMO Jeremy you don't have a clogged pickup. If I was to suspect anything upstream of your oil pump, perhaps the seal between the pickup flange, or a crack in the tube itself, and you don't have a perfect seal between the oil pump inlet and the end of the pickup tube.
But you really need to get that gauge installed to see what really is happening to answer your questions once and for all. Then you will know where to start chasing this ghost.

 

Another thought that just occured to me is the piston cooling jets. If you've lost one out the bottom of the engine inside, that will have the effect of a big oil leak, allowing pressure to drop.
Or another thing; you have an extensive list of mods, very cool, but I don't see an oil bypass filter listed. If you have one, perhaps the oriface might have gotten too big or came out for whatever reason? This is just conjecture now.

 

I appreciate the advice guys. That definately gives me some things to explore. I do plan on getting a gauge put on there to test it, but I don't know when. Spare time is hard for me to find right now. I hope I don't have a pickup tube or cooling jet problem. That would be....uh, expensive to fix.

I'll see what AE has on it, and put a test light to the sensor and see what happens there.

Is it correct that when the switch has pressure, it's closed, and completes a ground? Say if I were to ground the wire coming off the switch that goes to the gauge, it should read normal pressure, correct? Reason I ask, is I would like to hook up a real oil pressure gauge in that very location, but don't want the stock dash gauge to read 0 all the time. I want to fool the stock gauge into thinking everything is great in oil pressure town. Unless there is a negative side to unhooking the stock dash gauge, if I'm going to put a real one in.

 

That right Jeremy

No/Low Pressure - Switch Open (Circuit Open)
Normal Pressure - Switch Closed (Circuit Closed)

 

Thanks Alan, that's what I wanted to hear. Do you know of any negatives or any reason I shouldn't bypass or unhook the oil pressure sensor?

 

I've been doing some thinking, and come up with a different idea for hooking up the oil pressure gauge. Rather than disabling the stock sensor and gauge, because then I wouldn't be able to see what the aftermarket gauge reads when the stock one is reading low. So, I figure I'll put a T in there to hook up both the stock sensor and an aftermarket one. Problem is, space is tight where the stock sensor is located. Since I have BTS dual pumps, the sensor doesn't have room to fit in the stock location on the top of the resivoir, as the BTS dual pumps have a second resivoir under the stock one. The stock sensor is located on the back of the BTS res, driver's side, next to the extra pump. There's very little room for a T there.

So, my thought is to put a T where the oil temp sensor is located, which is still in it's stock location on the back of the upper & stock resivoir. There's just a lot more room up there for a T and an extra sensor. Does anyone see any problems with putting it up there, in a T with an aftermarket sensor? The resivoirs share a common space on that side of the pump, so pressure should be the same.

One more note. I'm wondering if the dual pumps are drawing so much oil at idle that the pressure drops in the resivoir. But, this just started a few weeks ago, and I've been running the dual pumps with the same brand and weight of oil for several months now. This is a recent problem that started with no changes to the truck.

 

The idiot light on the dash wont come on...... other than that I know of nothing.
The PCM only monitors Oil Temp it doesnt care about pressure.

Jeremy can you post a pic of you Dual HPOP setup. I just had an idea but i need to see your configuration

 

How about putting an elbow in the hole for the pressure switch before the tee and angle it back over the top of the HPOPs? I don't like the thought of putting the temperature sender on a remote location, in my mind that would skew the readings.

 

Alan, there are some pics of the BTS pumps in my webshots gallery. Click on the My Pics link in my sig, and it will take you to my webshots. There is a whole album just for the BTS pumps. If you don't see what you want there, let me know and I'll get some more pics.

Dan, what I'm thinking of wouldn't put the temp sensor in a very remote location. The Tee would go in the hole where the temp sensor is now, and the temp sensor would to into one side of that Tee. It might be less than 1/4" - 1/2" from where it is now. I don't think that it would skew the readings that much, but I don't know, and I value your thoughts on it. Also, I thought about putting the Tee where the stock sensor is now, but with the length of line I'd need to run to make room for a Tee (probably about 2"), I'm afraid that it would give an inaccurate pressure reading.

 

as long as you don't have any air in the system, the length of the run is going to have next to nothing affect on pressure. Fluid doesn't compress like air, and the amount that oil compresses, it save to say that you readings would not be skewed by it. So making the pressure sensor remote won't have any affect but I agree that moving the temp sensor will affect some, how much probably coincides with the distance.

It will be interesting to see what the remote pressure gauge reads.

 

Air in the lines is exactly what worries me about moving it to a remote location. How would air ever actually get out of the line, if it just dead ends in a sensor?

I don't know where to hook it up now. I may just put the pressure sensor in the engine block, down on the driver's side at the back. And put the aftermarket temp sensor in a Tee across from the stock temp sensor.

I talked to Brian at BTS over my lunch break. He's sending me a different sensor to replace the factory one, and try it. He tells me it's from a 97 Powerstroke. Going to try it and see what happens.

 

Shy of loosening the fittings up to blead the air out, I don't know how you'd get the air out either.

 

Can you put a gauge on the port on the reservoir to see what it is actually pushing there. I am thinking that the increased demand of the dual HPOP is letting the pressure drop below what the "OEM Switch" is looking for at the factory sensor location at idle but you are lubing fine.

 

Air in the line won't affect the pressure readings. The air will compress up to the same pressure as the oil. It would affect temp but not pressure.

 

Do you think it is really using that much more oil? After all, I believe he is still using the stock injectors. Besides, it was working fine before. I'm thinking something else. Something has happened and I don't believe it was the oil pump either. Gotta get a good gauge on the stock sending unit location.

Jeremy, could you somehow temporarily plumb your remote fuel pressure gauge to that location? I believe you have one of those. It should work but then you'll have to clean it out to put back into the fuel system. Just a thought.