I agree with Steve that some of your oil passages might be blocked because of what you described that the oil drains back so slowly from the filter housing. Until you can figure this out this is what I would do if I were you.
Henry
Henry - From my understanding the filter housing drains back to the pan by gravity. I took the oil filter housing off yesterday and there was a little grey sealant we had used to save the gasket partialy plugging the drain passage. That problem solved, but still no pressure.
From what I can tell from my reading the cap nut on the filter housing has a relief valve in it and the pump has a relief valve in it. I went and got a NOS oil pump from Rod Shaver yesterday as he is kinda local to us. The new pump puts 3-5 PSI on the gauge.
Checked the gauge with air pressure and a reguator - spot on.
I tested the relief valve on the filter cap with a pressure guage and air hose setup and it opens between 30-40 psi - not that.
My old man thinks it's blow by around the rod bearings, The clearance is .0055-.006 right at the high limit of the tolerance in the manual. Trying to source some .003 over Rod bearings now to bring that tolerance down. I think he's full o crap, I could see 5-10 psi loss but not ALL of it....
We did not remove any oil passage plugs when rebuilding it - we did not do a 100% rebuild - left the crank and mains alone. as they miked in tolerance and had no corrosion. Did hone cylinders and replace rings/rod bearings. Valve job, head gasket, oil pump, water pump, front seal, gaskets.
The only place we haven't gone back into is the lifter gallerys, any chance that kind of pressure loss could be caused by the lifters? - Probably tomorrow's project...
Thanks again for the help guys.
Chris