Has plenty of oil in the pan... I pulled the dist and put my primer and electric drill on it,and a different gauge mounted directly beside the dist hole. I can pull the trigger on the drill and the oil pressure jumps up instantly, and just as instantly starts to go down. if I keep the drill running it does eventually drop to 0.. I put a gauge on it that reads from 0 to 100 so i would have a more accurate reading than the cheap one on the stand...
Drill running, Oil at 0.. let off the trigger, hit the trigger, oil pressure jumps up to over 40 psi, and starts to go down again... ran drill to 0 oil pressure and checked oil.. reads full on stick, no oil pooling in the heads, drain back ports are open and clear.
If this was not the second oil pump to do the same thing I would think the pressure relief was bad in the pump.. possible? Yes, probable? no... to date, I have never had one, much less two (new) pumps with bad reliefs.. Have had the older melling pumps CRACK at the neck on hp motors causing a VERY similar problem, but have not had any issues with them since they redesigned the necks to beef them up.
Please... Keep the ideas coming!!!