Thanks for the responses guys.

The engine was completely torn down and rebuilt by Toyota 8K miles ago, so I'm not sure that the main bearing clearance would be off. I have to assume everything was cleaned when it was apart, but I gues the bypass valve could be stuck open even after only 8,000 miles.

I thought about the viscosity breakdown as well, but even with normal viscosity breakdown you would still show in the normal range on the gauge, my gauge is bottomed out at warm idle,and this happens after about 5 minutes of driving, it would have to be pretty crappy oil to lose that much viscosity that quick.

It will go up some when I come off idle when starting to drive or if I rev the engine, but it will only go up to the first line on the gauge, which is the Low point of normal pressure on the gauge. It doesn't go back into normal range at all after about 5 minutes of driving, once it gets a little heat in it, it just stays at the low point while driving and then drops out completely at idle, same spot on the gauge as when you shut the engine off.

The gauge seems to work fine when the engine is cold, the pressure is in normal range, and even kind of high, when first started at the high(1,200RPM) idle when cold, but as soon as it gets any heat it drops right out.

Would the sender drop out when it got heat to it, or possible when the oil does start to thin out with heat, then the sender doesn't read right??

I'm glad to hear that the oil pump and oiling system is pretty tough, but since I can see all of that oil flying around in the head, I was sure they were working.

I will try the manual gauge in the block. Can somebody tell me where it needs to screw in. I'm new to this engine, only had it a week, and my old Jeep had way more room in the engine to work, so I'm still getting used to it.

Thanks for the help guys, it's appreciated.

Mike