I was driving my car yesterday, Cuda 440 six pack, and everything was fine. I shut the car off and when I restarted it I heard the lifters ticking and the gauge said there was no oil pressure. There is oil in the engine. Engine was rebuilt about 8 years ago and it only gets driven about 200 - 300 miles a year. I have never had any problems at all with engine and have changed the oil once a year. Is it the oil pump? Or do I have something more severe wrong then that?
Thanks for the help.
Bill

Pull the valve covers maybe bent a pushrod then kick a lifter out! The lifters seem to kick out on start up think they lose their oil seal??

What Dodgem said. If good there pull the dist/inter shaft & drill prime it (CCW) & go from there

Had this issue with my wagon.
Ran at 80lbs cold 60lbs hot.
Shut it off one time, started it up awhile later, valve train noise and 30lbs of oil pressure.
I was at a show when this happened. I pulled the valve cover, check the valve train, all was good. I put it back together, started it up, and the oil pressure was back to normal.
Changed the oil and filter after that. Could have been something got in the pump or filter. who knows.

I had a 400 pontiac once that every so often when you started it, it would make valve train noise. If i changed just the oil filter, it wouldn't do it again for like 4 months.

I'd change the oil and filter first, and see what happens.

You say lifters "plural" if so check the drive end of the shaft.If you have a small piece of valve stem seal get into the pump it will shear the drive end tip quicker than you can imagine .

I didn't get a chance to work on it today like I was hoping. Thanks for all the input. It's amazing that much potential damage can be caused just from starting a pretty healthy engine.
Bill

I had the exact same problem not so long ago. went for a ride,all good and parked it over night. next day no pressure at all. I checked the valvetrain and all was good. tried spinning it with primer shaft and no pressure. swaped out the old melling pump with a new one and all is well.I still have no idea what the problem was with the old pump,looked fine when I pulled it apart

Id pull the dist to check the oil pump drive to see if its broken before pulling valve covers..

Well, I got a chance to pull things apart and both push rods on the number 6 six cylinder bent and went through the rocker arms. Doesn't that seem like a lot of damage for startup?
Bill

Very unusual to kill two rockers/pushrods on one piston out of the blue. Were the heads rebuilt? Valve guides too tight maybe. How stiff of valve springs and how aggressive of a cam are you running? I assume those are old stock pushrods and rockers?

You may have found your problem. Probably a lifter or two out of its bore.

For the others who have experienced something similar, consider the pressure relief valve in the oil pump. If you are running at highway speeds your pressure relief valve might be open and if it sticks open, the next time you start you won't have much oil pressure.
R.