I shoot for making it barely touch or no more than 1/4 inch off the bottom of the pan 
I use a coat hangar or a peice of 1/8 inch welding rod to push through the oil drain plug to check those clearances on the engine stand with the motor upside down 
I've been building HiPo(above 500 hp on pump gas) street and drag racing motors since the early 1970 using stock oil pans with that method , that FSM methods works really good on the stock Mopar oil pickups
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The OE style pickup has a "shoe" that touches and establishes clearance for flow into the screen. Some aftermarket have the "shoe" and some don't.
If you have the shoe type it is supposed to touch. I certainly believe it has worked fine for many with the clearance. Still I have heard cases where vibration broke the pickup. Not pretty. Stories were on MOPARTs so they must be true... right? Personally, I would re-do it or have the shop re-do it. Plus you get every last bit of pan capacity.
I belive that a lot of the broken off oil pickups where after market pieces, like Milidon and Moroso, that cracked and broke off, not the stock OEM Mopar ones 
I've been into many, many stock Mopar V8, 273 through 426 street Hemi to U and V code 440 cars that had the pickups either on the bottom of the oil pan from the factory, seeing the witness marks in the bottom of the pan, or they where close enough to not allow the oil dipstick to be inserted sideways through the oil drain hole to clear the bottom of the pickup and pan 
BTW, for all you that didn't buy your original Mopar muscle cars new there was a service bulletin issued in the late 1960 to tell all customers to add one additonial quart of oil to all cars with the 402 oil pans with the stock windage trays, IE the 1966 to 1971 Magnum or Hi Po 440 and 383 production wedges OP, run that oilpan with 5 quarts, not 4 
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The pickup tube is quite long and the threads where it goes into the block are a pretty bad stress riser. With vibration from the engine running, the tube fatigues and snaps off right at the block. The answer to this is to support the pickup tube to eliminate the flexing.
Mopar engineers were very good at finding cheap ways to do things. Supporting the other end of the pickup tube with the oil pan was one of them.
Somehow, you must support that tube.
R.
I've seen this happen twice in my life. After the first time over 30 years ago I started paying attention to the threads on the pickup. Some seem to have rolled threads and the end of the thread is smooth, no stress riser. Others seem to have cut threads and the end of the thread ends in more of a 'crack' forming a stress riser. I've started polishing the end of the thread on these with a Dremel to get rid of what might be a future problem. Maybe I'm paranoid but one of the failures that I'm aware of happened at the top of third gear with spectacular results that I really don't want happening to me.
Quote:The pickup is somewhat too high & yes you need that "extra"? qt to maintain psi. No opinion on the potential for it to crack beings it is suspended but just me I wouldn't sweat that but it is a legitimate concern. On the suspended solids as you said just drain it when hot & you might jack up the front to tilt the pan a bit rearward to get more out & it's a non issue, everything there will drain out. I've even tossed a qt or 2 of cheap oil at that point to flush more of the crudded oil out of the bottome crevices of the sump. Kinda OCD but thats me
Rapid R...This is what it did while priming with drill & priming shaft and 3 qrts oil in pan with bottom of strainer 3/8" above the bottom of the pan (which makes the majority of the debris screen 5/8" above the bottom of the pan): oil pressure went to 50 psi,then gurgling sound started and psi slowly went down to 40 psi and we stopped the drill. Added 2 qrts more oil (5 qrt total) and had 50 psi constant with no gurgling.
???? Another question I have is this: With the pickup screen this "high" will solids collect at the bottom of the pan that will not be get suspended in the oil? I like to drain oil when it's hot, thinking I have the solids suspended in the oil and thus are removed when the oil is drained out.
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Getting back to the situation:
GTX Max...The tube(NOS Mopar) was tightened securely without dope.
Cab Burge...Specs call for 5qt. total. So, are you saying to run 5+1=6 quarts OR 4+1=5 quarts with 402 pans?
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Hey,JohnRR,
What's your take on the height of the strainer? The bottom of the strainer is 3/8" above the bottom of the oil pan which puts the horizontal area of the screen +/- 5/8" above.
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Getting back to the situation:
GTX Max...The tube(NOS Mopar) was tightened securely without dope.
Cab Burge...Specs call for 5qt. total. So, are you saying to run 5+1=6 quarts OR 4+1=5 quarts with 402 pans?
402 pan is a 4qt sump + 1 for the filter , 5 total .
I would put dope on the threads to make sure it's sealed
I put all of the 6th quart I can get into the oil filter before installing it. I do fill it 5 or 6 times, letting it sit to level off, until it won't take anymore
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Five in the pan and one in the filter, 6 total on oil and filter changes
. Short version: high perf oiling mods not withstanding (high perf build can have adequate psi but starve the rods (the end of the line/most important/critical area) if oiling mods ain't done) but if you have adequate psi for your mild build you are OK (use however many qts to achieve that) & no opinion on the suspended pickup.
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Five in the pan and one in the filter, 6 total on oil and filter changes
What pan are you talking about Cab ?
Quote:bottom line: with the proper weight you need "just enough" oil in the sump to maintain an adequate psi. 8 per 1000 RPM is plenty. A low idle psi is acceptable as long as it jumps as soon as you touch the throttle. internal oiling mods are critical in a perf app
So a follow up question: Should the oil level be maintained at a quart above the factory full mark?
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It's too high off the bottom to me , the strainer is designed in such a way that it can be closer to the bottom of the pan and not have a problem drawing in oil.