Oil Pressure Low. Possibly the Gauge?

[NW_Ryker]

Hey all, since I put in the new gauge cluster, my oil pressure gauge has always read low. Recently its gotten to the point where at idle and cruising speeds it hovers below the 1/4 mark. I keep a good check on the oil because of this, and it always seems to be pretty full. But tonight, as I was taking it for a little cruise, I heard a tick on the drivers side bank, it was rpm dependent. My guess is that the gauge was right and the engine is on the way out. What do you guys think?
Thanks

[doubleb's69]

Put another mechanical guage on it just to see how it reads. Maybe put some 20W50 in it with some Lucas Oil stabilizer and see if it brings it up enough that the lifters won't rattle. I had a 350 in a truck that was pretty sad on oil pressure and I put in the 20W50 and Lucas Oil and gained around 10 PSI.

[cdowns]

if the cluster you installed was from a bigger truck it could b a different value pressure gauge for the oil and maybe nothing is wrong

i'd check for exhaust leak for the noise

[NW_Ryker]

That would make sense, when we bought it, it did have a manual throttle hole in the bezel. No vacuum gauge though. hmm....