Follow up on this issue with the oil pressure light not going out when cranking with out spark plugs installed and fuel pump disconnected after completing rebuild

I ended up doing the following:
1) Replacing the aftermarket oil pump with Honda oil pump
2) Replaced the oil control orifice.
3) Replaced the pick-up tube
4) Before assembling the head and installing oil control orifice I poured oil down through filter to help with filling system with oil.

Result was cranked for 10seconds then oil pressure light flickered. Stopped and then cranked again light went out completely after 3 seconds. Installed spark plugs, connected fuel pump, fired up car and the oil pressure light functioned normally.

So, I suspect that the issue may have been with the aftermarket oil pump but I cannot confirm since I also replaced the pick-up screen, the orifice, and helped the priming effort by pouring oil into the pump discharge. Maybe the first pump may have worked when up to normal engine RPMs, but I didn't want to take the chance if it was not performing at cranking RPMs. Lesson I learned is with critical parts it's worth spending the a little extra for OEM, would have saved me a lot of time.

 

Good follow up info!

For me I've found factory or NAPA parts work.
O'Reilly (Autozone, ...?) parts waste time out of my life.