Im putting together a 99  2.0just put 2 new valves & timing chain  in started it & it has no oil pressure .just starting is an improvement . I see in my service book when you rebuild  the oil pump you pack it with petroliem jelly ( to help with priming ? like a buick I had) other than taking oil pan & oil pump out and packing it with ky jelly is there another way to primethe oil pump on  this thing?

If the pump has been used in the past, and unless you cleaned it
out and it's all dry, it shouldn't need to be primed, but it is a possibility.

I would make sure you don't have a wire off of the sender or some
little thing like that before you tear it down and pack the pump

Wild

the pump is the one that was in the engine but the engine sat with out oilin it for about 8 months before I bought the car(broken timing chain repair started) I finished the timing chain repair along with removing head& replacing some valves & all valve seals Im sure its a oil pump problemI but new oil & filter in& ran it for a short time & noticed oil light turned it off & shecked sender then took filter off & it was still dry.I tried filling the filterbut no go either   Im going to try to pump oil back thru oil sender hole in the blockbefore I take off oil pump (the book says I have to remove ft diff to remove pan &I really just want to b done with this

Filling the filter is always a good idea if you can, I hate to run an engine
without oil pressure, especially after it's been sitting with out running,
everything is drained back to the pan then.

I wonder if the problem started from a bad oil pump, before you got the
truck? I once had a stuck oil pump blow off valve that caused my turbo
to burn up, there was enough oil pressure to keep the bearings alive, but
the turbo needs at least 40 to 60 PSI to overcome the spinning force of
the shaft to keep lubed.

You could try to pump oil into the oil sending hole, and fill the oil galleys
and the pump before you try to start again, and get a gauge in there
for testing to see whats going on, just T into it and watch when you start
the engine

Good Luck 

ok  I have oil pressure now  I pluged the vent holes in the valve cover , removed the oil sending unit & blew air into the dip stick until oil squirted out the sending hole put it back together & oil pressurre   runs good but sounds like a bad lifter or two I had valve cover off & saw oil flying around  camshafts  I added some seafoam and will run it for a while and see if they pump up 

Good deal, glad to hear you got it going, and easily too

thanks the seafoam did the trick I let it run at 2000rpmfor 20 min& when i let it cool & idle no tickity tickity I am happy