Normal Oil pressure fluctuation

[brad@elevated.org]

Don-

When I first start up, my oil pressure gage reads almost 40 lbs. After about 20 minutes at idle it reads about 18 lbs. I've run the engine about 10 hrs since purchase last fall, so an oil change is logical since I don't know when it was last changed.

My question is, is this a normal fluctuation in pressure from cold to normal temperature? Everthing else seems fine.

One other question-if the the dipstick shows the level to be in the full range, should there be oil around the lower distributor gear? How does that get oiled?

Thanks--

Brad Shinn
Cal 34