Oil press problem, start on other e34 board

At first my oil pressure light would come on only when I started the car in the morning after the nose of the car was pointing up hill. Gradually it became worse, where if I was sitting at a light or something, once again nose up hill, it would do it. Now it has gotten to the point where I am sitting on level ground, it has happened. The only good remedy I have found for this is to push on the gas, and the light goes out, but only temporarily. I did my oil change last night, and tried to determine if my valve of something else was broken. I will try to describe what I saw and found:

After draining the oil from the block, I removed the bolt that holds down the oil canister cover. I removed the filter, which was black all over, meaning that it was at one point getting oil. Usually the filter is dripping wet when I do an oil change, but this time it only showed that it has been used because of it's color.

At the 12' o'clock position was a vavle that I was able to pressdown with a screwdrive with average pressure. There is a spring that sits about 1/4 about the bottom surface of the oil canister, which made me kind of wonder how high it is supposed to be up. It seemed to seal well, but I wasn't using the best lighting.

At the 1 or 2 o'clock position was a little hole that opened at 1 below the floor of the oil canister, and gradually flattened out to the bottom of the oil canister at 2. It was still filled with oil, and I wasn't able to get a dental pick into the hole to see how deep it went.

At the 3 to the 5 o'clock position was another hole, this one opened at the 5 and gradually flattened oout at the 3. I didn't try to poke anything into this hole.

At the 6 o'clock position was some little indent with a little flat nipple in it. This one didn't seem to be a valve becuase it did nothing when I pushed on it.

I tried to look down the long tube where the bolt holds on the oil canister cover, but I was unable to see anything.

After doing my oil change (Mobil 1 15w50 tri-synthetic), the light didn't come on at all lastnight while sitting level, or the nose pointing down hill. I was hoping that poking at that valve might have dislodged something, but this morning while trying to find parking proved that to be wrong. It only happened once the whole day today, but it happened again while sitting on level ground. I would usually have the light come on 5-10 times a day, but that is only because of all the driving that I do.

I still want to know though, what kind of damage am I doing to my motor by letting the filter canister run low on pressure, assuming that is where the problem lies since it doesn't seem to be holding in the oil at idle. I assume it is a canister only thing since that is where the pressure sensor is, which is mounted on the upper most hole on the side of the canister. Is it going to do damage to the engine at startup since there isn't fresh oil flowing to the engine until the oil pump builds pressure? Besides, can that little bit of oil (1 quart)in the canister really mean that much to the starting of the engine, and what allows or makes the oil in the canister release into the engine in the first place? I tried to find something in my manual about how to remove the oil canister, but I was unable to find anything. Could someone give me any idea on how to remove the canister to give it a closer look, and then I can report what else I found to others.

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