I ran into the same issue with the oil pickup being too long and it hit the bottom of the 402 oil pan. Everyone said to cut and weld, which didn't make sense to me why you should have to do that.
I talked to a lot of people, and finally found an answer that made more sense. I was told that they are intentionally made long so you can size them for your particular oil pan. We didn't end up cutting/welding mine. We got the right size pipe thread die and extended the threads further up the tube and cut a little off the end. We did a little at a time until it was the right length, the right amount of thread, and fit like we wanted it to.
