How long is your dipstick?

[thescifiguy]

My '72 GT has a weird dipstick. It's got part of another dipstick welded onto it to make it longer. I have an aluminum oil pan with the dipstick tube molded in on an angle from the side.
My issue is that I can't be sure that my hybrid dipstick is reading correctly. I can't tell if the bottom half of my current stick is the original one and reads right. I ordered a new stick from OGTS and they sent the flat spring steel kind with rubber grommet about 2/3 of the way from the end. My aluminum oil pan's dipstick tube ends at the top of the pan where the gasket is and has a 1/4" hole on top. The new dipstick will fit in the hole, but the stick bottoms out after about 5-6" leaving the rubber grommet 4-5" away from the top of the dipstick tube. The rubber grommet would never fit in the 1/4" hole, either. The lower half of the hybrid stick that came with the car(which I'm guessing is an original Opel stick, but not necessarily for an aluminum pan) is made of half-round steel and has a sort of domed washer welded about 5" from the end. It just drops into the dip stick tube hole, stops at the washer, stays there by gravity alone, and can swivel and spin to it's heart's content.

That can't be right! Am I missing some kind of extender for the tube? If someone else out there has an aluminum pan with molded in tube that seems the same as mine, how far down from the top of the tube is the "full" line on your dipstick? I could flip the rubber grommet around on my new OGTS dipstick, so that the flat top rests on the top of the dipstick tube, and slide it down until it stops the stick before it bottoms out, but I need to know how far from the top of the tube the "full" line is.

Info please.....

[hrcollinsjr]

That would be none of your business!

Too obvious, I couldn't pass this one up.

Harold

[Ooooner]

That would be none of your business!

Too obvious, I couldn't pass this one up.

Harold

Hee Hee Hee... Only you would know Harold....

[SpringGT]

Sounds like the PO has been using some of those dipstick enhancement products..
Seriously, just use your hybrid dipstick since it fits the pan, then drain the oil and add it back to the engine one quart at a time, and mark the dipstick with a file notch for each quart added. Then you know it's right.

[baz]

i use a viagra dip stick


harder to bend but gives a deeper reading for longer





any bets some one wishes they had worded their question better

[thescifiguy]

I'm a master at attention getting thread titles!

You should see the ones I rejected.......!

[wrench459]

Does it look anything like this?
Thats a 5 Qt. non stock pan that I run a half Qt. low with a crank scraper.

[Gordy]

I just received my OGTS dip stick for aluminum oil panned 1.9. It is the flat metal variety and the rubber "plug" on the stick plugs securely into the pan's tube. I did have to bend the tube out away from the block a little bit to not have the sticks "round handle" jamed up tight to the engine. That also made the stick go in easier without jamming up half way in. If it will help I can measure it for you.
It almost sounds like the oil pan dip stick tube is not right on yours.

[thescifiguy]

Yeah, Gordy, it seems like I'm missing some kind of extender tube that used to be there. Currently, the tube ends at the seam between the pan and the block. I just did some measurements and the new dipstick measures 18" from loop to tip with the grommet about 12" from the end. Only 7" will fit into the pan. Possibly someone put some kind of metal cap with a 1/4" hole to reduce the amount of oil that MUST squirt out of the thing when the engine's running(I'm still dealing with issues related to the car sitting in a garage for 17 years and haven't driven it yet).

Does anybody have an aluminum pan with a dipstick tube that extends another 5" or so above the pan/block seam? Care to sell me a spare one?

Gordon (another Gordy) Payton

[gtopeler]

I just measured my dipsticks and:

aluminum pan with 'pipe' -both styles
16 1/2" total length
11 1/2" inner length part that goes in pan
1 1/4" low mark-from tip
2 3/8" full mark- from tip

standard in-the block
14 1/2" total length
3/8 to low mark
1 1/2" to full mark.

I hope this may help.
Ron M.

[markandson]

Yeah, Gordy, it seems like I'm missing some kind of extender tube that used to be there. Currently, the tube ends at the seam between the pan and the block. I just did some measurements and the new dipstick measures 18" from loop to tip with the grommet about 12" from the end. Only 7" will fit into the pan. Possibly someone put some kind of metal cap with a 1/4" hole to reduce the amount of oil that MUST squirt out of the thing when the engine's running(I'm still dealing with issues related to the car sitting in a garage for 17 years and haven't driven it yet).

Does anybody have an aluminum pan with a dipstick tube that extends another 5" or so above the pan/block seam? Care to sell me a spare one?

Gordon (another Gordy) Payton

The aluminum pan that I have has a tube that extends up from the pan and I also have the proper dip stick for it. Both items are at home and I am at work so I can't measure anything right now.

[thescifiguy]

I gave OGTS a call and they figured it out. Apparently, my '72 GT has a pre-'68 Kadette engine! They used a really half-assed dipstick on them: A 3/16" wide half-round piece of steel that's folded almost in half to form a handle and just a washer with a felt washer between it and the top of the tube. The 1/4" hole in the top of the 3" long dipstick tube is normal. To make the dipstick stay in place you sort of spread the two halves of the half-round stock apart. This explains why the original stick had another stick welded to it: The short original stick is easy to reach in a Kadette, but a GT is too tight in that area.
The bad news: I'll have a dipstick tube that's so short and poorly designed that I'll always have a little oil weeping out of it.
The good news: It's probably an early high compression 1.9 engine instead of the low compression '72 engine!!! Yippeee!

[Opelkurt]

I gave OGTS a call and they figured it out. Apparently, my '72 GT has a pre-'68 Kadette engine! They used a really half-assed dipstick on them: A 3/16" wide half-round piece of steel that's folded almost in half to form a handle and just a washer with a felt washer between it and the top of the tube.

My '68 Kadett wagon had that setup. Worked perfectly, never leaked. Stick was easy to read and always stayed tight, lasted forever. It worked better than most I've seen on newer Opels.

-Kurt

[thescifiguy]

I made a replacement "felt washer" out of a Scotch Brite abrasive pad, put the old stick back in, and fired the beast up. No leaks, so I guess I'm okay.

Now I can focus on the other 10 places that oil is leaking from.....

Anything is better than the leaking I had to deal with from the auto tranny fill tube in my last GT. I almost had to drive around with a bucket under the car!

Thanks for the help guys!

[oldopelguy]

The only reason for the dip stick tube to leak is if the engine is pressurized by blow-by. Oil doesn't normally run up hill.

You might want to pop your oil fill cap off with the engine running and see what kind of draft you get coming out. If the case is being pressurized you'll never get the oil leaks to stop until you get the excessive gases removed or stopped.