Oil Dipstick problem

2297 Views 13 Replies 9 Participants Last post by baz, Mar 19, 2004

baronbors

Discussion Starter · Mar 15, 2004

I have a 68-69 1.9L engine in my 71 GT. The engine , for several reasons came out of a Kadett. A Kadett engine in a GT makes for checking the oil VERY akward. You have to snake your arm past the Weber, around the hot manifold, past the oil sender unit and wires, into the dark depths of an engine block and try to locate the black hole of the dip stick. Can't tell you how many time I have burnt my arm doing this. Is there any way short of replacing the oil pan with a dip stick on the drivers side to fix this problem? I thought about seeing if a tube might be able to be shoved into rhe dip stick hole and put in a longer reaching stick.
Has any one ever tried this?

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Bosco2

· #2 · Mar 15, 2004

your best bet would be to change the oil pan. I put a 69/70 kadette block in my 73 but I used the 73 steel oil pan and drilled a hole in the block on the starter side......there is a place for it and even a pilot hole on mine. The hole needs to be 13mm and you will need the filler tube and probably the oil pickup tube from the later model.

or it seems I've heard there is an aluminum oil pan....maybe off a Manta??.... that has an dipstick hole on the starter side that will fit and not require drilling thru the block. I think this oil pan even has cooling fins on it. I never could find one in time.

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baz

· #3 · Mar 15, 2004

theres nothing to stop you putting an extention on the kadett dip tube just get a dip stick long enough to give you the clearance over the inlet and make sure the old and new level marks are in the same place use a lenth of rubber tube if you want just route it away from any heat sorceand put a worm clip on to stop it moving on the old tube

bosco my gt (70)had an alli pan and bellhousing when i got it

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greensmurf20

· #4 · Mar 15, 2004

bosco, i have one of those fined aluminium manta pans.....sand blasted and clear coated, but the dipstick broke off it. would be of good use if somebody fealt like putting another tube in it???

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tekenaar

· #5 · Mar 15, 2004

baz said:
theres nothing to stop you putting an extention on the kadett dip tube just get a dip stick long enough to give you the clearance over the inlet and make sure the old and new level marks are in the same place use a lenth of rubber tube if you want just route it away from any heat sorceand put a worm clip on to stop it moving on the old tube

bosco my gt (70)had an alli pan and bellhousing when i got it

Owning a '69 Kadett with one of these pans on it, I see one problem with fabricating a dipstick tube extension . . . the dipstick hole in the alu pan is only ~1/4" (6.5mm) in size and retains the stock dipstick directly by spring tension of its split shaft. If you put a tube inside this hole, the ID would be too small to use any of the flat-bladed style longer dipsticks as they have at least 1/4" width.

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oldopelguy

· #6 · Mar 15, 2004

sight glass

One "feature" I installed in my Kadett as a result of my time in Uncle Sam's Canoe Club is a sight glass on the divers side of the oil pan. All I do is bend down and look at the oil pan through the wheel well to know where my oil level is.

If you're going to fabricate a tube and longer dip stick I'd suggest taking a que from Toyota and using a piece of round rod instead of the flat stuff. Maybe even smash the end with a vice or vice-grips to get a nice cross-hatch in the "normal" range?

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jimsky

· #7 · Mar 16, 2004

Sight glasses are standard fare on virtually all motorcycle engines, but I've never seen them on automobile engines. I wonder why? I guess it's the get down on you knees issue. Personally I like a sight glass, very simple to check, and your hands don't get dirty.

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baz

· #8 · Mar 16, 2004

thanks fro the heads up otto
im not versed with the kadett engine so didnt know its a straight fit
you could still do it but use a stainless gas/tig filler wire to make the dipper as its only 1.6 MM and flexible and use micro bore heating pipe (1/4") as the guide tube

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bear

· #9 · Mar 16, 2004 (Edited)

On my V-6 engine, there is a sensor on the side of the oil pan that turns on a low level light on the instrument panel of the donor cars. One of the circuits I'm integrating into the GT.

Ron

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kwilford

· #10 · Mar 17, 2004

The aluminum oil pan John Warga rescued from the '69 Kadett was made of aluminum, with the dip stick on the passenger side. But I believe it also has the casting on the drivers side for a dip stick. I want to use it on one of my engines, so I was just thinking of plugging the passenger side hole and drilling out the drivers side. I believe that RallyBob warned me that I will need to use the oil pickup tube from the same engine, since the steel pan (such as was on my '75 Ascona engine) is a different shape, and hence uses a different pickup, than the aluminum pan on the GT and Kadett.

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tekenaar

· #11 · Mar 17, 2004 (Edited)

kwilford said:
The aluminum oil pan John Warga rescued from the '69 Kadett was made of aluminum, with the dip stick on the passenger side. But I believe it also has the casting on the drivers side for a dip stick. I want to use it on one of my engines, so I was just thinking of plugging the passenger side hole and drilling out the drivers side. I believe that RallyBob warned me that I will need to use the oil pickup tube from the same engine, since the steel pan (such as was on my '75 Ascona engine) is a different shape, and hence uses a different pickup, than the aluminum pan on the GT and Kadett.

Late night, Keith?!! LOL

Wouldn't John have the correct pickup tube from that engine as well?

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kwilford

· #12 · Mar 18, 2004

Hmm... It seems I only posted at about 8:47 pm (my time), so I shouldn't have been tired. But maybe I wanted to stress that the pan in question was aluminum. Did I mention that it was aluminum?

John has the oil pickup tube from the Kadett engine, but I was wanting to impress the membership with my ability to quote RallyBob, rather than with my own innate knowledge. Although I knew about the second dip stick casting, being a keen observer of things that might affect my ability to use stuff that other people have and that I covet.

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tekenaar

· #13 · Mar 18, 2004

kwilford said:
Hmm... It seems I only posted at about 8:47 pm (my time), so I shouldn't have been tired. But maybe I wanted to stress that the pan in question was aluminum. Did I mention that it was aluminum?

John has the oil pickup tube from the Kadett engine, but I was wanting to impress the membership with my ability to quote RallyBob, rather than with my own innate knowledge. Although I knew about the second dip stick casting, being a keen observer of things that might affect my ability to use stuff that other people have and that I covet.

Er . . . am I copying you or are you copying me?!!!

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baz

· #14 · Mar 19, 2004

i thought we all did but it was who was caught first

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