paul1988

Hi everyone,
I'm a new poster here; I have been working for a while on my 1988 C4. I finished replacing the head gaskets, manifold gaskets etc .... I got the head lapped, cleaned up every single engine component beside the block. When reassembling the passenger side manifold last week I broke the dipstick tube. I bought a new dipstick (the shiny chromed from Lokar) and now want to install it.

Yesterday I took of the oil pan. I started banging on the piece of tube that was left there. I used vice grips etc... I wasn't able to get it off and the only thing I got from this was a dipstick tube that is broken from the top and the bottom.

So my question: what is left for me? Should I drill it out? Use a screwdriver/chisel/punch and hammer to try to drive the stuck pieces out of the hole?
Any good tips for me guys?

confab

It's tapered if I remember right, and goes in from the top.

Can you clean up the bottom with dremel wheel or something, get on it with an appropriate sized pin punch and drive it up and out from the bottom?

Harbor Freight has a set of pin punches for not a lot.

s carter

As said above, clean up the bottom and try to tap out if that doesn't work get a small/thin Sabor Saw blade in a vise grip score the inner walls of tube. Without saying TRY not to damage block.collapse the tube in on it's self and tap out

DUB

I would go with a punch myself. I have had to get broken ones out and that has always seemed to work for me.

Even if I had to use a much smaller diameter punch and get INSIDE the tube at a slight angle and get it to get a bite on the inner wall and slowly get it to come out.

DUB

paul1988

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I just came back from Harbor Freight with a bigger hammer and a set of long pin punches. I will try to tackle this tomorrow morning.
Nothing like memorial day to work on the Vette

paul1988

Well good news. The pin punch worked fine! Thanks again for the tip. I used the 5/16 one, since 3/8 was too big.

I had to remove the oil pump and the baffle to punch the dipstick at the proper angle. In this process I broke the plastic sleeve of the intermediate shaft, and I replaced it with a new one from melling.
Now I have to figure how to slide the new dipstick though.
I have a Lokar ED-5001 apparently designed for passenger side SBC but the fit is really tight and I can't insert it more than a quarter inch... Hard to hammer a flexible dipstick tube! Here and there I find conflicting information telling that roller blocks have a different size dipstick hole?

This oil pan job was not really hard, but the space is very tight and I hate having all kind of oily dirt fall on me while I lie on my back on my driveway... but at that age it was clearly overdue.

confab

No idea about lokar oil dipsticks.. But I do transmissions here and occasionally have their trans dipsticks come through, (the flexible ones) and they fit fine. There is no problem whatsoever.

I would be concerned about wrong part.

Glad you got it out! WOOT!

Krusty84

I am not a fan of the Lokar dipsticks. I have had multiple fitment issues on SBCs and have had to either modify them or return them. If I have a dipstick problem I just order a stock OEM one.

Lokar products are for show and not functionality. Flexible to Lokar means that it is constructed of flex tube, not that it will function in a flexed/bent manner, which is confusing to those purchasing one solely for its flexing capabilities. My second knock on them comes from the back and forth with their customer service over the dipstick. Eventually they gave in and refunded my money but it was quite the process that involved multiple phone calls, pictures and emails. They ended up telling me that their flexible dipsticks are for sprucing up appearances and not meant to be a solution.

paul1988

I will try to sand it with some abrasive sand paper. It is not *that* oversized and it might be enough for me to slide it it. It feel lazy about talking with the customer service.
Now that I think of it, it could also come from the fact that part of it rubs on the stock exhaust manifold heat shield and doesn't allow me to slide at the proper angle.

paul1988

Alright, I am finally seeing the end of the tunnel. I was stuborn enough to make the Lokar dipstick fit and not buy one from GM

Measured with a caliper, the Lokar dipstick tube it is the same diameter (about 9.3 mm) as the piece I removed from the block.

However the aluminium base did not clear the heat shield of the exhaust manifold (I am still using the stock ones), which is why I initially believed that it was oversized.
I used some big pliers to dent the heat shield and I use a long prybar and a hammer to make the dipstick tube fit all the way in the hole.

Finally, I had to slightly bend the bracket to the proper shape so that the fitting is close to perfect. All this combined took me a bit more than a hour to figure out, but I eventually did it.
I guess the lokar products are designed for people using headers and not the stock manifolds, hard to blame them, but I am fine with the current exhaust setup at this moment.

Enclosed, a picture to see how it fits.