Dip stick o-ring..

[RRSperry]

Ok, what the secret?

Ive been changing the oil pan gasket, which necessitates taking the dip stick out. Ok, get the gasket changed, put new o ring in the groove in the oil pan, lube it up, put dip stick in it, insert screw driver in top of tube, and tap it home. Seems fine, no movement .

fill with oil and it’s leaking...

whats the secret? I’ll drain some oil, pull the tube, and see if the oring is still in there. Glad I got two...

but what’s the deal? Should I have put the ring on the tube and then seated it?

thanks.

[Braymond141]

O-ring goes on the tube first, insert into pan, bottom out by hand, and then tap it home with the screwdriver + mallet.

[RRSperry]

I’ll give it another go.. thanks Brett.

[JitteryJoe]

I just placed on tube, lubed it a bit, and pushed into place. You get a slight pop fell when it hits home. I did not need to hammer but your mileage may vary.

[scooper]

Rich, clean out the seat area of the hole in the pan then put o-ring onto dipstick. Put a little fresh oil on the o-ring too.

[RRSperry]

Thanks Edger.. THat's what I thought. But I went the other way. I put the ring in the groove in the pan then put the tube in... Methinks I might have nicked it... It's a total pita to get there. I've got the SC oil drain, and a couple of bypass hoses in really colg up the area...

Anyway,

Merry Christmas everyone...

[Braymond141]

What port is your SC draining to?

[GG///M3]

What port is your SC draining to?

Should be interesting

[RRSperry]

There is a Y welded about 2” above the oil pan. SC drains down to there. I’ll post a picture tomorrow.

[Braymond141]

Ah, ok. As long as you have a dedicated free flowing drain. Some guys try to drain off the OBD2 ccv port on the dipstick which is highly restrictive.

[RRSperry]

It's the dipstick tube that VF supplied with the kit. Since my car is a 95 it didn't have the ccv drain.

[Braymond141]

It's the dipstick tube that VF supplied with the kit. Since my car is a 95 it didn't have the ccv drain.

FYI; Vortech blames the oil in the intake system off excessive pressure buildup from dipstick tube added drains such as yours. It causes oil to come out of the mechanical seal on the impeller side. Even though it is free flowing, it is something to consider. A dedicated drain tapped into the top of the pan is how I ran mine.

[RRSperry]

I’ve never had an issue.

[RRSperry]

Well, I think I got the o-ring in... what a pita... Here's a pic of the Y dipstick.

[NeilM]

Well, I think I got the o-ring in... what a pita... Here's a pic of the Y dipstick.

Which looks to be the regular OBD2 E36 dipstick tube. However the two tubes take different size O-rings because the Y-tube has a larger diameter at the bottom:

95 and earlier (straight tube): P/N 11431287541, 14.5x3
96 and later (Y-tube): P/N 11431740045, 19.5x3

This may account for your difficulty in assembly.

The reason I know this is that my car has the Euro dual-pickup oil pump/pan. That pan is sized to accept the smaller diameter non-Y dipstick tube, which I retrofitted as part of the conversion. (It also has a separate fitting for the oil drain tube.) In addition the early and late tubes have different mounting brackets about halfway up, which also has to be dealt with. I cut the old one off my original tube and welded it to the new one, and yes, that was a PITA.

Neil

[RRSperry]

A 19.5 wouldn't fit in the pan at all. The tube is 14.5. I think VF welded it up. It's identicle to the stock 95 tube, but with the Y welded on.

In fact I ordered an 19.5 o-ring, and it wasn't even close to fitting. I think it was tough because it was fiddly, as opposed to not fitting.

[Braymond141]

Well, I think I got the o-ring in... what a pita... Here's a pic of the Y dipstick.

Looking good under there, Rich!

[RRSperry]

It took a while to clean. I think the old o-ring wasn’t really in right. I didn’t get a chance to blast the pan, just used the parts washer.. cleaned up pretty good.

i had to recenter the steering coupler. Finish everything, lowered the car, and steering wheel was 30deg off... No idea how that happened. I centered the rack, centered the wheel, put on the coupler, and bam, off...Well I’m getting better at it...lol

[TostitoBandito]

I somehow got my coupler on perfectly centered when I did mine, to my amazement, but my eyeball/tape measure front toe after the rack swap was awful. I think my front left was toed out like 6 degrees or something silly, and I had to hold the wheel partly turned right to keep it straight on the drive to the alignment shop. Probably could've gotten it closer in my garage, but hey it was drivable so why not let the pros deal with it. Also, I just wanted my multi-week project to be over at that point.

[RRSperry]

Eiterway, something was wrong. I had centered the rack, and the wheel/slip ring was centered. And the rack was my original rack that I hadn't touched, not like it was something unknown. What I think happened was, I moved the shaft (steering unlocked) while trying to fit the coupler. So the coupler had to get moved, otherwise, the rack/wheel wouldn't be centered. (if you know what I mean, like 1.2 turns one way, and 1.9 the other, instead of 1.5ish both ways.) At least that was my thought.. Now I'll schedule another alignment.

[NeilM]

That process is a PITA, or at least it always has been for me. The coupler is so hard to get on/off that something is almost bound to get bumped out of alignment. I spray down the coupler split with fluorescent orange spray paint. Enough gets down there to make a nice reference line on the shaft spline.

If you think these are parts you'll be messing with again there's a trick you can do to make future assembly/disassembly easier. Drill out one side only of the 6mm pinch bolt hole and tap it as M8. When you thread in an M8 bolt it'll bottom out against the stock hole on the other side of the split. Crank on another half turn or so and the pinch will spread and allow the coupler to slip on/off. Substitute the stock M6 bolt for final assembly (using a washer on the enlarged side for purchase).

Neil

[blckstrm]

That process is a PITA, or at least it always has been for me. The coupler is so hard to get on/off that something is almost bound to get bumped out of alignment. I spray down the coupler split with fluorescent orange spray paint. Enough gets down there to make a nice reference line on the shaft spline.

If you think these are parts you'll be messing with again there's a trick you can do to make future assembly/disassembly easier. Drill out one side only of the 6mm pinch bolt hole and tap it as M8. When you thread in an M8 bolt it'll bottom out against the stock hole on the other side of the split. Crank on another half turn or so and the pinch will spread and allow the coupler to slip on/off. Substitute the stock M6 bolt for final assembly (using a washer on the enlarged side for purchase).

Neil

That is genius!