OK a couple of days ago I am trying to get the oil out of my 98 twin 454s thru the dipstick tube. No big deal right? Well my old suction unit isn't working so I buy a new one. I get the port side finished and move to the starboard. After getting all the oil out I remove the suction tube and there is a long very thin but strong wire stuck in the rubber fitting of the suction tube. It is as long as the dipstick itself. But not the dipstick. But what is it? And no I don't believe it was in the tubing before I started. Any thoughts?

you get it out? My guess it was an old dip stick, some wire to some sort of oil monitoring system, or somebody got something stuck and tried using that wire to fish it out.

I hate to create panic but if I found this inspecting the oil pan or the heads on the engine might be in order.

What are you using to change the oil? I wonder if you or someone before you was using some sort of suction hose that was braided with a wire or something and it unstrung while sucking the oil out?

That wire is from one of your suction tubes included with the oil changer. It is to prevent the tube from kinking when bending it.

I have seen some different style dipsticks where it indeed looks like a wire...has a small ball on the end to help it go down the tube. May have broken off at some point and someone replaced it with a normal dipstick??