oil dipstick with aftermarket exhaust
 

OK, this little project is driving me crazy with all the little piddly sh%t details!

I was mocking up the accessories on the new engine last night, and it does not look like my existing dipstick is going to work with either the Gil manifolds or the Lightnings. I'm sure I'm not the first to confront this issue. My old dipstick was bolted to the Merc manifold. The Gil's do not have a provision for this, si I will have to anchor it somewhere else.

Does anyone have any creative solutions? If anyone has a factory HP 500 dipstick that came on the Gil-equipped motors, I may be interested.

If the bolt plate can move up and down the dipstick tube you should be able to find another place to bolt it. If not cut the old one off and make another bolt plate that can slide up and down the dipstick tube.

Yep, plate is welded to tube. Bigger problem is that the tube is curved out to clear stock manifolds, so it doesn't come close to the block.

I guess I'll just have to get creative and fabricate something. I just thought someone had a simple solution. Thought about one of the fancy braided flexible dipsticks, but don't know if they work very well. Looks kind of like a gimmick for the street rod crowd to me.

To make matters worse, the end of the old dipstick broke off where it had the hold going through the stick for oil level fill indicator. I might see if it is possible to shorten the tube a corresponding amount and just put new level marks on the stick. Little crap like this is eating up my time on this project, and I need to get this engine dropped in by the weekend!