Dipstick tube extend to bottom of pan? Merc 420's
 

Hello,

I just picked up my new boat today from winter storage. 1989 Fountain Lightning 33. It has twin 454's. 420 HP model with TRS drives. This is my first day with the boat, so I wanted to get the spring maintenance done. So the first thing I did was change the engine oil.

My previous boat had a mercruiser 5.0 in it, and that was easy to change the oil. I bought the hand pump that you attach to the dipstick tube. It worked great.

On the fountain, it didnt work so well. I was able to pump about a half quart, or quart out of the dipstick. But then I started sucking air. So i crawled down and ended up pulling the drain plugs out of the oil pans, which wasnt terrible, just a messy pain.

Do the dipstick tubes on 420's go all the way to the bottom of the oil pan? Sure doesn't seem like it.

Anyone have any tricks for changing oil? I tried sticking a 5/16" OD tube down the distick tube, but it didnt go all way way in. The small tube seemed to be hitting something right where the dipstick tube met the top of the oil pan. I used a clear flexible hose, but I heard a more rigid nylon hose would work better?

Thanks,

Matt

Buy the Mercury kits that replace the oil drain plugs with tubes that you extend out your bilge drains.

This thread has more info: http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/g...line-help.html

And it's been discussed here many times in the past. Sucking oil out the dipstick tube is the worst way to change the oil.