$10 paypal to the person who comes up with the winning suggestion

The tube isn't stuck, it's part of the actual stick...

I tried putting a telescoping magnet tool down there but no luck. I don't think there is enough room anyway (4 bolt mains).

I thought about getting a really strong magnet (suggestions on where to get one?) and running it along the oil pan to try to get it the piece of the stick near the drain plug. How strong are the magnets on our speakers anyway?

I'm worried it might be caught near the main cap though, in which case I suppose I could try poking something down there to push the stick into the pan itself?

Any other ideas? I have the canton pan btw.

 

You can try pushing it down into the pan and then out the drain plug or oil level sensor. I think you might have to lift the motor and drop the pan.

 

You could get under there, unbolt the dipstick tube and pull the whole thing out if its still near the hole.

 

How long is the piece thats in the tube? the first 3/4" broke off of mine along time back. I have 4 Neodymium magnets on the bottom of my oil pan (the strongest magnets you can get btw) and just left it there. If it wound up at the bottom of the oil pan i wouldnt worry about it to much. I tryed getting it to snake out of the oil pan drain but i didnt get it. Its been there about a year now.

If the piece is longer and still in the tube, then have you tryed to take the tube out and see if you can grab it?

 

It's not the dipstick tube, it's the stick. I pulled the tube out, the stick is still in the pan, boss, or windage tray.

Inch or two maybe. It's not in the tube.

 

Jack car up high on pass side. Drain oil, dipstick if in pan should now be by drain plug if it does not come out when you drain it. Drain into screen so you can see it when it comes out. if it does not come out, bang with hammer, it should bounce around, untill it comes to drain hole. good luck...

 

just take off the dip stick tube, its one bolt.

 

A piece broke off dummy.

I've had this happen to me i guess mine kinked and broke off.

Step one: Drain oil.

Step two: Get a magnet and sweep the underside of the pan with it until you hear it grab the piece of the dip stick this might take a bit of time. drag the magnet along the bottom side of the pan slowly to the drain hole, hopefully the piece of the dipstick has followed the magnet to the drain hole. keep the magnet there so it hold the piece of dipstick in that position. Have your needle nose pliers ready hold the magnet with one hand and with the other grab the piece of dipstick with the pliers.

This method worked awesome for me and took about 10mins to get it in the right position to pull it out with the pliers. takes some patience but it works pretty good.

 

No luck with the hammer or the magnet. I also tried sticking a telescoping magnet and a grabber inside the pan, still no luck.

 

Disassemble the motor. Good luck.







J/K!

 

Sounds like a great time to upgrade your rod bolts :-)

 

Well, **** my life. I tried the magnet trick, I tried using a hammer... I tried using a telescoping magnet in the drain plug hole...

I even tried using a borescope (camera probe) but the only one I could find would only fit through the low oil level sensor hole, not the drain plug hole. I even ordered one with a probe that would fit through the drain plug hole and home depot emailed me saying it they were sold out.

So I decided to try dropping the pan. It's a canton pan and I have a mcleod scattershield - figures the pan won't clear the motor plate for the scattershield. It's not even close with the motor/trans jacked up and the oil pan hanging there. I loosened the kmember a lot too.

So if I want to get the pan out of there I either have to drop the kmember or the transmission as far as I can tell since the pan is hanging there I am trying to use a flashlight to look through the front and see if I can see it but at first glance, no luck.

Anyone have any other ideas? I thought of maybe dumping a shitload of cheap/used (but fairly clean) oil and see if I can flood it to the bottom near the drain plug hole. Like I said though, any other bright ideas?

LOL this is a fresh forged 383 with all good/high dollar stuff for parts.

 

Dropping the pan is what I'd do. You can't get it out of the way without the motor being pulled as you noted, because of that crossmember, but you should be able to move it around and hopefully poke a magnet/ get a skinny hand in there.

 

My pan and bellhousing are stock, but I was able to remove mine by raising the motor and trans (don't break your oil pressure switch in the process like I did the first time). I still couldn't pull the pan until I unbolted the oil pump and let it drop. It wouldn't let the pan down due to the baffle (not the windage tray) catching the pickup screen. It's really good if you can have someone hold the oil pump drive shaft in when you drop it so you don't have to try to get it all lined up again.

 

Trust me, it's not going to drop without the transmission coming off. I think even if I pulled the kmember (kmember bolts are practically finger loose already) it would get stuck on the steering rack. It's that bad. At this point I'm thinking of flushing it with oil and leaving it. Maybe put some magnets inside and outside of the pan.

 

I would keep trying to get it out with a magnet or even stick some mecanics wire in the drain hole and see if you can hit the piece that'll give you an idea of where it is sitting in the pan. if not I'd take the timming cover off before I separated the tranny to drop the pan. Taking the timming cover off will give you some room to look in the pan and stick a magnet in to fetch the piece out. Although I wouldn't be to worried about leaving the piece in there.

 

Was reading your newest thread....hope your PCM didn't get fried...anyway....got me to thinking that I haven't heard any news on how ya got the dipstick out.

 

This just happened to me as well. A previous owner put on some kind of aftermarket headers and installed a smaller aftermarket dipstick and tube. I pulled the dipstick to check the oil before a long trip (after already driving all day) and noticed about a whole inch of the tip of the dipstick (the actual measuring part of the stick) had broken off completely. It almost look like something hit it and broke it inside the engine. Needless to say, I have drained the oil and didn't see the piece come out. I immediately took a magnet to the oil pan and knocked on it several times to listen for any clanking metal with no success.

My question now is, some people have chosen to just leave the piece in the oil pan for more than a year's worth of time, as @SoxXpupPeT said,What's the WORST that could happen if I leave the piece in and continue to drive it? Due to it is now raining/snowing off and on in the freezing temps and I have no heated garage to work in, I am looking for alternatives.. haha HELP?

 

If your luck with LT1s is anything like mine It'll probably get whipped up by a combination of the crank and that perfect pothole and somehow get itself wedged between a rod and the block causing the engine to grind to a halt... or it may just float around and not hurt anything.

You can pull the pan by lifting the engine up a couple of inches, which usually requires unbolting the motor mounts. That's probably the safest way to go.

 

Wow... thats a complete bitch.

Once you get that smaller scope, go hunting. At that point.... you might want to drop the pan. i know your pain though, but dropping the K member down enough isn't THAT bad, just a bit of a pain in the ***. I wouldn't trust a piece of metal floating around in there.