Can you plug dipstick hole?

[mob]

Is there a way I can temporarily plug the dipstick hole? I just want to start my car for a few minutes and give it a test run, not driving it anywhere. I already have the headers on so no room at all to put in a freeze plug. I also would like it to be temporary so that I can put a dipstick in later on. Can I just use one of those wooden cone shaped plugs?

 

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

Jam a wooden dowel rod down in it. I actually had to drive my car for quite a while with a broken off dipstick tube. It really didn't leak that much.

 

[strattoc]

Think with your dipstick jimmy!

Yeah I would think that a wooden dowel would work or even try to find a rubber plug, I dont remember but is there a gromet or a gasket that the dipstick slides into?

 

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

You could probably stick a pencil in the hole and it would work perfect as long as it's the round kind. I'd leave it unsharpened or just sharpened enough to taper the end..i wouldn't want a lead broke off in the oil pan.

 

[mob]

Cool thanks guys, strat I think the dipstick just slides into the hole in the block, I think there is an oring on the tube that seals it.

 

[NIKwoaC]

Why can't you put the dipstick in? Doesn't the dipstick tube just push into the hole and then bolt onto one of the header bolts?

Anyway, another option is one of those expanding rubber drain plugs that you can buy in various sizes at the auto parts store.

 

[mob]

I dont have a dipstick, dont really want to buy one right now. Just want to test run it. Thats a good idea on the rubber expansion plug, I have to see if I have enough room under there to tighten it though.

 

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

Im pretty certain the tube just jams in anyway, i dont recall ever seeing an o ring on it. Theres a flair a few inches up to stop it from going in too far but theyre all just metal. You could get one off just about any car in a junkyard probably for free.

 

[NIKwoaC]

Im pretty certain the tube just jams in anyway, i dont recall ever seeing an o ring on it. Theres a flair a few inches up to stop it from going in too far but theyre all just metal. You could get one off just about any car in a junkyard probably for free.

This is what mine looks like, but I wasn't sure if they added an o-ring to later models, so I wasn't going to question it. Lord knows the 4-eye stuff is always a little different, haha.

 

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

Well my dipstick is out of an '89, but then again the engine itself is out of god knows what before it was stroked. I'm almost certain that as far as 302s go, all the dipsticks are the same. The only differences would be if there was some kind of weird oil pan under it that changed the oil level somehow and then the stick itself would read different. Another thing could be how it attaches up by the header...but mine isn't bolted down at all...it's just jammed in there. I had to sort of custom bend the oil pan end after it was in the block to clear the windage tray, so it's not gonna slip out.

 

[Beasty306GT]

the dipstick just sticks into the block no o-ring..there cheap enough just buy one u will need one anyways why wait

 

[elarm1]

a bolt and some rtv should do the trick

 

[rd]

I tapped one and installed a threaded plug, since I had a 79 Mustang pan that has a dipstick fitting, so that would work also. Should not hurt if you put the dipstick in later.

Note that 302's have come with dipsticks in the timing cover, the oil pan and the block. I ended up with a late pan with no dipstick hole on and early block with no dipstick hole....for a while.