Gramma's Car: the new project!

[njsteve]

Ran into the first engineering problem of the day...

The dipstick tube assembly that routes the dipstick away from the crankshaft and toward the oil pan sump had a little glitch in translating to a block five years younger.

See if you can identify the issue:




Yes, the bracket was designed for a 1975 block that had the #3 main cap with the two mounting bosses not a 1970 block that had #2 and #4 caps with the mounting bosses for a windage tray.

[njsteve]

So I went to the old bolt bucket and found a Pontiac cylinder head bolt with the stud that the negative battery cable mounts to. It was the perfect stand to mount the modified bracket to. Thankfully 455 blocks are predrilled for four bolt mains and the bolt just screwed right in. (along with some red Loctite to keep it in place).



And after two hours of test fitting, drilling, heating, bending, reheating, and rebending, the bracket mounted up nice and tight in the correct position. I used red Loctite on the nut as well as centerpunching the edges of the nut to crimp the threads slightly. I test fit the oil pan with the dipstick tubes in place, as well as spun the crank to make sure it was a long way away from the reciprocating assembly zone.

[scuncio]

Nice fix. I have the same dipstick...but I'm using a '70 YH block which I believe (hope?) has those mounting bosses!

[njsteve]

If you're using a 70 block you probably will run into the same problem. They ran a windage tray and the lower dipstick tube attached to it. Do you have the 70 tray and dipstick tube?

The later model years got rid of the windage tray and used an oil pan with a welded-in baffle, instead. Since I am using the 1975 baffled oil pan i wanted to retain the matching dipstick assembly.

[njsteve]

Here's a shot of an earlier block with the factory windage tray mounted to the #2 and #4 main caps. When they went to the baffled pan, they stopped using the windage tray.



And the later baffled pan that replaced it. It prevented oil starvation. Due to the gentle slope in the center of the pan, the non-baffled pans were notorious for the starvation issues on deceleration when all the oil tsunami'd to the front of the pan causing the oil pickup to suck air.

[TMagda]

Steve, just curious. How do you ensure the dip stick sits in the proper location to give you accurate oil level readings?

[njsteve]

The lower half of the tube is bent at a specific angle and connects with the intermediate tube which is pressed Into the block. So, other than adjusting the swivel left or right, the angle is preset.

[SuperNovaSS]

It seems like if you are worried about the dipstick possibly being inaccurate than you can verify on the initial fillup if you know what the oil capacity is supposed to be. Looking great Steve! Something tells me this isn't going to be a Grandma's car anymore. I imagine you are going to run a bit more aggressive bump stick. Are there any other changes coming like a converter or rear gears?


Jason

[njsteve]

The cam is a Summit Racing #2802. It's the trick low budget ($78) hot cam for this setup. It came highly recommended from several Pontiac engine builders. Rear gears are 3.42 which may even be too much already. My SD455 has 3.08 gears and runs right in the most potent portion of the torque band.

[SuperNovaSS]

Interesting. I would have thought the gears would 2.XX.


Jason