Plant.One
Well-known member
so i've been chasing a small oil leak in my truck. not like leaving puddles on the ground leak.. but enough to get a whif of oil off the exhaust here and there kind of leak. lost almost half a quart in about 3000 miles type of thing. eventually narrowed it down to my oil dipstick tube. the weld for the mount bracket failing and took out the integrity of the tube in the process.
the oil mark on the left blue tape is the drip down.
so now comes the real fun part.
come to find out....there are two model numbers for possible dipsticks for my engine. i thought i got it wrong both times and low and behold the first try was the right one.. but my OE dipstick had been modified to mount in a different location.
dorman 917-303 (mount between plug #4 and #6) is what i needed, and ordered the first time. [beeep] thing of course when i tried to replace it between #2 and #4 where the OE was... [beeep] near broke the tip off in the pan. thankfully it all came out in 1 peice.
ordered a 917-433 (mounts between #2 and #4) - since 917-303 was "wrong" and i needed to match mine - turns out is a completely different bracket/mount than my motor uses and of course is an inch shorter than my existing dipstick tube anyway.
had to go back a 3rd attempt and get another 917-303 and when we routed it to its proper bracket location between #4 and #6 she slipped right in and mounted up perfectly as expected.
and also probably explains why the weld started failing at the tube and caused my leak. *grrrr*
guessing that when my motor was being re-assembled after the rebuild, as they went to install the tube and the tech "knew" it was supposed to mount between 2&4 (as it does on SOME 5.3's) and just got the break line benders out and tweaked it until she was "right". not realizing there's two different models and two different mount locations. also explains the bit of RTV at the shoulder that was on there.
this is the modified "OE" (left) vs the correct 917-303 replacement (right)
at least its back to 100% now. could have done without that failure though. *grumbles*
the oil mark on the left blue tape is the drip down.
so now comes the real fun part.
come to find out....there are two model numbers for possible dipsticks for my engine. i thought i got it wrong both times and low and behold the first try was the right one.. but my OE dipstick had been modified to mount in a different location.
dorman 917-303 (mount between plug #4 and #6) is what i needed, and ordered the first time. [beeep] thing of course when i tried to replace it between #2 and #4 where the OE was... [beeep] near broke the tip off in the pan. thankfully it all came out in 1 peice.
ordered a 917-433 (mounts between #2 and #4) - since 917-303 was "wrong" and i needed to match mine - turns out is a completely different bracket/mount than my motor uses and of course is an inch shorter than my existing dipstick tube anyway.
had to go back a 3rd attempt and get another 917-303 and when we routed it to its proper bracket location between #4 and #6 she slipped right in and mounted up perfectly as expected.
and also probably explains why the weld started failing at the tube and caused my leak. *grrrr*
guessing that when my motor was being re-assembled after the rebuild, as they went to install the tube and the tech "knew" it was supposed to mount between 2&4 (as it does on SOME 5.3's) and just got the break line benders out and tweaked it until she was "right". not realizing there's two different models and two different mount locations. also explains the bit of RTV at the shoulder that was on there.
this is the modified "OE" (left) vs the correct 917-303 replacement (right)
at least its back to 100% now. could have done without that failure though. *grumbles*