dipstick issues

Nipped out to Screwfix for a set of punches, they only have imperial ones and typically the 5/16" is slightly too small and the 3/8" is slightly too big!

May have to borrow some metric ones from work as it's really not shifting. Annoying as I want to finish painting the block!

Wow, looking at the timestamps really hits home how long I've been putting off sorting this! For the benefit of any future owners who have this problem - the dipstick guide is an absolute beast to get out. You have basically zero chance of bashing it out from underneath. Approaches I tried:
 

1. Imperial punches - either slightly too big or slightly too small.
2. Metric punches - same issue.
3. Getting one of the apprentices at work to make me a custom punch of exactly the right diameter - took two attempts to get the size just right, 3 hours of bashing and it only shifted about 4-5mm before the punch started to bend over from the repeated impacts. The head totally mushroomed over as well…
4. Got another punch made. This had a slight cone to the end…unfortunately it had the effect of forming the lip at the base of the guide tube (which previously stuck out about 0.2mm from the hole in the block all around) into a perfectly smooth transition with the step in the bottom of the block. Bummer.
5. Tapped the top of the dipstick to M10 (this is a massive pain - the tube is some kind of steel and it doesn't like being tapped!), wound in some threaded bar and used a slide hammer on the end - with the first blow the end inch of the tube ripped off along the threads.
6. Tapped the top of the tube again and tried the slide hammer again - lost another half-inch or so of tube.
7. Gave up on getting it out in one piece and started drilling. Amazingly this worked!

Start with a 9mm drill and bore it out all the way down. Then go to 9.5mm and go very gently. When you reach top of the block the tube will get stuck to the drill bit and tear off dramatically…

Once you've peeled the middle section off your drill bit you can go for it again - gently does it. Eventually you'll catch the edge of the tube (I helped it fold inwards with a couple of small punches and a hide mallet) and once it does then drilling it will split the tube. At that point it will fall out of the bottom in a few pieces. Success!  [edit: You then need to drill again to 10mm, otherwise you'll ruin your new dipstick tube trying to pound it into the hole. Guess how I found that out?]

Looks like the lip at the bottom is reasonably unscathed as well, though I'll do some measuring of the new tube before it goes in to make sure it won't sit proud. Probably use some silicone instant-gasket as well to prevent leaks. It looks like it'll be as tight as a very tight thing (possibly it's oversized to allow retrofit of the new type to old blocks?) so I've stuck it in the freezer to shrink it a bit. With any luck I can pound it in with the hide hammer and forget it ever happened Stone

nice easy job then

Indeed!

As a bonus bit of irritation, the new dipstick tube has 40mm until the depth stop collar but the lip in the block is 29mm down. It helps if you notice this in advance so you don't waste time wondering why it won't go in any further… So the simple answer appears to be, use a 10mm bit to drill up from the bottom of the block until the old tube falls out, then pound in the new one from the top. Nice of VW to write that down somewhere

Just doing the same job on my engine.

The car is a Campaign Edition undergoing serious restoration (inc engine rebuild) but at some point in its life its lost its original engine and when I got it, it had an early 1.8 block with a short bent wire type dispstick. Probably a good thing as the odometer was showing 215k!

To get the old tube out I cut it ~1cm above where it exits the block then inserted some 8mm studding from the bottom and welded it to the cut end of the tube. The tube can then be easily hit out from the bottom (My engine block is on the bench, just back from being rebored to +0.5mm. This would be a nightmare if the engine was in the car!!).

I too found that the new tube is longer - will get the 10mm drill bit out  - thanks all for posting about this.

Finally could someone confirm that the flange on dipstick tube should be flush with the surface of the block, if not, what should the gap be (dimension X on the picture below?)




Thanks!

 

X=0.  Just keep smacking it until it's all the way in! If you have drilled it to 10mm all the way up from the underside then it will sit flush with the block at that stop collar. I froze the new guide tube first and also added a tiny smear of black silicone to the end beforehand just as an extra security measure, not that I think it really needs it as it'll be tight as hell.

To my shame the engine has still not made it into the car yet since making this post 😂 At least the engine build is finished, just need to finish replacing basically everything on the shell now…

Nothing wrong with a long running project!

Thanks all.

My project is long running too - currently working on replacing the floor……