Pond Fe:Verifying dipstick

[AC Ventura]

Hi guys,

Getting close now to firing up my Pond FE. I have the inverted tee, Moroso 8 Qt sump amd also oil cooler remote filter. Also a flexible dipstick.

My question if anybody knows, is how do I verify that the dipstick min/max length is correct?

Thanks in advance.

[patrickt]

This gets asked more than you think, and you can really complicate it in your mind if you start adding in the filter volume, the cooler volume, the tilt of the engine, etc. But, it's pretty easy. Since you have an 8 quart pan, with the engine in the car, drain the pan completely and then pour 8 quarts in the sump, put your dipstick in there and then measure the "full" mark at where the oil comes up to. Here's a note from the Canton folks (which is what I have):

To calibrate the dipstick, all you need to do is;

Fill the pan to it's capacity which in your case is 7QTS
Thread the dipstick into the pan (pull the dipstick and check for oil level)
If no oil level is found, remove dipstick from tube and use a tubing cutter to remove 1/4" from the top at each interval
Once you are comfortable with where the full line is, the dipstick is calibrated.

Thank You
Nick Ansaldi
Canton Racing Products

[RockBit]

My dipstick was a generic one with no marks. After I cut off the tube and mounted it, The stick would hit the bottom of the pan before it was full inserted.

I measured and cut the dipstick so that it was near the bottom of the pan, and ground a nice radius on the end.

I poured in one less quart than the pan capacity, waited for the oild to run down into the pan, then made a mark on the dipstick at the indicated level. This is the one quart low mark.

I added the last quart, waited, and mark the oil level to get the full mark. When you spin the oil pump prior to first start, the lines and filter will fill. You can then top the oil level back up to the full mark.

[Ron61]

What Rock Bit did was the way I marked my dip stick. I did mark mine of both sides for the quart low and full marks.

Ron

[AC Ventura]

That's great and simple, thanks guys

[Trubble]

As an owner who sees the need to ADD a dipstick to a (source unknown) pan, I appreciate this posting and replies. Thanks Patrick for the "Keep It Simple" advisory.

[AC Ventura]

I did mine today. It’s a Lokar flexible dipstick. I put in exactly 8 quarts, the declared spec of the pan and ‘Quelle Suprise’, the dipstick showed exactly full. I then filled up the oil cooler and the remote filter and added a little extra for the feed pipes.
We are making the loom as we speak and will spin her over for the first time very soon.

[tortuga]

Morosso makes a nice unit that threads into a canton pan with a locking top which is quite nice. I didn’t like the nissanesque oil symbol on top so I planted it.

[Gaz64]

To calibrate the dipstick, all you need to do is;

Fill the pan to it's capacity which in your case is 7QTS
Thread the dipstick into the pan (pull the dipstick and check for oil level)
If no oil level is found, remove dipstick from tube and use a tubing cutter to remove 1/4" from the top at each interval
Once you are comfortable with where the full line is, the dipstick is calibrated.

Thank You
Nick Ansaldi
Canton Racing Products

If this is the case, what is the service fill after changing the oil?

I thought the quoted pan capacity was meant to be the service fill volume to have the correct level AFTER changing the oil, otherwise how does one know what the service fill is?

Gary

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by Gaz64

I thought the quoted pan capacity was meant to be the service fill volume to have the correct level AFTER changing the oil, otherwise how does one know what the service fill is?

It actually doesn't make a difference on run-of-the-mill oil changes because when you drain your oil you are really only draining the sump. You don't drain your oil cooler, your oil filter, or the nooks and crannies that are holding oil, so those are, and should be, excluded from the sump volume number. In fact, the pan manufacturer has no idea how much total oil is in your system because you might have a remote oil filter, with extra lines, an oil cooler, along with extra lines, and who knows what. But they do know that the sump should hold X quarts. Now, if you do like most of us and fill your filter up manually, then when you change your oil and filter you will add more than the total volume of your pan. So, when I do a "kind of service fill" I tend to add about 3/4's of a quart more than the sump volume of my Canton pan to hit the "FULL" mark because I am adding that directly to the filter. If I used my vacuum sucker to get all the oil, via a suction tube, from my cooler, then my "true service fill" would be, I'm guessing, about a quart more (I never suck the oil out of the cooler). But, regardless of what I do, after I start the car, run it a bit, and then let it rest, the volume that is in the sump should be the designated volume quantity that the manufacturer has listed regardless of whether I have filled the filter separately, or the oil cooler separately.

[Gaz64]

Originally Posted by patrickt

It actually doesn't make a difference on run-of-the-mill oil changes because when you drain your oil you are really only draining the sump. You don't drain your oil cooler, your oil filter, or the nooks and crannies that are holding oil, so those are, and should be, excluded from the sump volume number. In fact, the pan manufacturer has no idea how much total oil is in your system because you might have a remote oil filter, with extra lines, an oil cooler, along with extra lines, and who knows what. But they do know that the sump should hold X quarts. Now, if you do like most of us and fill your filter up manually, then when you change your oil and filter you will add more than the total volume of your pan. So, when I do a "kind of service fill" I tend to add about 3/4's of a quart more than the sump volume of my Canton pan to hit the "FULL" mark because I am adding that directly to the filter. If I used my vacuum sucker to get all the oil, via a suction tube, from my cooler, then my "true service fill" would be, I'm guessing, about a quart more (I never suck the oil out of the cooler). But, regardless of what I do, after I start the car, run it a bit, and then let it rest, the volume that is in the sump should be the designated volume quantity that the manufacturer has listed regardless of whether I have filled the filter separately, or the oil cooler separately.

Thanks for your explanation on this Patrick.
I'm sure others will benefit from this as well.

Gary