Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

My engine went back in the car recently as part of a total restoration. I completed a complete rebuild on the engine, but did not I have to confess check on the depth that the dip stick tube should insert into the block (we live and learn!).
I am about to refill the oil and noticed that someone has scribed an additional full mark on the dip stick which caused me to investigate further.
The manual says the dip sick tube should be 4.1 inches above the flange, mine is 2.8 inches. I have tried to pull it out but can’t, it would need to be drifted from within the block. The dip stick does fully go into the tube, I presume I just need to scribe a new full mark 1.3 inches above the official mark and then everything should be fine. Yes?
Just to add, my dip stick has 105E-6752B marked on the end.

If you find a good fitting piece of steel rod, maybe a parallel punch or the like. Slide it down the tube then you can grip the tube with a good pair of vice grips and tap it out by hitting the grips near the tube. Clean and refit correctly with stud adhesive.

Yes, I tried with the round end of a drill bit and mole grips, certainly would not pull and I’m not sure if I could get it from the underside of the car, but I’ll take a look. I really don’t want to ...k it up hence the recalibration of the dip stick being a zero risk option.

Another option would be to put the correct amount of oil in the car , then put a new mark on the dipstick.

Yes, I thought that would be a means of verifying any new mark of the dipstick. I just had a look to see how easy or otherwise it might be to get a good blow on a mole wrench gripped to the tube from under the car. You could clearly use a longish, ~30cm drift, but one would be applying the force at quite an angle to the tube, so possibly limited success assuming the tube is tightly fitted and it is.

Slide hammer? With flange on the tube should be able to rig something up to grip it and gently pull it out.