TheSamba.com :: View topic - Small Car Performance's Flexible Dipstick Kit for Subaru Engines

Fri Mar 11, 2022 4:23 pm

Hi!

Does anyone out there have one of these things? It's advertsied here on the SCP site: https://smallcar.com/vanagon/subaru-vanagon-conver...u-engines/

This thing came with my SCP EJ22 conversion on my 1990 Vanagon, which included their oil pan. I guess it's part of their oil pan design.

The trouble I have is that I can never get a solid stream of oil in the tube. It's always broken up into 2 or more streams. And the markings are hard to read. So, all in all, I have to guess at how much or how little oil is in the pan.

I'd like to go pack to the old, reliable metal dip sticks. Has anyone converted back to that with an SCP oil pan?

Thanks!

Fri Mar 11, 2022 4:54 pm

I have used one of those for 12 years. No issues. What do you do when you use it to read the oil level?

Fri Mar 11, 2022 5:06 pm

dobryan wrote: I have used one of those for 12 years. No issues. What do you do when you use it to read the oil level?

I hold my thumb over the top and pull the ube out of its sleeve. I make sure to keep the part of the tube where i'm trying to read the oil pointed down. WHen I'm done, I blow the oil out by blowing into the top.

Note that when I pull the tube out of its sleevs/tube, I see the break in the oil streams.

What do you do?

Fri Mar 11, 2022 6:49 pm

Mine doesn’t have a break in the “core sample”.
You can scratch the “lines” a little deeper so they’re easier to see.
I would NOT want to lift the engine cover, that would make it more difficult to check the oil, and you might skip it (on the last time).
EJ25s can drink a lot of oil and you’d better be checking the level.
Its not a Honda -if you run an EJ25 out of oil it will destroy the bearings almost immediately = ☠️.

Agreed it’s kinda ergonomically difficult to keep a finger sealing the end.
‘Cuz as you pull it out then you wanna grab the business end just as it exits the hole, so it doesn’t flick against something ruin your core sample.

Seems like if the nub to put your thumb on was a little longer, it could be easier to hold the suction.
Just a guess.
Maybe it needs a two-finger T-bar on the knob.

Have you seen this?
Ideally you check it and find it’s 1/2 qt low.
So you squirt a 1/2 qt in, “call it good” & drive!

That adapter was from Oreillys, 3.99 I think.

Fri Mar 11, 2022 7:31 pm

Sodo wrote: Mine doesn’t have a break in the “core sample”.

Have you seen this?
Ideally you check it and find it’s 1/2 qt low.
So you squirt a 1/2 qt in, “call it good” & drive!

That adapter was from Oreillys, 3.99 I think.

Thanks,Sudo, for the link. But keep in mind my engine is an EU22.

Fri Mar 11, 2022 8:21 pm

Hmmm. Sounds like you do the same as me. Keep the tube sealed with your thumb as you pull out the tube. I have never had any air gap in my readings. I am sorry but I do not know how to help.

Fri Mar 11, 2022 11:20 pm

https://fb.watch/bHZf5jRhJ0/

Here is the owner of small car performance showing the recommended method of using their dip stick.

Sat Mar 12, 2022 10:19 am

connor_warren59 wrote: https://fb.watch/bHZf5jRhJ0/

Here is the owner of small car performance showing the recommended method of using their dip stick.

Thanks! Two things about the video. First: the gauge of the dipstick tube ihe uses s much smaller than mine. Second: He blows out the tube and then reinserts the tube in order to check the oil. Is that what other folks do?

Sat Mar 12, 2022 10:28 am

I have never blown out the oil from the tube.

Sat Mar 12, 2022 1:26 pm

I installed one of these a few years ago and have never had any issues. I also have never blown the oil out of the tube.