<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Ok, so here's the embarrassing follow-up story. I did not buy a borescope, figured I'd try fiddling with the dipstick one more time and then pull the engine out (fortunately just the long block, nothing else bolted on yet) and fix the oil pan baffle that I must have installed in the wrong position somehow.<div><br></div><div>Stuck the dipstick in the hole in the block, it hit metal. Tried rotating it, no help. Went to pull the dipstick out of the other engine in the garage, figured I'd try that, and looking at the other engine I immediately knew what was wrong.</div><div><br></div><div>Went back to my parts bench where all the disassembled car parts sit, found the dipstick and dipstick tube that I'd pulled out of the engine back in November and put them in. Everything worked fine. Figure it out yet?</div><div><br></div><div>I had been trying to install a spare dipstick siting on the bench, without a dipstick tube, and had been inserting that directly into the block, and hitting the bottom of the pan. </div><div><br></div><div>The missing part - the dipstick tube! Good for about 4" of dipstick depth - of course the dipstick was hitting something!</div><div><br></div><div>It's a wonder I get anything done. Sometimes, after a long day in the garage, the powers of observation are apparently weak.</div><div><br></div><div>What a dipstick,</div><div><br></div><div>Scott</div></body></html>