Putting my motor together I realized my new oil pan (that I painted and now can’t send back) has the dipstick cutout on the drivers side. Which won’t fit my block. Did these motors come from the factory with a driver side dipstick?
CK5
Register an account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members.
Did SBC 350s have dipsticks on the driver side?
- Thread starter Jake_C_
- Start date
Yeah after doing some research I guess it’s pretty common, I guess the older blocks had driver dipsticks. Didn’t know there was a difference. Lol guess I wasted 40 bucks. Oh well maybe I can sell it.
Kain
3/4 ton status
mine does, depends on year
Oil pan gaskets come setup for both .
what pan is it? Pics?
SBC from 55-79ish came with drivers side dipstick anything after was passenger side. Some crate engines came with both.
Thanks, I’m about 45 minutes north of downtown Cincinnati. I’d ship it to anyone here for 35 bucks plus shipping.
Great, now I know lol, thanks.
Mine does
yup just went through this. My brother bought all the gaskets for the sbc that came out of his 55, some how he got 1 piece rear main set, and a fel pro 1 piece pan gasket right hand dip stick. Motor donor was a 78 k5, so 2 piece rear main and left hand dip stick.
My fel pro set came with a 4 piece for the oil pan luckily so I won’t need to buy a new one. Funny how it never even occurred to me that the dipstick could be on the other side. Always learning I guess.
Ok here we go, just got my new oil pan in with the passenger side dipstick cutout and it appears that the crank will scrape the bottom of the pan in the front. I put the gasket in as a spacer and it’s the same story. What the hell? The pan is supposed to be for a 5.7 350
Here’s the gap between the pan and the block because it rests on the crankshaft. You can also see the assembly lube on the inside of the pan from where it sat against the crankshaft. 
you can see in the picture above that the two pans are shaped differently. My block is from a 86 which that pan is supposed to fit but apparently doesn’t. Not really sure what the issue is. Also my block is a 1 piece rear main seal so the oil pan has to fit that. I could get a pan identical to the one I painted but with the dipstick tube on the correct side but the rear cutout wouldn’t fit a 1 piece rms. I’m confused. The only thing that comes to mind is the timing chain cover with its gasket might raise the pan up in the front but it seems like the rest of the gasket would be too thin to fill that space.
you can see in the picture above that the two pans are shaped differently. My block is from a 86 which that pan is supposed to fit but apparently doesn’t. Not really sure what the issue is. Also my block is a 1 piece rear main seal so the oil pan has to fit that. I could get a pan identical to the one I painted but with the dipstick tube on the correct side but the rear cutout wouldn’t fit a 1 piece rms. I’m confused. The only thing that comes to mind is the timing chain cover with its gasket might raise the pan up in the front but it seems like the rest of the gasket would be too thin to fill that space.
Last edited:
Kain
3/4 ton status
Wrong pan or bad stamping
I guess I’ll order another pan from a different manufacturer, this was the cheapest I found so could be bad quality.
Kain
3/4 ton status
I got mine from summit I think was 47 bucks, give me a sec and I’ll look up link
Great, thanks.
Last edited:
