On a recent trip to SW Utah, the dipstick seal started leaking bad. Lost 2 qt before I caught it 140mi from home. 10 yr and 40K mi ago it leaked a bit but tightening the big nut solved that. This time I got it slowed to a minor trickle by tightening the nut again and liberal application of "The Right Stuff." After that, it lost a tiny bit but it was not noticeable on the dipstick, even after 1000mi.

What's the best seal kit to get? I would prefer NOT to have to re-install the dipstick in another fitting or remove the oil pan. Hopefully one of the seal kits that come with a new nut and seal will work OK but I can't decide which one out there is best. I can't find any info searching on here.

Thanks for any suggestions!!

 

Strictly diesel has the $300 gold nugget well made unit and no need to reuse your old parts.

 

Sounds kinda pricey but I'll take a look. Thanks!

 

This is on El Rojo Loco, no leaks still after about four years. Price is spicy, but eh...you get what you pay for now.

 

Its worth it man. I just did the same one on mine

 

Theres this cheaper option that has good reviews. Alot of people have tried it on facebook groups and like it

https://73dipstick.com/index.html#/

 

I admit to being a cheapskate and didn’t want to pay for a kit. I carefully loosened the outer nut, making sure I didn’t unthread it all the way so nothing could fall down inside the pan. Thoroughly cleaned the oil and grunge from around the area and sprayed it with several coats of copper head gasket sealer. I let the sealer set up for awhile and tightened up the nut. That was 50,000 miles ago and it’s still completely dry. In hindsight I’m not sure why I used the spray sealant, maybe because it would penetrate better. I probably could have used Permatex#2 or Three-Bond.

An acquaintance paid a shop $3,000 (!!) to pull the engine and repair his dipstick leak. Different strokes for different folks. $3,000 buys an awful lot of beer or turbos or intercoolers.

 

yowza! Makes me feel better about my $300 and a few hours of work!

 

If engine is out, that weld in unit available at places like CP Addict looks very interesting!

 

I bought the kit from 73dipstick with the wide gasket and flange to be installed outside the pan. $90 on Amazon. Seems like a good product for a reasonable price. I think I'll use the "Right Stuff" though instead of the provided sealer. It stopped my leak 99.9% for the remaining 1000mi of my trip after losing 2qt in 140mi.

Question about the $300 medallion version - does this one keep the internal part? From the pics, it does not appear to be there. What happens to it? You can't just pull it out of the hole! I have not read install instructions for that one.

I would never pay a shop or Ford $3K to fix it. Sorry for those who did.

 

You just drop inside the oil pan thats all the instructions say no harm have one in our fleet with the 300 nugget still going strong leak free

 

Yep. It’s too heavy to get sucked up by the pickup. As long as you get the old o ring out you’re golden

 

Same with El Rojo. No problems after many times at 3500rpm or so.

 

I wanted to post after I installed the 7.3Dipstick kit but life... you know...

Installed 3 weeks ago and so far so good. No leaks. The factory o-ring was not broken but it was swelled slightly in a few places. I only wish I'd used the old factory nut as the flange is bigger. The new nut has no flange at all. The provided nut started squeezing the gasket out from behind the metal flange but the gasket sealer is holding.