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Dip Sticks and Tubes
Pontiac V8 Dip Sticks and Tubes
Three Pieces, One Order — Dip Sticks and Tubes for Pontiac V8s
Dipstick tubes are the part everybody forgets until the engine is in the car and there is no way to check the oil. On a 1966-79 Pontiac V8 the system is three pieces — a lower tube on the main cap, a block tube pressed through from the inside, and on air conditioned cars an upper extension with a bracket.
Butler stocks the full set in stainless and in stock-style reproduction, plus correct-length dipsticks for A/C and non-A/C cars, early 389-421 tubes, complete Butler dipstick tube kits and the installation tool that keeps you from ruining a tube on the way in.
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More About Dip Sticks and Tubes
1. How the 1966-79 System Stacks Up
Most Pontiac V8s from 1966 to 1979 use a lower tube that anchors at a main cap, an upper block tube, and a dipstick. Air conditioned cars add a fourth piece.
| Lower tube | Bolts at the center main cap. Which one you need is decided by your windage tray, covered below. |
| Upper block tube | A reproduction of the tube used on 1966-77 GTO and LeMans Pontiac V8 engines. It is the top tube on non-A/C cars and the middle tube on A/C cars, and it presses through the block from the inside out, so the oil pan has to come off. Butler offers it in stainless. |
| Kits | Butler's kits for 1966-1979 350-400-428-455 bundle the dipstick, lower tube and upper block tube in one part number, in A/C and non-A/C versions. You choose with or without a windage tray and with or without the install tool. They also fit 389 and 421, but do not match factory originals. |
2. Windage Tray or No Windage Tray
The lower tube is the one people order twice. Decide the tray question first.
| No tray | Use the lower tube with bracket built for running without a tray, in stock-style reproduction or Butler stainless. The top of the center main cap must have a bolt hole. |
| With a stock-type or Tomahawk tray | Use the lower tube cut for tray clearance, also offered in stainless. It may not clear all four bolt mains. |
| Four bolt mains | The 389-421 1965-68 lower tube also clears four bolt mains in all years and works with the 1965-66 dipstick and a standard tray. It does not work with the 389 bolt-on baffle. |
| Louvered aftermarket tray | A louvered windage tray will not work with the stock lower dipstick tube. It will not hold the tube in position the way a Tomahawk or stock type tray does, so you either modify the no-tray lower tube, weld the tube to a bracket on the tray, or go to an external pan-mounted dipstick. |
3. A/C and Non-A/C: Stick Length and the Upper Extension
Air conditioning changes the dipstick length and adds a bracketed upper tube. The wrong one reads nothing useful.
| Non-A/C dipsticks | The 1966-67 and 1968-79 non-A/C sticks are 17-3/4" long from the top of the bell to the tip. Non-A/C cars do not use the upper extension tube at all. |
| A/C dipstick | The 1968-79 A/C stick is 28-3/4" from the top of the bell to the tip. |
| 1966-68 full-size upper tube | The stainless A/C upper tube with mounting tab has an OD of about .373", which can be a few thousandths too large to slide into the block tube. Remove material or carefully swedge the top of the block tube outward. Its bracket bolts to the lower hole of the A/C compressor lower rear mounting bracket, at the pivot bolt. |
| 1969 and 1970-79 | The 1969 Firebird, Trans Am, GTO, Grand Prix and full-size upper tube bolts to the front passenger side valve cover bolt. The 1970-79 stainless tube with bracket includes hardware and covers all V8 cars except SD455 and 455 H.O. |
4. Early 389-421 and Pan-Mounted Alternatives
Pre-1966 engines use a shorter stack, and some race pans skip the block entirely.
| 1959-65 block tube | Shorter than the later block tubes, made for an upper tube that bolts to a head bolt. It pairs with the 1964-65 upper tube and the 1965-68 lower tube. |
| 1964-65 upper tube | No dipstick is available for it, so you reuse the stock dipstick or cut an A/C dipstick to length. |
| Pan mounted | Canton's universal 1/4" NPT dipstick kit threads into the bung built into the Canton 15-400, 15-450 and 15-452 pans. The steel tube can be bent to fit and the stick must be calibrated. Only for those pans. |
5. Installing It Without Ruining It
A dipstick tube is a press fit into a cast iron block. Rushing it bends the tube.
| Use the tool | Butler's solid steel installation tool is made for the stainless block tube and factory block tubes, so the installation does not damage the tube where the lower tube slides in. |
| Buff the taper | Butler's block tubes carry a slightly bigger OD on the extruded area to take up worn blocks while still pressing into a standard bore. Buff the tube where it transitions to the enlarged area to reduce the taper OD so it starts more easily. |
| Aluminum blocks | The stainless block tube and the Butler kits are not for use with aftermarket aluminum blocks. |
Work it out on paper before you order: year, A/C or not, windage tray or not, iron or aluminum block. Four answers, and they get you the right part numbers the first time.
Not sure what your Pontiac needs?
Email our tech team at tech@butlerperformance.com. Tell us your engine, heads, car, and power goal, and we will put the parts together as one combination that works.