4.6L 2V dipstick removal

[Flade]

I am in the middle of a PI head swap on my wife’s 98 GT and hit a dead end trying to remove the dipstick tube.

Right head is off. Left head is completely disconnected and ready to come off. The only thing preventing it from coming off is the dipstick tube. It’s unbolted from the head. I wiggled it a ton and it is loose, and even turns a bit, but it won’t pull out no matter how much I yank on it? There is no way to slide the head off without it binding on the exhaust manifold.

How do you get it off, and worse How do you put a new one in once the heads are on?

The service Manual says to jack up the engine and remove the engine mounts. Is this the only way to get it out.? Seems like a ton of work for this stupid tube! I’m not even sure what that gains me. Maybe enough room to get pliers on it?

 

[lwarrior1016]

I’ve always been able to twist and pull enough to get them out. Going back in is sometimes just as difficult.

Can you unbolt the manifold from the head and leave the manifold and dipstick in place?

 

[Flade]

I’ve always been able to twist and pull enough to get them out. Going back in is sometimes just as difficult.

Can you unbolt the manifold from the head and leave the manifold and dipstick in place?

I can get the upper manifold bolts off, not sure there is enough room to get the lowers off. The EGR tube attached to the manifold also complicates it

 

[96blak54]

Upwards pulling pressure and slight and I mean slight wiggling...and slight twisting and you might get lucky with out destroying the tube. Ive removed them with 2 different scenarios. One is where there was some resistance, but still released. The other is where the tube bent, ripped, cracked and still had to remove the oil pan and literally drive out the remaining. Good luck.

Start by saturating the lower portion entering the block with rust penetrant for a few days.

 

[Flade]

Upwards pulling pressure and slight and I mean slight wiggling...and slight twisting and you might get lucky with out destroying the tube. Ive removed them with 2 different scenarios. One is where there was some resistance, but still released. The other is where the tube bent, ripped, cracked and still had to remove the oil pan and literally drive out the remaining. Good luck.

Start by saturating the lower portion entering the block with rust penetrant for a few days.

I was able to wiggle it loose to the point it was loose but would not come out. It finally snapped. The remain part spun freely in the hole but would not come out. I finally just drove it in and removed it from the pan with a magnet. Lesson learned….Follow the Shop Manual procedure even if it seems excessive. The official procedure is to unbolt the engine mounts, jack up the engine 1.5” with a wood block under the crank pulley, then remove the exhaust manifold. One the manifold is out access to the tube is much better. After head swap, jack engine again, install tube, then the manifold. At the time, unbolting the engine seemed like a lot of work, but in the end it would have been way faster and easier then the 2 days I wasted on that Tube…NOTE: install was just as difficult with the exhaust manifolds in place.