jrkitching said:

Just be careful not to do anything which could cause it to break off inside the engine, or it will be you that is feeling like a dipstick .

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I have had sort of nightmares about this!

The long plastic 'stick is clipped into the screw-on top, and when I was playing with it trying to figure out what I could do, I imagined that the clip might break and it would drop right inside.

Back in the old days with cars, the dipstick went into a small hole low down on the engine block and the oil filler cap was on the top over the cylinder head. If you dropped something inside, it was a relatively simple job to take off the camshaft cover or the rocker cover.

These days, they've combined the dipstick and filler, so if ANYTHING drops in, your up the swanee without a paddle.

Regards,
Mick.

Mick F said:

These days, they've combined the dipstick and filler, so if ANYTHING drops in, your up the swanee without a paddle.

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Poor engineering IMO.

A combined dipstick / filler belongs on a 1970's Briggs & Stratton lawnmower engine.

jrkitching said:

Poor engineering IMO.

A combined dipstick / filler belongs on a 1970's Briggs & Stratton lawnmower engine.

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Even our 2000s lawnmower has a combined unit.

Stupid idea.

Thanks,
Mick

when my farther worked on tankers some of the chemicals were so light they would evaporate before you could read the stick, there was some thing he used to put on no idea what it was but looked a bit like snooker chalk, so there is or was some thing you could use.