question about oil dipsticks and oil changes

[JayZ]

OMC 454 that came out had the oil dipstick attached to a fitting at the bottom of the oil pan. The GenVI marine crate going in has a provision for a traditional dipstick ...also of course has a drain plug at the bottom.

I am thinking about the oil changes I'll be doing. On the sailboat and diesel powered engine I just use a vacuum pump and drain through the dipstick. (very infrequent oil changes since it is a VERY low hour motor.

Likely I'll change the oil with the same vaccum pump on the Donzi and it's BBC engine. Wondering if it is worth the effort to put together the oil dipstick with adapter to the bottom of the pan at the drain plug or just go with the easy dipstick tube and then hope that I get a complete oil change with the vaccum pump through the dipstick tube.

Any have any strong thoughts on this?

Easy thing to do is for me to use a traditional dipstick tube and assembly like the one below.
oil tube.JPG

[Tidbart]

My 502 had a stándard marine dipstick setup such as you are showing. I used the dipstick one day to change the oil, then pullud the drain plug to see what was left. I got about 6 tablespoons out of the plug. Needless to say, I have no problem using the dipstick tube. The tube goes to the bottom of the pan.

Hope this helps.

Bob

[JayZ]

Thanks Bob,

Good to know.

[f_inscreenname]

You can always install one of those drain plug tubes but I to have found the dipstick tube to work fine as long as there is only oil in there and you can get it warm first.