oil leak: fixed

Fixing the dreaded dipstick o-ring leak on the 7.3 powerstroke

As you can see, its a slimy mess up there.
I got lucky, mine didnt just leak, the o-ring straight up left town, and it started hemorrhaging oil.  It was a pretty big leak, no mistaking that one!  So since i prefer to upgrade rather than simply replace, i opted for Strictly Diesel's Dipstick Adapter Repair Kit.
This thing is a pretty nicely machined:

So lets get this done.
Remove this bolt, and then yank the dipstick out of the existing adapter in the pan

Starter has to come out, theres no way youre doing it installed.  Here you can see the dipstick up and out of harms way

Next up is to spin the nut off.  This part is important!  Grab the stem with something.  I used needle nose vice grips, but anything will suffice.  A pair of channel locks will remove the nut.  Most likely, its loose anyway.

With the nut off, let the adapter slide into the pan a bit, and then reach in with some form of pick, hook the o-ring and dig it out thru the hole.  Not as bad to do as it sounds

Here's what time has done to mine:  swollen to well above its original size.  You can see the deformation where it has actually worked its way out of the adapter.  No wonder the leak was so bad!
This is typical, and its why tightening the nut down more rarely fixes the leak.

So, the new adapter uses 2 orings to seal against the outside of the pan, so no more issues with oil swelling the orings.  Of course youll need to clean the outside of the pan, but odds are its clean metal (aside from some oil grime) since it was leaking anyway.  Also of note is the bracket that slips into the hole in the pan- the one bolt has a small weld on the end so it cant be threaded out.  So youll slip this thru the hole in the pan, and then rotate that screw which will in turn rotate the sandwich plate until it lines up with the hole in the adapter 

See those two little notches?  one is to set the clocking for an OBS 7.3, the other for a SD 7.3.  In my case its a 90, so i want the dipstick to point up; the SD motors have it tilted slightly forward.

I wish i could say theres more to it, but really there isnt.  Once youve removed the oring you simply drop the old adapter into the pan.  Its big enough itll settle to the bottom and stay there forever.  Unless you roll it over, anyway!  At some point in time (next year?) im planning on having the cab off, so ill yank the pan then and extract it.  Anyways, slip the new adapter into the hole in the pan, rotate, and install screws!  Its honestly pretty easy to do.

The kit comes with a new OEM gasket for the dipstick tube.  Technically it is not an o-ring, its this fancy shape thats supposed to seal better

Oil it up a bit, slip it on, and the reinstall the tube!  Install the starter and youre done!

It is a tight fit; maybe 1/4" clearance to starter at most.  But, it clears and it works!  No more leaks!
I did the whole job in about 90 minutes, truck on the ground still on its tires, while stopping to take pics.  I suspect it could be done in an hour, so easily something that can be tackled after work one day.

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