[Vwdiesel] Dipstick?!?

[Libbybapa at wmconnect.com]

While I was grinding rocks into my shoulderblades today under my vanagon (in 
the river rock driveway- we haven't moved to the place with the garage yet), I 
came up with another theory on my wierd oil pressure.  Unfortunately I 
haven't had a chance to test it.  While I was working on changing the 1 + 5 main 
bearings (the ones I hadn't changed previously-both of which looked fantastic) I 
kept thinking of something a non-mechanic friend of mine had said to me.  When 
I was telling him of my oil pressure problems he had said, "Do you have 
enough oil in the engine?"  I had dismissed it at the time ("What do you think I 
am, an idiot?"), as I am overly contientious regarding the oil level.  I always 
top it up to the full line, but never over.  I have been especially careful on 
the vanagon not to overfill it because the engine is tilted an extra 35° in 
order to fit it under the engine lid, and the oil has a somewhat more difficult 
time draining back out of the head.  Because of this, the risk of a runaway 
diesel is far more likely.  It is also my wife's vehicle, and I am sure that if 
it started to runaway it would completely feak her out and her first impulse 
would be to jam in the clutch.
Well, with the dipstick tube practically jamming in my eye, I got thinking 
that it looked bent.  And if so, definitely bent downwards.  If that is the case 
it is more than likely that with the dipstick registering full the engine oil 
has actually been very low.  I did not have time to get it all put back 
together before it got too cold out (it's been raining and snowing off and on all 
day here), but am looking forward to having a go at it very soon.  If this 
solves the problem, then it is almost funny, except for the fact that I have spent 
at least 40 hours on this problem (swapping turbo, swapping manifolds, 
reworking intake, changing bearings, etc.............) and probably $100+ in parts, 
not to mention the spare TD engine (not to worry, it won't go to waste), and 
the downtime of the vehicle.  If it doesn't solve the problem, the spare engine 
is going in really soon.  I feel like a dipstick, pardon the pun.

Andrew 

P.S. I bought an extra 17mm socket today, and used my hand grinder to grind 
it a bit.  It fit fine between the bearing cap bolts and the aluminum seal 
retainers, and did not break.  I  used a six-point and ground between three of the 
points, the minimum necessary to get it on the bolts.  I had to keep rotating 
it on the bolts when it got to the unground area, but it was stronger than 
grinding the whole thing.