You know that we are too far gone when we worry about the color/finish of the oil dipstick tube on the engine. Was the dipstick tube installed prior to painting the engine Chevy Orange? I have an NOS oil dipstick tube in the GM box for my 1966 283 that is not painted. It looks alot like natural steel finish.

dtm

From what is in my head and my printed info. the tube was not painted. Probably to prevent damage to it during shipping of the engine.

I agree they were not painted. But that's only from "my head." And that can be dangerous. But, in this case I'm pretty dang certain....

I have a couple of new old stick dipsticks for 1968-70 and they are not painted either.

the 63 thru 67 sbcs installed in midyear corvettes were bare metal dipstick tubes. i assume all sbcs that originated in flint michigan , be they vettes or pass cars were also bare metal.mike