The dip stick tube on my 350 is really loose. It basically just flops around, I can grab the "engine oil" handle and move it left-right all over the place. Is this normal for SBC?

 

"Normal" is for the dipstick tube to have a tab on it that bolts to one of the exhaust manifold bolts. Having no exhaust manifold bolts now myself, since I have headers, the simplest solution was to nylon tie-wrap it to things that pass by it (heater hose, for instance). It's probably something that deserves a more sophisticated solution, but I haven't found the motivation to execute it to this point.

 

If you can pull the whole tube out *including the dipstick* you will see a bulge in the tube, take some high temp rtv, and smear it around that bump. That will seal it and should help stop the movement.

 

Whoever swapped in my 350 must have left that part off when they re-assembled the exhaust. I guess next time i'm under there i'll take a look at it, I just wanted to make sure the thing isnt going to fall off and spill oil all over.