Is it possible to install the baffle/windage tray incorrectly in a bone stock 1970 383?

I recently had my engine builder repair an oil leak coming from a dowel pin on the timing cover. During the repair, the oil pan was removed and gasket replaced. Now the dipstick will not go all the way back in -- sticks out approx. 1". Wasn't that way when I brought it to him. He's trying to get out of having to fix it by saying it is impossible to put the baffle in backwards or upside down and that I probably have the incorrect dipstick.

Anyone been here before?

Not sure on the Q(been on SB's for years now) but the pan will have to come off & I would for sure not do any more business with him unless a visual inspection up there tells you emphatically that it was not his (un)doing. EDIT he had to have tried to put the dipstick in & knew right then & there that he had made a mistake.

He didn't put the side with the dipstick hole on it on the drivers side.

Not a big mistake, easy to do, but HE needs to get greasy again.

Oil pan gasket has a hole in it for the dipstick tube. If he put the gasket on upside down the hole would be on the wrong side. I almost made that mistake when I was putting an oil pan on for the first time.

Either that or the gasket moved around enough to block the dipstick hole.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure he hoped I wouldn't notice and that he could get away with it. But gimme a break, how could you not notice that!?!?

He also tried to say that I probably had the wrong dipstick and that it had probably always been sticking out ever since he originally rebuilt it. Luckily for me, I had photos of the engine taken immediately after the rebuild clearly showed the dipstick all the way in. So the problem had to have creeped in after he fixed the oil leak.

After I sent him the photo, he backed down and told me to bring it back this week and he would take another look. I'll do a Paul Harvey report later with "the rest of the story"...

Is the motor out?If it is its a 10 minute job to take the pan off.You do know the tube wont go in just by pushing it.It is a interferebce fit.Its pretty much impossible to get the tray in wrong as the cut out fits the pickup.Rocky

Okay, now I'm confused. Previous replies say it can be incorrectly installed to block the dipstick, now you're saying it can't?

My BB tray has the cutout for the pickup on one side.Mine cant be installed backwards.Does the tube not go all the way down or the dipstick itself?Rocky

It is either the tray, the gasket, or the tube. Something is not installed right.

If the dipstick housing goes in all but one inch but the dipstick itself goes all the way in as far as the housing lets it go then the tray is in correctly it just needs to be adjusted a little. Loosen up all of the pan bolts and then the tray will move slightly... enough to get the dipstick housing through the tray that last inch. If the tray is in backwards then the dipstick will not even get within 3 inches of seating all of the way in the dipstick tube.