Our Cummins C8.3 dip stick bracket broke allowing the top of the dip stick tube to move about.
I found the dip stick's natural position was several inches from the engine, so we made a short piece of aluminum to hold the tube in this position.
I had heard that this break has happened to many others and a common fix is to drill a new hole in the two parts and bolt the tube closer to the engine than it was originally¸ which I think could increase tube stress.
Since so many have had dip stick tubes break at the bottom of the engine, we figured that forcing the tube into any position it does not want to naturally go could cause metal stresses. We had previously added two new bottom brackets to help support the tube.
Engine Dip Stick Reenforcement (http://www.beamalarm.com/Documents/engine_dip_stick_reenforcement.html)