Oil sump capacity

[Pablo]

Hello everyone,
I recently acquired a '60 BN7 and am performing some routine maintenance (since I don't know the history of this car) to set a baseline for future upkeep tasks. I have changed the fuel filter, rubber fuel hoses, cleaned-up some shoddy electrical wiring, and just finished the oil & oil filter change. Here's where I got confused - I only drained 4.5 quarts of oil TOTAL. I was expecting to see more like 7 quarts. Could this be correct?
I had the car jacked up in the front and tilted so that the drain plug was at the lowest point, the car has the modern spin-on filter conversion, and the oil pan is lightly banged up on the bottom (but not enough to cause it to hold 3 quarts less oil). When I put the new oil in, I only put 5 quarts back in and when I checked the dipstick level, it registered slightly above the MAX notch.
I don't feel comfortable knowing there is less oil in the engine than there should be, but I also don't want to over-fill the sump. Any ideas? thanks in advance...
/Pablo

 

[Dave Russell]

Hi Pablo,
Welcome to the forum.

"I was expecting to see more like 7 quarts. Could this be correct?"

Why were you expecting 7 quarts?
As far as I know, 5 quarts is about right. Your dipstick seems to confirm this.
D

 

[stever]

Mine takes 7 quarts to get to the max line. Five quarts gets it to the min line on the dipstick.

 

[John Loftus]

Hi Pablo,

According to my Driver's Handbook (the small blue/green one that came with the car originally) which is for the MK I and II's, the engine oil capacity (including filter) is 12 3/4 pints (15.3 U.S. Pints, 7.25 litres). That translates to 7.65 U.S. Quarts. The oil pan dents and oil filter change may account for the good part of the difference. What's the measures on your dipstick?
My BJ7 dipstick measures 10-15/16" to the MAX notch and 11-15/16" to the MIN notch.

Cheers,
John

 

[Dave Russell]

It looks like I made a mistake. The book specs show a sump capacity of around 15 pts for the sixes except the early six which shows about 14 pts. Sorry for the misinformation.

There is some oil retained in the engine when doing a change, possibly a quart?. In any event I would go by the dipstick unless you know that it is obviously wrong.
D

 

[Jerry]

I have a sump that holds 17 quarts. Built for racing. I replaced it with the standard, way too much oil in a driver.

Jerry

 

[Pablo]

Reply to John:
I measured my dipstick and it is identical to yours. I even measured the dipstick in my other healey and it's the same, too.
Since I was investigating, I went even further and made some measurements on the inside of the block to get some real insight (see below):

Top of oil pump pickup - 4" below top of pan

Dipstick 'MIN' mark when inserted into block - 3/4" above top of oil pump pickup

So that tells me that even when the oil level is showing at the 'MIN' mark on the dipstick, the pickup is still completely submerged. And the 'MAX' level is still 1" above that. So back to my original query - how could only 4.5 quarts be registering slightly above the 'MAX' mark on my dipstick? Maybe some voids in the head or block that are covertly hiding the additional 3 quarts or so that I'm missing??? But after seeing that those 4.5 quarts *WILL* cover well above the top of the oil pump pickup, I feel safer about the situation...

 

[John Loftus]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Pablo:
Reply to John:
how could only 4.5 quarts be registering slightly above the 'MAX' mark on my dipstick? Maybe some voids in the head or block that are covertly hiding the additional 3 quarts or so that I'm missing??? .<hr></blockquote>

Hi Pablo,

Let's see how Columbo would handle this:

Originally you said 5 qts. to slightly above the max mark so we only need to account for 2.5 extra quarts right?

When you checked the dipstick after putting in 5 qts had you run the engine? No? Well the oil filter was empty and the level will go down a bit after running ... probably a 1/2 qt. We're down to 2 quarts difference now, right?

The original oil filter and right angle attachment is large .. probably twice the capacity of a smaller spin on filter. Let's subtract another 1/2 quart ... only 1 1/2 qts difference now, right?

Your oil pan is dented .. subtract 1/2 quart .. down to 1 quart difference, right?

Jacking the car up at the front may be a big part of the problem. It would be better to let it drain with the car level and then jack up the front a bit to get the last bit out of the pan. This along with the residual oil that stays in the galleys and on surfaces probably amounts to another 1/2 qt ... down to 1/2 quart difference now so what's the problem?

All joking aside, when I change the oil on my BJ7 with a spin on filter it takes 6 quarts to bring it up to the max mark. My oil pan is also dented which is bound to take up some capacity.

I'm not sure how far the oil pick up should be in the oil at the MIN mark. Maybe someone else will have that info.

Cheers,
John