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Wrong dipstick?

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DanLewis

DanLewis

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According to documentation I have, my 1275 should take 6 pints (3 quarts) of oil plus 1 pint for the filter. Yesterday I drained the old oil, replaced the spin-on filter, and put 3 quarts of new oil into the crankcase. I then ran the engine to fill the filter, turned it off, and checked the dipstick, expecting it to read a little low. Much to my surprise, however, the oil came to almost an inch above the "MAX" line!


Now I'm wondering if I may have the wrong dipstick. I took the measurements shown in the attachment and I'd really appreciate it if someone could compare my measurements to theirs.

Dipstick Measurements.jpg


Thanks!
Dan
 
Last edited:
Ok. I measured my dipstick and I have a 1275 engine The 9.5" agrees. The min and max measurements agree also, but not at the words but at the two notches in the dipstick.
I also checked my oil and it is right where it should be which is just a little below max. I have about 1500 miles on the last oil change so this is good.
Bill
 
Hi Bill,

Thanks so much! At least I know the dipstick is correct. Any chance you can measure the length of that plastic (?) tube that the dipstick slides into? If mine were too short, that would cause the dipstick to go too far into the sump and explain the problem.

Dan
 
I did the best I could to measure the tube. First I am not sure if it is plastic or not. Eyeing my tape measure it measured less then 2", but I couldn't see well enough to see if it measured exactly 1.5", but is close to it. Above you you say 6 pints and then say 2 quarts. Doesn't 6 pints equal 3 quarts. Maybe you put to much oil in it. I will look in my books to see if I can find hpw much oil is correct.
 
Hi Bill,

Yeah - the 2 quarts was an unintended typo. I've since corrected it to 3 quarts. :fat:

If you find a number different that 6 pints, let me know!

Dan
 
My workshop manual says 6 pints approx.(fill to dipstick)+ 1 pint for filter if changed. I am not sure why it says "6 pints approx" Whats with the "approx"
maybe you should check that the filter filled up.
 
Hi Bill,

'Sounds like you have the same workshop manual that I have. Mine reads exactly the same.

I think the filter must be filled since I drove the car yesterday for about half an hour. By the way, I checked the dipstick again this morning and it still read the same even though it had all night last night for the oil to drain back into the sump.

Dan
 
59diamond said:
I am getting way out of my league, but maybe when you drained the oil all of the old oil didn't drain out completely.
Click to expand...

That was my first thought, but two things tell me that wasn't the case. First, I had warmed up the engine so that the oil would flow more freely, and second, I let it drain for a long time (~10 minutes) until it was barely dripping.

The whole thing has me perplexed. I'm afraid to drain any oil out to bring the dipstick level down because I worry that I'd wind up with too little oil, yet on the other hand I know that you shouldn't overfill either.

Dan
 
Here is another thought. I looked up the difference between a US quart and an Imperial quart. 1 imperial quart is equal to 1.20095042. So 3 Us quarts would be 3.60288512 imperial quarts.
After all the manual is originally from England so maybe the manual is in imperial measurements.
 
59diamond said:
Here is another thought. I looked up the difference between a US quart and an Imperial quart. 1 imperial quart is equal to 1.20095042. So 3 Us quarts would be 3.60288512 imperial quarts.
After all the manual is originally from England so maybe the manual is in imperial measurements.
Click to expand...

I think you may have done that backwards. According to the page here (click on here), the 3 U.S. quarts I put into the engine are equivalent to only 2.498 Imperial quarts, which suggests that I haven't put enough oil into it!

Dan
 
I used that same converter. Yeah I did do it backwards. So that was no help. I looked at a discussion between some MG owners and there basic answer was they filled the crankcase until the dipstick read Max, so that doesn't help much either. I am curious what you find out , because I will be having my oil changed in a few months. I suggest you PM Bill M to see if he has an answer.
 
Dan,

I have 3 plastic dipstick tubes here. 2 are original (one from a 1098, the other from a 1275), and one is a Moss replacement. They all measure 1.275" (+ - .005) for the part that remains external.

WP_002724.jpg
 
Thanks, Gerard. That's probably the same as the one in my 1275. My measurement of 1.5" was not done as accurately as yours since I couldn't remove mine and I was using a tape measure.

Dan
 
Is this the first time you have changed the oil? I have been wondering all kinds of things. like maybe the filter isn't full somehow or you put more then 6 pints in by mistake.
I guess it would not be practical to drain all the oil out and then measure how much comes back out.
 
Hi Bill,

59diamond said:
Is this the first time you have changed the oil? I have been wondering all kinds of things. like maybe the filter isn't full somehow or you put more then 6 pints in by mistake.
I guess it would not be practical to drain all the oil out and then measure how much comes back out.
Click to expand...

I share your sentiment/confusion! :smile-new:

This certainly wasn't the first time I'd changed the oil, and that's an interesting point because this time when I drained it in preparation for the oil change, the amount of old oil that came out was probably about 1 quart at most. When I've I changed the oil in the past, I've always filled it according to the dipstick (rather than counting quarts) and must not have paid much attention to how many quarts had gone in. But based on what came out this time, and what I'm seeing now, I probably only had 1 quart in there! :grumpy: What confuses me is that I think I would have noticed many times before if only 1 quart had come out. I can't explain it.

The engine was rebuilt about 3,000 miles ago. There's no smoke coming out the exhaust, there's no significant oil leak, and the coolant has no oil in it that I can see. So it's not like the engine had been consuming oil. The oil pressure has always been great. It idles around 40 psi and at speed is about 60-65 psi when up to temp.

I'm currently using Valvoline VR1 racing oil because of its zinc additive. But it's a 50W oil, which makes draining a rather slow process. However, I doubt that draining it now will yield anything different than the 3 quarts I put in when I changed it.

I'm 67. Maybe that's the real problem here. :ambivalence:

For now, I'm just going to leave it as is even though the dipstick says that it's over-filled.

Dan
 
Age shouldn't make a difference. I am 72 so it might be like the blind trying to lead the blind. I would only worry if my BE had to little oil and not if it had to much.
 
You old coots! I can say that because I'm "just" 51. So, here is my take. The dipstick does not measure how much oil there is, it measures the level of the oil relative to the bottom of the block. Too high and it is getting frothed up by the crank and connecting rods. You know you have plenty of oil in there based upon how many bottles you poured in, so I would take some out to bring it down to the max mark. Keep a close eye on level if you really only had a quart in there when you drained it. I know my 1098 leaks prolifically, especially when hot, so you may be dropping quite a bit while driving. It adds up.
 
manual is in imperial measurements

Sump and filter = 6.5 imp pints or 7.8 us pints or 3.7 litrs.
 
Are you looking at the Austin Healey Sprite "Workshop Manual". It says on the first page under General Data Oil capacity, sump.....6 pints approx. )fill to dipstick) plus 1 pint for filter if changed. So that would be 7 pints. If the manual is in imperial pints which it doesn't say then that would equal 8.40665294 US pints. That would be 4.2033264 Us quarts. Dan said he only put in 3 quarts so why does his dip stick read so high.
 
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