Help: Low Oil Level Reading On Dipstick, After New Oil Change On Rb26

[goingforadds]

Hi again everyone,

The engine was rebuilt to standard, there's no sump extension or anything dramatic that'd suggested the lower oil reading on the stick

As for the dip stick, it's a factory rb26 stick, so, it's odd that it's showing anything else but full with how much oil i've put in

Anyway, i've just checked the oil again after having it sit for awhile, it show's a very nice thick reading across the middle between the high and low, however, there's also streaks of oil up the dipstick towards the high?

Any thoughts on that?

I'll take a pic soon and post what i mean, if that helps anyone

[Tonks]

Nothing to worry, also like a lot of owners do they overfill the oil anyway

[Hadouken]

Are you just pulling it out and looking at it? Or are you checking 2-3 times?

Are you checking the hashed side or smooth side?

[mad082]

and are you wiping off the oil between checking? and make sure you read the side that isn't getting dragged up against the side of the tube

[goingforadds]

  On 07/01/2013 at 7:52 AM, Hadouken said:

Are you just pulling it out and looking at it? Or are you checking 2-3 times?

Are you checking the hashed side or smooth side?

I'm actually doing both:

Firstly to ensure that the oil is actually at that level and not just trickling down the dipstick when removed and then verifying it by wiping it off and diping it back in, leaving it for a moment and the re-checking the level.

This afternoon I checked over it 4 times, each time it registered "half full," interestingly though, there are streaks of oil that sit up towards the "high" point.

Just to make sure I wasn't causing this myself, I carefully pulled it, ensuring it didn't scrape anything.

So far this is stumping me, because it has about 5.6L worth of oil in it, in the stock oil pressure gauge is registering a normal oil pressure, operating temps are fine and the car is fully functional, so the low oil reading on the dipstick is stumping me lol

[mad082]

if the engine hasn't been running then the streaks of oil may well be where the oil is actually sitting. i'd actually get some thinners and wipe the top half of the indicating part of the dipstick. it may well have some contaminant on it that's causing to oil to bead, a bit like how if you try to measure the depth of water with something that has oil on it you won't get an accurate reading. i don't know what it would be that would make oil bead, but it's worth a shot.

also if the new oil is very clean and is simply sitting on top of the old oil, then you may be getting a bit of layering going on, so the oil is higher than what you are thinking is the level. i know sometimes when i first change the oil on the car it can be hard to tell the level. i find it helps to turn the dipstick at an angle to get the light to reflect off it so you can see the level. i know it's pretty obvious stuff, but sometimes people don't think of doing things like this, so it's always worth saying it just in case it makes a difference, or for someone who is new to doing this sort of thing.