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Re: When to dip your dipstick?

To: MG Mailing List <mgs@autox.team.net>
Subject: Re: When to dip your dipstick?
From: "John M. Trindle" <jtrindle@tsquare.com>
Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 22:00:27 -0400 (EDT)
On Mon, 22 Jul 1996, John Hunt wrote:

> 
> MG list:
> 
> 
> Should the oil level be checked immediately after
> stopping the engine or after all the oil has drained
> to the sump?  Anyone have a definitive answer?
> 
> 

Not definitive, but:

Checking it cold will always ensure "all" the oil is in the sump.  This 
is a lot more reproducible than checking while warm, since you don't know 
home much has drained back into the sump, and how much is up top.

That being said:

1) I park on in a sloped space, and check my oil on level ground 
(usually at the gas station)

2) If the oil is warm, much of it will drain back quickly

3) It is better to slightly over fill than to get too low... at least so 
low that the pickup is not sucking oil but air.

So I compromise and check the oil after I have driven about a mile to the 
gas station, when I am parked on level ground, but AFTER I fill the 
tank... so about 5 minutes have passed since I shut down the engine.  It 
is the most reproducible state I can manage.  At most this means I 
slightly overfill.  Plus it is easy to remember.

John M. Trindle     | TSCC-Net Host      | jtrindle@tsquare.com
T-Square Company    | ISS/FSPlan for FS5 | trindle@widomaker.com
Flight Deck IFT-PRO | http://www.widomaker.com/~trindle
"If it can't be expressed in figures, it is not science,
it is opinion. - Robert A. Heinlein"


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