TMH

Zing! And I thought you guys were gentle!!

No, I do trust my oil temp gauge and I am feeling much better after this discussion. I just don't want to be the next one to post "I Just Burned Up My Engine Because I Couldn't Read My Dipstick" (not that I would really let you guys know if I did that anyway.)

No, my car seems to run rather on the low side temperature wise, hence I have left my engine undertray on (oops, I don't mean to start that discussion again, especially now that Arjan B. has published his test results. BTW: Thanks again for your work Arjan B.)

Thanks again for the insights provided by all of you.

Tom

Adrian

Dear Tom,
You have engine oil temp, oil level and oil pressure to help to keep an eye on your oil system. You use the dipstick to confirm or deny what you think might be the problem. I always advise 964 owners to forget about checking the oil for as long as the oil level indicator pointer moves out of the red zone when you are stopped and hot.
Ciao,
Adrian
964C4

horst

I "burnished" the dipstick at 90 deg to the length of it on one side, using medium grit emery. This creates a surface that has lots of small fine scratches, and makes the oil level pretty easy to see, in comparison with the normal polished dipstck.

Stephen Grellet

Although I have only had my C2 for a short time, this is similar to problems checking automatic transmission oil, ie long dipstick, clear oil. The auto trans dip sticks normally have a cross hatch pattern in the oil level area which will hold oil and make ascertaining the level easier. Also moving the dipstick around in different light will help show the oil level. Always take the reading at the lowest showing of oil as the dipstick can pick up oil when inserted into the tube.

JasonAndreas

The rule of thumb I follow is if I drive around and the oil temperature reaches what is depicted in this photo (pointing at 8 o'clock.) If I then stop the car on level ground and wait, letting the car idle for between 30 and 60 seconds. The engine oil level should look like this (pointing at 3 o'clock.)

The dipstick enters the top of the oil tank at a 45 degree angle with the bottom level corresponding to red on the dashboard gauge and the top mark being full on the gauge. When the non-magnetic oil level float broke off the sender unit inside my oil tank I got to spend a LOT of time staring at the inside of the oil tank. The volume above the top level on the dipstick looked to be about twice the size of the level measured by the dipstick. (about 2 quarts extra space inside the oil tank.) The amount of oil between the bottom of the oil tank and the bottom of the dipstick was almost 5 quarts.

and yes I need to refurbish my dashboard gauges...

DrJupeman

What's the towing capacity of that fire engine?