Witch Craft ! no oil on dipstick but just drained out a bunch

so i randomly checked my oil today, there was barely any on the dipstick, literally just on the tip of it. I don't really have any leaks anywhere that i can see or anything, defiantly not in my driveway i don't really see a lot under the undercarriage. Anyways. i went to change it ( lets not get into the fact that my drain plug became rounded and almost all attempts to get it off failed including welding a socket onto it, and vicegrips) anyways, so i finally got the plug loose expecting no oil to drain out, i got about 4.5 qts of oil out. I want to say last time i changed it , it was low on the dipstick but the same thing. How is this? I just put 5 qts in and it's reading it fine on the dipstick. What kind of witchcraft is going on in my truck? I mean if i had of been out and not close to home i would have dumped a good amount of oil in there to try and fill it up and then it would have had way too much.

Most obvious is that on initial oil check the dipstick was not inserted all the way down....That was an old trick gas station attendants used to pull to sell an unneeded quart or two of oil back when gas station attendants checked you car over as a courtesy check while they filled you tank too.

i'm almost 200 percent sure i stuck it all the way down, i checked it like 4 times just because i didn't believe it

HOw do you know what was drained out? did you measure it or guess?

HEck on bottom of dipstick could be 1.5 qt low and truck holds what is it 5.5 qrt...
so you would drain 4 qrts give or take on the math above....so how good was your guess? could it have been 1 pint off?
How much did you spill? how much on driveway....

Short throw high performance dipstick, perhaps?



My EXT with the 6.0 takes 6 quarts at an oil change.

I thought the Avalanche with the 5.3 was the same.

After the change and the engine has ran, I usually have to add a pint or two to hit the top of the hash marks on the dipstick when the engine is cold again.

Usually stays close to that until the next oil change.

i poured the old oil into the 5 q container that i just put into my truck, it's got those little hash marks on the side.
I pulled my oil pan cleaned it all and replaced the o ring that goes onto the oil pump but i mean i put it all back together with no issues about 5 k miles ago. I have no idea. I think all of the oil went to where all the lost socks in the dryer go. It's the stock oil dip stick.
It is 6qts, i just poured the 5 and add an extra. .
I've been changing my oil for as long as i can remember but this is a really dumb question that i've never even considered, does checking the level reflect differently if the vehicle is cold/ warmed up engine/ running?

You didn't say whether it is a 5.3 or 8.1, the 8.1 takes almost 7 quarts and if it's on the bottom of the stick you need two quarts to full.  R.

I assume that levels would be different between cold, hot and running etc. I would advise referring to your owner's manual and checking in the way they recommend.
Think of it this way if cold and sitting level for awhile the oil will read at one level, if on a slant it reads another, then if you run the motor for awhile the oil can expand it's molecules due to heating but also be affected by some oil being circulated and if not given enough time to drain down to the pan it may give a different reading each time due to the fact the dip stick reads what amount of oil is in the pan at the exact moment you pull it out and read it...
I myself check oil when cold, level and has been off for overnight when possible to be consistent in taking readings. Otherwise if I check it hot after shutdown I would check the time since shutdown and maybe check at same time limit after next shutdown. Whatever you decide be consistent.

I put the 5 q in yesterday drove it like a mile, this am I checked it absolutely no oil in my driveway , it's back down to barely on the tip What is this sorcery? I know it has the 5 q but how do i know if its actually low or not

I just put 1 more qt since I put 5 in yesterday and it takes 6, it was barely reading on the tip 5 min ago i put 1 qt in and now its reading 3/4

The proper way to check the oil is engine at operating temperature, engine off for 5 minutes (or so), vehicle on level ground.

If the engine is run without fully warming up, the cold oil will take longer to drain back into the pan giving an artificially low reading. If the oil is checked after sitting overnight, the oil galleries may drain back into the pan giving an artificially high reading. If the vehicle is off-level then the reading can be high or low, depending if it's leaning towards or away from the stick.

Also, the capacity varies a bit depending on whether you changed the oil filter at the same time as the oil.

Vaeagleav said:

Most obvious is that on initial oil check the dipstick was not inserted all the way down....That was an old trick gas station attendants used to pull to sell an unneeded quart or two of oil back when gas station attendants checked you car over as a courtesy check while they filled you tank too.

Click to expand...

BOY, are you OLD!
It could be a short dip stick, I have seen that little trick pulled a couple of times. The owner is too cheap to go buy a stick at the stealer (dealer) or pick one up at a bone yard. The point of putting a short stick in there is to cover the stick tube I suppose.....

Also old school wisdom, a V-8 can USE (burn) a quart per 1000 miles and be considered normal, valve guides use oil, pistons use oil, use mean this is a way oil is burned and not lost due to a leak at a valve cover (0ld school valve covers don't leak any more unless something is really wrong) gasket, intake end gaskets, distributor gasket oil pan gasket.

As a Corvette dude.. (SBC's) always change the filter w/ each oil change AND fill the new filter w/ new oil. Since the 5.3l is a similar filter design (vertical) I keep this tradition alive.