[Vwdiesel] Never Trust a Dipstick

[Val Christian]

Several years ago we bought a 1974 Cessna 182.  The plane had higher 
oil consumption, and the engine are had lots of blow-by type mess.
The thing went through oil, but the compression was good.

The pre-purchase mechanic looked at it, our mechanic looked at it
and there was a lot of head shaking.  Perhaps they thought I had bought 
a lemon.  

At our first oil change I showed up with number punches, and as the 
plane was filled, I "recalibrated" the oil dipstick.  Three years later,
the plane uses about a quart every 18 hours, which for this type
engine is just fine.

The bottom line was that the engine has been overfilled, and that was
the only reason for the high consumption.  Oh, and I figure we saved 
about $4 or 5K on the purchase.

Great plane.

Nothing wrong with recalibrating a dipstick when filling an engine.
There's also nothing wrong with physically measuring where in the 
sump the level ends up.  Pans can be substituted, etc.

Val