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Bf150-- oil level indicated on the dip stick --- is hatch mark the minimum required level?

marketic

Contributing Member
Yo, Gents,

For some reason, getting the proper amount of oil into my BF150 has become complicated. First time I did a change, I carefully followed the liter requirements indicated by the manual. After running and letting her sit, the oil ended up being well over the top hatch mark!

So thinking I had screwed up (didn't get all ther oil out of the pan or over-filled, or both) , I withdrew some oil out of the dipstick tube with a pump then followed my mechanic's instructions: under-filled her by a liter, fired her up and ran her, let her sit, then bit by bit filled her up until she was 1/8" below the uppermost hatch mark.

So after doing that, I went and put about 50 more hours of run time on her. Then, just to see how things looked I checked the oil level again after she'd sat idle for a few weeks-- WTF---the level was now one inch OVER the hatch mark. So here I am biting my fingernails, thinking that when I installed the T-stats at 400 hours, I somehow got them switched around and now she's making oil (I know I didn't install therm wrong; I checked and rechecked and triple-checked with a $ 150 Honda manual in hand--- I'm sure I got the T-stats in the proper ports)

So today I sucked out some oil one more time (I'm getting good at this) and got it approx. 1/2" below the top hatch mark. At this point, my plan is to leave the oil level at that level, run her like I stole her, and see how the level looks then, just to confirm if she is in fact "making oil"

The question is: what is the minimum oil level required on the hatch marks-???? I suppose if I filled to the lowest mark (the lowest center-punch indentation) that wouldn't effect oil pressure, would it? By under-filling, then watching the dip stick like a hawk, that will be the sure-fire way to see if she really is "making oil".

Second question: I presume that to get an accurate reading after running, an engine has to sit (so gravity can go to work, dropping oil back into the pan) Is this part of the procedure for getting the most accurate reading? Should I be tilting the engine up and down to make sure I'm getting all the oil back into the pan to get a correct reading? (I was told to do this to get all the oil into the pan prior to draining it for an oil change-out)

Sorry about a long-winded post about something as simple as an oil change--never had this issue before with any of the other engines I've owned and performed maintenance on. When the oil level on my Yamaha F150 started yo-yo-ing like this, I deduced it was "making oil"; a T-stat change made that problem immediately go away. This Honda seems a bit more finnicky.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions
 
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