Imagine this vehicle has seen the minimum amount of maintenance (including oil changes).....belonged to a deceased father in-law, and had been sitting up in the garage for 5 years - no idea why or what was wrong with it. When the guy changed the oil he said it came out like sludge.

Anyway, I have to put OVER 10 quarts of oil in it to get it to register "full" on the dipstick.

First - I'd like to verify that I have the correct dip stick (and tube) in the truck. The dip stick measures about 21 inches from the lip that makes contact with the very top of the dip tube.

The dip stick also has the numbers 3870265 (part number?) stamped on it, and about and inch or so down, the letter "M"...

thx, Mike

 

Regardless of the dipstick, the truck takes 5 quarts.

 

aaron7; You are assuming he has a standard oil pan but a non-standard dipstick. If he has a non-standard oil pan to go with that non-standard dipstick he could starve the engine for oil with only 5 quarts.

 

looks to me like you got the wrong dipstick man. I have a 318 that I pulled out of one of my Ramchargers, this particular engine came out of a 85. The dipstick is 29 inches long from the lip that connects with the tube to the end and the number on this one is 3496960 m. Hope this helped

 

Surely someone in this forum owns an 88(ish) Dodge Ram D100 w/ a 318 that can help me out????.....

 

I've had several responses quoting the length at 30ish inches.....one last quick question and I will leave this alone....since the dipstick apparently inserts into the front of the engine and, therefore, the front (shallow part) of the oil pan, seems to me that the actual stick, in order to (I assume) measure the oil level in the back (deep part of the pan, that has the oil plug/bolt in it) would have to bend after it enters the engine and angle all the way back, so it would actually be at a fairly shallow angle relative to the oil....maybe someone that has torn down one of these engines can field this one....anyway, regardless, looks like I am going to order a new dipstick and tube...that is, if I can get the thing running well enough to warrant the purchase!!! thx, mike

 

the is something like a tunnel on the inside of the oilpan that guides the dipstick to the back of the oilpan.

 

That's very true. I had one of these engines to blow before sending main bearing caps flying and some of the pieces actually bent that guide tube to where the dipstick wouldn't come out.

 

mjm1988; The dip stick tube length is OK and it appears you only need a dipstick if you have a stock oil pan. You posted this question on a different thread and I don't know if you got my answer so here it is again.

"mjm1988: The reason I hesitate to answer your question is that you have not told us whether you have a stock oil pan. Only you can provide this info, without this info whatever info we give you may be wrong for your engine and cause a catastrophic failure of your engine. With that in mind here is my info.

I have a stock oil pan, dip stick and tube. My stock dipstick part # is 4483106. The length of my dip stick from the bottom of the dust cap to the full mark is 30 5/8 inches. My tube length is 14 1/2 inches sticking out of the block.

You must compare your oil pan with other 318 oil pans by sight to figure out if it is stock. I would suggest you take some measurements of your pan and go by a salvage yard to compare it to other 318s. While you are there you can take measurements on the dip stick tubes and check the part numbers on the dip sticks and probably get a dipstick cheap from a bad engine."

 

Thanks for going the extra mile on this...I did get your post on the other thread....maybe I won't go crazy after all on this oil thing...can you imagine ANYONE replacing with the wrong dipstick?? Crazy.....thanks again, mike