No oil on dipstick dilemma

[cj]

I put a long post on the general forum here and then realized I had a tech question, too. Basically, I have a '74 Brave D19 with the 318. I drove it about a thousand miles in three days (with varying degrees of success).  At the end of that trip I ended up having the exhaust manifold replaced, but apparently it's not a great fit so the shop that did it is going to look around for a better one and re-do it.

In the meantime, I decided to take it to a shop about 100 miles away so I could get some stuff done on the camper end. On the drive over I noticed that the oil pressure seemed a bit lower than it had been on the big trip. I was also hearing some low popping noises (which I thought could be the exhaust leak?) so I stopped.

I pulled out the dipstick and there was definitely some brown oil on the tip. The dipstick was kind of hard to read but it was arguably a little low, so I put about 1/2-3/4 qt of oil in. When I checked it again there was no oil on the stick. Crazy, right? So we dipped and checked and dipped and checked and neither one of us could see any oil the stick. We couldn't see any oil leaking anywhere either and I didn't want to just keep pouring oil in. Big scary mystery. I was closer  to where I was going than where I was coming from so I (foolishly?) fired up the engine and the pressure looked better so we drove it to the shop. On the way it seemed like the pressure was creeping back down a bit. I have a new oil pressure gauge that is pretty sensitive...it's not just the idiot light...so I can see if it's fluctuating just a little.

I'm definitely going to have to figure this out before we move it again. I just read a post here about someone who had a similar experience and it turned out the tube the dipstick goes into had a hole, so the dipstick wasn't actually going into the oil. Could that also affect oil pressure? Or is this just wishful thinking?

[legomybago]

I would drain the oil, see how much comes out. Then refill will the appropriate amount, I'm not sure if that 318 is 5 or 6 quarts? and then check dipstick. Some motors are frakenstined together, you may need to create your own oil level mark on the dipstick. This of coarse would only be correct if you have the standard original oil pan too.

[Rickf1985]

A318 is usually 5 quarts but if 5 quarts shows a quart low it will not hurt to add one more. I am sure that motor has not been changed or it would show signs of it. Pretty sure the stick is right. Unless that has been changed but no matter what you need to see oil on the stick.

[CoastalWinnebago]

Agreed with the comments above.  I drained all my oil, got about 4 quarts out, then added 6 back in.  I was running low on the stick before the oil change. I have a 318 as well.