How to correctly read oil level- 83 911SC
 

OK, so I pull the car up to operating temperature and let it idle and while idling check the oil level and here is where subectivity comes in. on the back side of the dipstck (without the min and max marks) there is a clean line of oil right halfway between the min and max. On the side with the marks it is very hard to read, it looks spread out and some of the oil goes past the max mark (not full coverage but smears of a little bit of oil). Full oil coverage stops right before the max mark. What does this all mean. Have I overfilled?

the stick is sometimes hard to read and not always a clean mark. i usually clean the stick off 2 or 3 times before i feel confident. when the car vibrates alot, the oil is sloshing around in the tank i think

Have I overfilled?

No. Just read the side that shows the line the best. Figure the other side is dragging oil in the holder tube. Or pull it just once after the oil is warm and don't second guess yourself.

and i always read the inside of the stick, if that makes any sense

just concerned. did my first oil change yesterday and I am very frightened that I overfilled it. I know it can cause alot of issues.

if you added the # of quarts in accordance with the manual, your fine

the manual says 10.57, but it still was at the low mark. so in total I put about 10.8/10.9 or so in. I started freaking out today that I put to much in, so when I got home decided to check and one side of the stick is perfect and the other side is too hard to read but is near the top mark or has smudges over the line.

I've had that problem - where one side of the dipstick is significantly lower than the other (say by a pint).
Is one side the correct side?

either side will work...
the front usually gets spread out from dragging, but after awhile you get the knack for pulling it so it gives a clean line on the front.

so would you take the clean line on the back side (forget about the front side with the marks), and quit your frantic worrying?

yes...just try to pull the stick and read the clean line. you should be checking your oil often anyways, so you will soon get the hang of how your stick pulls out of the tube to get a clean mark in the front.

don't worry about it... as long as you put in the correct amount you should be ok. I always put 1 qt less and go drive it around until it is up to temp and then add the last qt. That way I know how much i have in at normal driving temp, so there is zero confusion of the amount and where the oil line is at on the dip stick.

Craig

thats my concern, I put in a little under 11 quarts and everybody else seems like they but 10.5 or so in.

I guess I am probably good.

If you do every overfill, how do you correct it?

First off if you did overfill it its not going to cause any harm....you may see some smoke but for the most part very little harm will come to your engine. These are dry sump systems and the tank will just spit out the excess.....unlike a conventional engine where if you overfill it the oil sits in the engine and can cause other ill effects.

You can buy a $10 plastic hand pump at an auto parts store and put one end down the fill tube and pump out what you need to get it to the correct level.

Or you can undo the drain plug and try to thread it back in before too much drains out. Be prepared to make a mess though.

So am I wrong that in a dry sump pump system, all the excess oil sits in the reservoir and the engine then only gets the oil it ask for aka needs and the rest sits in the reservoir.

exactly