Hitchcocks Forum

I'm convinced my engine oil has magical properties. Checked the old girl over this morning & thought I'd top the oil up as it had disappeared below the dipstick. Started her up, coughed away the blue smoke clouds for a while & generally ran the duster over the shinier bits before turning off. And guess what..? The oil is now about an inch above the dipstick marks!! That's magic, I reckon.. Sigh.

No not magic just wet sumping.

------used to get a similar thing on the early Girling remote brake servo units where along the main push-rod was a bush (Bakelite, neoprene ?? Can't remember now)but on the one side was the inlet manifold depression ie Vacuum and on the other side was the brake hydraulic fluid...As this bush started to wear the fluid would be drawn over into the inlet manifold and burnt in the engine...Slowly enough that you wouldn't notice as such BUT the reservoir fluid level would drop without there being any leaks visible in the whole system---- very baffling !!

i,d agree with dennis ,the dipstick on the electra is near impossible to read when the oil is clean,i had a simular incident to stringer except the electra oiled the chain with the excess,i now check the oil after running the engine for a few minutes,although i didn,t get the smoke atb paul.

Paul,
The reason you don't get the smoke is the Electra has a different oil ring and piston design similar to any wet sump motor

i had this trouble lots of smoke after standing for a few days when starting i was told to always leave the piston at top dead centre ie with ameter needle off centre ever since i done this even though i have left it for over a month no smoke on starting

yes norm your correct ,my oil returned to the oil tank causing an overfull tank although it blow out of the breather and oil everything including the chain!!

--------no wonder there's an "Energy crisis!!"

is there?