Patches - that is one of my favourite designs - a caveman who used a stick to cross a creek would understand how to use that Briggs setup. A modern consumer could still probably goof it up, but I'll put that down to the price of civilization !
Sid - I hear you, as long as you are "on the stick" you are probably OK. I sleep better at night knowing that my small engines are at the proper Max oil level though - that 1/2" delta wouldn't bother even me on my big-block diesel sump, but on a small air cooled engine a 1/2" difference is a huge percentage. But yes, some of this is just my OCD talking/typing.
I came across an interesting oil viscosity chart in my new Briggs manual. Conventional 5W30 is spec'd for a bit above freezing and downwards.
Synthetic 5W30 is spec'd for the same low range, but
also up to 40C ambient.
If I had conventional 5W30 in my generator to accommodate Winter emergencies, then it's higher volatility would mean a higher oil consumption rate when running in the Summer heat. I'm
not trying to start yet another Conv. vs. Synth flamewar.... but it is relevant where I live. In this situation especially, it would be critical for me to have the sump filled to the Max safe level initially. My new generator has a Low Oil Shutdown circuit on it, but my older/smaller generator does not.
Back when engines ran long production cycles, perhaps the printed Fill Quantity # could be trusted for the most part. As Patches example illustrates, often today there are so many production and model changes that you can not trust manual #'s for oil volumes.
As I'm typing this, I'm realizing this confusion is a big part of why I find ambiguous dipstick designs so irritating. Yes, a factory could always install a wrong dipstick on an engine, but I tend to/want to trust what "stick" arrives on a machine over printed specs.
It's a rainy night here, so I don't mind spending this time typing, but this "simple" mechanical issue is way more of a PITA than it should be.
Rgds, D.
