Highbeam said:
When you know how much oil an engine takes then there is no reason to check the level after filling...
I guess I may be the only dumb guy here, but I am pretty sure I saved a very expensive engine by ALWAYS checking the oil level on the dipstick BEFORE starting the engine after an oil change. I say that I am a "dumb guy" because the time I speak of is when I forgot to replace the oil plug.
After draining the oil I got distracted by a phone call and I was doing other things while the oil was draining. The 8 gallon oil pan was still under the truck as I was putting new oil back in (which promptly went right out the bottom) so I never had a huge puddle under the truck. Anyway, I recall pulling the dipstick, wiping it off and checking the oil level. Although it sometimes is hard to see the level with new clean oil, I couldn't find any oil on the dipstick. Yes, I wiped the dipstick and tried it several times in a row before it struck me what I'd done. Oopsie!
Again, I may be the only dumb guy here, but your advice of saying there is no reason to check the dipstick after putting new oil in would have cost me an engine. I'll stay with my dumb guy check list, thank you. And that includes always checking the dipstick and looking for any obvious leaks before starting the engine and then checking for any leaks again, and re-check the dipstick level, after starting the engine.
As far as the original poster's engine, I just don't know. We all know that oil doesn't compress very well, but I don't know where all it went and how his particular engine is designed. A girl I dated in college decided to do her own maintenance on her car. She noticed that her radiator was low. No problem since her dad had two gallons of antifreeze in the garage. She put both gallons in and the radiator was still low. That is when she drove over to my fraternity to have me check it out, which was about 3 miles. Yup, you guessed it, she filled the crank case with two gallons of antifreeze! After draining the nasty chocolate foam looking mess out, I did 3 oil changes in a row that day for her and, believe it or not, her car kept going fine. The car? A Pacer.