Too much or too little oil?

[Carlo]

This is probably a stupid question but I'm questioning myself now.
I have a 2014 ram 1500 with the 3.6L 6 cylinder engine. I did my first oil change today on my own. I purchased the truck new and now that it's no longer under warranty I'm going to be doing my own oil changes.
According to the manual the engine holds 5.7L of oil. I bought a 4.73L and a 1L jug and put them both in but the oil does not appear to even be touching the oil dipstick at all. It was dark outside when I was checking but I had a bright light I was using. I intend on checking again tomorrow during the day. But it seems strange to me that it's not at least touching the dipstick. I don't know how accurate that 5.7L capacity is but I would think if I put that much oil in that it should at least be on the dipstick.
I've changed the oil on my cars for years so I know what I'm doing, I didn't fill up the transmission fluid with the oil. I checked the oil level while the truck was level to the ground, not still on stands and so on.
The oil I removed from the truck filled up the two empty jugs from the new oil and most of a Gatorade bottle so I'm guessing I took out approximately 6.3L of used oil. I'm guessing I'm just below the dipstick and that I just need a bit more oil to get it on the dipstick. I've never paid attention to the oil capacity numbers before in any of my other vehicles and just filled up until at the proper level on the dipsticks. Now that I've looked at the oil capacity number I think I might just be confusing myself. Is that 5.7L number accurate or is it just a ballpark figure?
If the 5.7L number is accurate, should I add more oil or just leave it?

 

[Nick_rp]

Did you put the drain plug back in?

Edit: seems that's a common problem for the 3.6. A quick search brought up quite a few instances of it.


Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

 

[Carlo]

Thanks for that suggestion, lol.
I bought another jug of oil, I'm going to add some more tomorrow until it's at least on the dipstick. I can only deduce that either the 5.7L oil capacity is incorrect or that the dipstick is too short so I'll shoot for the happy medium between the two.
Another question I forgot to ask in my original message, what is the torque spec for the drain plug in the 3.6L engine? I couldn't find the spec for the 6 cylinder engine but I did see the 8 cylinder spec was 18 or 26 foot pounds if I remember correctly. Is it safe to assume the 6 cylinder engine would be very similar if not identical?
I'm only asking because I tried taking out the drain plug with my dewalt impact driver which is rated at about 167 foot pounds and it wouldn't budge. I needed to use my breaker bar and it required quit a bit of effort to crack it loose. I needed the breaker bar to crack the drain plug loose on my wife's car on the first oil change I did on her vehicle as well. Do all dealers excessively over tighten the drain plug? Or is it just the ones around here?

 

[crackerjack1957]

Thanks for that suggestion, lol.
I bought another jug of oil, I'm going to add some more tomorrow until it's at least on the dipstick. I can only deduce that either the 5.7L oil capacity is incorrect or that the dipstick is too short so I'll shoot for the happy medium between the two.
Another question I forgot to ask in my original message, what is the torque spec for the drain plug in the 3.6L engine? I couldn't find the spec for the 6 cylinder engine but I did see the 8 cylinder spec was 18 or 26 foot pounds if I remember correctly. Is it safe to assume the 6 cylinder engine would be very similar if not identical?
I'm only asking because I tried taking out the drain plug with my dewalt impact driver which is rated at about 167 foot pounds and it wouldn't budge. I needed to use my breaker bar and it required quit a bit of effort to crack it loose. I needed the breaker bar to crack the drain plug loose on my wife's car on the first oil change I did on her vehicle as well. Do all dealers excessively over tighten the drain plug? Or is it just the ones around here?

20 on the v6....25 on the v8.....
http://www.hollonoil.com/OCH/Engine Drain Plug Torque Chart.pdf

I would not add oil you have correct amount in.....dip stick or tube not correct or both
https://oilreset.com/2014-ram-1500-oil-life-reset-specs/

 

[crackerjack1957]

If you have the 2014 v6 ecodiesel its 10.5 quarts & 33 ft lbs on oil plug.
https://www.ramtruck.ca/en_dir/pdf/specifications/1500.pdf

You said 3.6 which is gas........3.0 is diesel

 

[crash68]

If you have the 2014 v6 ecodiesel its 7 quarts & 33 ft lbs on oil plug.

You said 3.6 which is gas........3.0 is diesel

You would be 3.5 quarts(3.3 liters) low for the EcoDiesel in the 1500, it takes 10.5 quarts (10 liters). Don't put oil for a gas engine in a diesel, it can't suspended the soot load that diesel engine oil does.

 

[PoMansRam]

My 2017 RAM 1500 with the Pentastar v6 does the same thing. It's got the dipstick it should have, etc. All I can suggest is, fill it with the spec'd amount of oil. Drive it for a day or two, then check the dipstick.

 

[crackerjack1957]

You would be 3.5 quarts(3.3 liters) low for the EcoDiesel in the 1500, it takes 10.5 quarts (10 liters). Don't put oil for a gas engine in a diesel, it can't suspended the soot load that diesel engine oil does.

Yeah was getting late...must have copied 7 from 5.7.....lol....I see they have the 8.2 quarts wrong on that link.....Jeep takes 8.2 & Ram takes 10.5

 

[Carlo]

Thanks for all of the help. I do not have the ecodiesel.
I'm pretty sure the dealership has filled it up using the dipstick each of the 6 times they did an oil change so if that's the case, they overfilled it each time. Based on the amount of oil I removed, if I had to guess, they probably put in close to a liter more than they should have. Is this enough that I should be concerned about?

 

[Carlo]

Just an update, I checked my oil yesterday and after the truck sat for a day and a half the oil was showing up on the dipstick, it was showing it was roughly half full.
I had some errands to run, when I got home I checked the oil again. When I checked it with the engine running it didn't show up on the dipstick. After I shut it off, the first time I checked it still didn't show up. I waited a couple of minutes, checked again and it was just barely on the dipstick. I waited a few more minutes and checked again, it was showing about 1/4 full on the dipstick. Seems as though the oil is slow to drain back into the oil pan on this truck. It makes me feel better that it's at least showing up on the dipstick. None of my other vehicles do this and they all use 5w30 oil which is thicker than the 5w20 in the truck which again is a bit confusing to me, I would expect if any of the vehicles would do this it would happen with a thicker oil.

 

[averageguy]

If it sits all night and doesn't show full on the stock dip stick in a stock oil pan put some in it. You should NEVER use an impact to remove or tighten a drain plug, and it shouldn't require a breaker bar to remove it.