weird dipstick?

[liquidtiger720]

okay, so my buddy who just bought an e30 318i calls me to help him do an oil change. He's all frantic because he see no oil on his dipstick (or very little at all). He even poured in ~1 -2 quarts of oil to get to my house. So, when I got it up, I looked for leaks...nilch. Just water because he had the ac on. We decidedt o just do an oil change. We drained about 5 quarts out and refilled it with 4 (specified by the owners manual). At the end of the third quart, the dipstick showed 1/4 up between the two lines. We poured in the last quart, drove it out of the garage and then checked it again. The oil was back WAAAY belwo the line.
I really don't know what is going on. Did I, do something wrong? What am i not seeing? Any help would be appreciated, Thank you.

[JonE]

Wrong dipstick? Maybe it had been replaced at one time with the wrong length stick? Maybe he has an oil cooler that wasn't there to begin with and now that takes up some of the volume of oil to fill it?
Just a couple of thoughts.

[liquidtiger720]

hmm...ill check out the stick.

[632 Regal]

could be the stick, do these deals have the oil cooler like the E34? if so maybe the oil canister is backwashing the level emptying the cooler and after you run it its at the correct level???? 4 qts is the pans measurement but the filter and cooler take additional.