Don't check it. You put 5.5 in your good. These bikes are semi-dry sump bikes, the dipstick does not measure actual oil level.

 

here the offical Indan produced video on checking oil

the problem that you and everyone else has with the above process is the level on the stick is namby-pamby subjective.
Basically with teh above method, everything from above add and below full is considered "good".
What is worse is the above reading is not reproduceable - if you run the bike for 5 min vs 3 you get a completely different reading from one taken the prior morning. Basically all the official method is good for is proving you are in a "safe" zone (or not) Completely lost in the offical method of checking oil is the concept of "I have I lost 6 oz since last oil change - or not". which is what most of us that check oil are trying to learn.

my advice, is you have no choice but to use the official method to check oil until you hit your next oil change.

HOWEVER, upon your next change are in a "golden" state to do something magical.

it helps to know that a hot bike held vertically overnight will have its oil settle into the various chambers the exact same way every time - no exceptions for any make model or year. this includes my bike and yours.
to hold the bike vertical you will need a wheel-chock, wheel-dock, ps-1500 or similiar

Upon your next oil change you will know with 100% certainty the oil level in your bike is perfect.
so go for a ride to bring bike to temperature then park overnight in your wheelchock/wheeldock/ps-1500/similar.
Next morning with the bike still held vertical make note of where on the dipstick the your oil level falls.
this mark, wherever it is on the dip stick, your your bikes personal "full" mark on that area of your garage when in that wheel-chock/wheel-dock/ps-1500
on my 16' chieftain, that mark is stem of the letter "L" in the word "COLD"

further "magic" occurs if you are in the habit of always parking your bike in that same wheelchock/wheeldock/ps-1500

now you can check oil any random morning you wish. Because you you are now knowing your bike's "full" mark.
now when you check oil you can easily see if your bike is 3 ounces low (or not).
If you find it low then you may now safely add those ounces to bring back to the "full" mark and know with 100% certainty you are not over-filling the bike.

 

here the offical Indan produced video on checking oil

the problem that you and everyone else has with the above process is the level on the stick is namby-pamby subjective.
Basically with teh above method, everything from above add and below full is considered "good".
What is worse is the above reading is not reproduceable - if you run the bike for 5 min vs 3 you get a completely different reading from one taken the prior morning. Basically all the official method is good for is proving you are in a "safe" zone (or not) Completely lost in the offical method of checking oil is the concept of "I have I lost 6 oz since last oil change - or not". which is what most of us that check oil are trying to learn.

my advice, is you have no choice but to use the official method to check oil until you hit your next oil change.

HOWEVER, upon your next change are in a "golden" state to do something magical.

it helps to know that a hot bike held vertically overnight will have its oil settle into the various chambers the exact same way every time - no exceptions for any make model or year. this includes my bike and yours.
to hold the bike vertical you will need a wheel-chock, wheel-dock, ps-1500 or similiar

Upon your next oil change you will know with 100% certainty the oil level in your bike is perfect.
so go for a ride to bring bike to temperature then park overnight in your wheelchock/wheeldock/ps-1500/similar.
Next morning with the bike still held vertical make note of where on the dipstick the your oil level falls.
this mark, wherever it is on the dip stick, your your bikes personal "full" mark.
on my 16' chieftain, that mark is stem of the letter "L" in the word "COLD"

further "magic" occurs if you are in the habit of always parking your bike in that same wheelchock/wheeldock/ps-1500

now you can check oil any random morning you wish. Because you you are now knowing your bike's "full" mark.
now when you check oil you can easily see if your bike is 3 ounces low (or not).
If you find it low then you may now safely add those ounces to bring back to the "full" mark and know with 100% certainty you are not over-filling the bike.

Genius! Thank you for making simple what the MoCo cannot.

 

thanks, all!
my dipstick is 6 1/8 (top of thread to very end). Not sure if stock.

Am barely getting a 1/2 inch of oil check on side and NO oil if checking up. I know I used a kit from Indian, has the right oil filter pn on, so it got 5.5q 2k miles ago. I could swear at that point, oil was checking good.

hate to drain this expensive oil, but don't want to add any either.

definitely next oil change will be certain of 5.5q and will potograph dipstick for a reference.

 

My experience is back to back morning checks when on side stand overnight does not yield a reproducible result but overnight verticality does.

 

I did the first oil change Saturday on my new Sport Chief after hitting the 500 miles and upon draining I discovered it was overfilled. I used a 6 qt. pan as I knew that was what is supposed to be in the engine, but the oil overfilled the pan and was still draining from the motor. There was at lease 7 qts. in the engine because I used the new bottles to discard of the used oil and it filled all 6 with at least a qt. left plus what was spilled on the floor. I put 6 in the bike and did the oil level check as per Indian instructions and I also find it not to be the best method for repeat results. I hope the extra oil did not cause any harm to the engine.

 

As I've posted, in a 6 qt. TS engine, I refill with 5.5 quarts. Always OEM oil change kits. I did it that identical way on both TS engine, the early 111 I refilled with 5 qts. (oil filter always) Never check again. No oil blowing out of air filter. Maybe be a stupid method, but almost 75000 miles and no issues. And no one else changes my oil, so no risk of stripped threads. Just my .02
As said earlier, once you change the oil with this method you know the baseline.

 

I had a friend who ended up putting 8 quarts in (due to dipstick mystery) and ran the bike for several months with no issues. 2017 Chief This Polaris engine must have a secrete compartment that can carry an extra barrel of oil. So for years we have all concluded it is best to drain oil, add 5.5 qts, and ride till next time. Very Very few have ever burned or leaked oil. If your bike does this it will be obvious. You might as well sell your dipstick to your Harley friends.

 

I've never checked it on my Springfield or my Challenger. No need.

 

I completely agree, there is no need to check oil.
In fact, I'm going to throw out my bathroom scale, and cancel my colonoscopy too as I know everything ought to be fine so there is no need to check.

 

Ib

I completely agree, there is no need to check oil.
In fact, I'm going to throw out my bathroom scale, and cancel my colonoscopy too as I know everything ought to be fine so there is no need to check.

That makes zero sense. I don't check the oil in my newer cars or trucks in between oil changes either...no need.

 

There's no need to check. Until there is.

 

ill report back when I drain this thing... will docment with photos what my dipstick shows, then measure exact what get drains + what drains from filter. then refill with 5.5Q of course and redo photos.

 

never checked it regularly in between dealer services. my CT literally burnt no oil. In my 4 yrs I did two checks close before the service intervals and it always was far from minimum.

 

There it is in OracleDba's manual image: The engine must be at normal operating temperature when checking oil level.

 

You have to idle it for 60 seconds and then check. Cold will show way too high on the dipstick. At least on a Pursuit.

 

The oil check procedure is completely different on the 111/116 engines than the PP108. This is a discussion on the 111/116 engine, and cold will show no oil on a 111/116

 

I changed oil on my ‘17 RM a week ago. All miles are mine. Lost approximately 1qt=4729 miles. As of today I have 98,603 mi on the engine. Dip stick? I am not always in my garage/home when I need to check oil and I never see the same results while on the road. I don’t have an answer except that I’ll most likely go to 3500-4000 mi. max for oil changes due to engine mileage. Always used OEM.

 

How did you measure how much came out? That is definitely not normal.

 

Just do this and call it a day. When you put in 5.5 qts. it is full. This bike has a sump, in other words basically 2 chambers. That said, the dipstick isn't as reliable as one would think. Whatever you do, don't overfill unless you want oil all over your air breather and possibly other places. Once full, run the designated miles and change again with 5.5 qts. along with filter. Also, as in manual, put in 4.5 and run for a bit alternating rpms up to 2000 rpm and then dump the last qt. The reason is you must move to the sump with initial 4.5 qts. I run mine 5K once I broke in. Hope this helps. Just don't overthink this and ride, ride, ride!!

 

If the engine was made after February 2019, it holds 6 quarts.

 

Does anybody remember Larry's response to this same question on his 2014 Chieftain that was still running strong at over 500k miles? Basically the same procedure as above, except he said he didn't use a wheel chock but a block of wood. Parked it in the exact same spot, same block of wood under the kick stand, and checked it cold. Sounds almost identical

 

@Leather Face
I think it is important to have a process wherein if one checks oil on 3 back to back dates you obtain the exact same reading on dipstick every time. This 100% reproducibility is what gives you the ability to "know" if you are 4 ounces low - or not.

I would caution against a process where you check oil at anything other than ambient temp. The reason why is hot oil has air whipped into it. Whereas ambient temp oil does not have any air whipped into it -it has all dissipated away. Furthermore if you switch brands of oil the new oil might have better (or worse) antifoaming agents. This variance means if take a reading when oil is "hot" that reading at the "same" temp - your new brand of oil can read differently than your old brand of oil.

Conversely stated by taking your readings at ambient temp the quality of the anti-foaming agents of the oil does not matter. All oil, good or bad anti-foaming agents will read the same. Furthermore the "ambient" readings are identical regardless of outside being snowy or rainy or hot-summer.

lastly we know 100% of the words and symbols printed on the dip stick are printed on that dipstick to support a process of checking oil that we are not using. As such, those words and symbols do not apply to us. We do not care if our 100% full mark is above or below a pre-printed "add" line.

 

@OracleDba Thanks for the come-back... I'm expressing my concern as there isn't a simple way - but I was using cherry picked pieces of your method - well sort of... to get an oil level.

My owners manual says 5.7 quarts - the Kit you can buy has 6.0 - and I saw a post or two where any engine after 2019 should have 6 qts. All said... I'm just confused as there is a very nebulous answer to what that dipstick level ought to be... Confusion on the total capacity of oil... But your system/method is something I'm going to try fully now...

Almost want to see a real Indian Engineer or some such come out and tell us for sure how much oil capacity - though I'll get flamed as now 6.0 qts is the mantra, and of course where that lands on a dipstick...

Thx @OracleDba for your answer...

 

I feel your pain...
If your's was my bike and my manual said 5.7, then next oil change I would do just 5.7, go for a ride, park vertically overnight, and next morning note the level on stick so that on a go forward basis one knows the bike's personal "I-am-full-when-here" mark. I find it helps to own a wheel chock such as a ps1500 or similar and use it daily. I find most maintenance tasks are easier when bike is held vertically, the bonus feature is being able to do oil checks with zero advance notice too.
good luck.

 

Thanks @OracleDba I'm going to give that a shot... I'll report back at some point...!

 

So weird, did my first oil change on this 2019 111 Chieftain Limited, 6 qts after all the add 4qts upright run 30 sec add 2 more qts, still nothing on dipstick? going to just ride. Hard to convince myself.....

 

So weird, did my first oil change on this 2019 111 Chieftain Limited, 6 qts after all the add 4qts upright run 30 sec add 2 more qts, still nothing on dipstick? going to just ride. Hard to convince myself.....

 

Yeah, mine didn't show on the dipstick with 6 quarts either. I kept adding small amounts, running it for a minute or so, shutting it down, letting it settle for a minute, unscrewing and wiping the dipstick, screwing it back in, screwing it back out and checking it. Kept doing that till I got all the way to the FULL mark. I was barely shy of 7 quarts. 7 wouldn't have run it over. I had about 6 1/2 in when it was at the ADD mark. You can see in my sig line, but I have a 2021 Springfield 111.

 

The question is @SlidePicker - if you 'over fill' at some point, you get residual oil up around the air cleaner... do you have that? I get mine to 'barely' (means barely) to touch the bottom knuckle on the dipstick...

I really wish Indian would come out with some sort of real definition on what is a proper check.
I think we all get tired of 'hold the bike this way', or 'when the bike is 165 degrees with a baby zebra crossing the street on leap year' sorts of measurements.

Not to rant at zero-six in the morning... but here's indians' version of how to do it from Youtube...

Enough! It's time to go riding on whats going to be a very pretty Sunday! L8TR G8TRs

 

Thank you.