The oil is less viscous when it's hot, but i doubt that there would be enough of a change in the volume of the oil due to heat to account for the change in the dipstick reading.
I would imagine it just takes more than a couple of minutes for all of the oil to drain back to the sump, especially if you've got a turbo or oil cooler attached to the engine. So after a couple of hours the level would be higher than when you immediately turn the engine off.
[Damn, beaten. And here i was getting all scientific ]
Wed, 29 October 2003 22:45
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