Why Two Oil Dipsticks on Perkins 4-108 ?

[minaret]

Originally Posted by dancamp009

Either Perkins messed up or I'm messed. But I just think they could have made it a lot easier for us to change our oil.

Welcome to the wierd and wacky world of marine diesel mechanics. I've always thought Perkins were strangely inconvenient in many ways. Just look at what you have to do to bleed the dam thing. And wait till you discover that everything on the engine is in some wierd british thread(wentworth)...

[dancamp009]

Final Update:
I finally bought a Pela 2000 oil extractor and finally sucked out the remaining quart of oil that remained in the pan after the drain plug quit draining. I then poured one gallon of oil into the motor, replaced the oil filter with a new one filled with another quart of oil, and ran the motor.
Guess what? No more smoke. I was at least 1.5 quarts over filled, which did make it smoke blue/white smoke.
I then began checking out the dipsticks.
While the oil was hot, I found the left (port side) long dip stick that extends way up and back to read just barely above the the "min" mark on the dipstick. I'll measure it cold today, but i'm guessing it will register just barely below the "min" mark.
However, the shorter dipstick on the right (starboard) side of the motor, the one that is only 16.5" long and has the number 31785417 stamped on it doesn't register any oil at all, which means I need to replace that dipstick with a longer one (at least another inch as I found by inserting the longer dipstick into that hole). I could extend that dipstick down another to 2.5" farther. Today I will go looking for another (longer) dipstick for that right (port) side.
And while I was at it, I added a shut-off valve to the drain plug so that I can drain the oil out easier next time.
Thanks guys for all the help. It looks like I needed every bit of it.