I have a 2005 Honda Shadow 1100 Spirit that I bought Used. It has about 7000 miles on it. I change oil with Amsoil 10/40 synthetic oil. The manual says it takes 3.3 quarts with oil. I changed the filter also. But when I check the Oil as per manual the dipstick shows only 1/2 on the oil dipstick calibration. And that is after I added another 2 ozs. Do you know how much oil it shud take. And what shud dipstick read on a cold engine.

You are right, the shop manual says 3.3 quarts. However, that was for the prototype engine and originally specified filter.

Sometimes, minor design changes in the engine case or a change to the filter will change how much oil is required to hit the midpoint on the dipstick. Sometimes, a different oil filter is specified after several model years to insure better filtering but the manual is not updated.

This is not something you should worry too much about. I know it is annoying but the single biggest indicator of how much oil you need is the dipsticklevel. This level insures the oil pump is covered sufficiently to pump oil up to the cylinder head, even when the bike is leaning on the side stand at idle or in a curve.

The best thing to do is add 3 quarts, check the oil, add a bit more oil until you are into the "food" range on the dipstick. Then start the bike and let it idle for a minute to push oil through the filter can. Check the oil again and adjust as needed.

As always, check the oil after your first (short) ride to insure you don't have any leaks.

Also, if this is your first time using synthetic oil, you might want to change it again soon because the synthetic will definately wash out any deposits left from the petroleum oil. If it looks real cloudy or dark after 300 or 500 miles, I would drain it and add more Amsoil. Up to you if you want to change the filter.

Hello and welcome to FixYa!

On cold specially after oil change, it may show 1/2 on the dipstick. Not until the engine is warmed up which makes the oil expand.

1/2 on cold is just fine, you may drain the excess oil that you added.

Hope this helps and thank you for using FixYa! Have a good one!