I'm going to keep checking my oil after it sits overnight, when most of the oil is in the pan and I can really see how much oil is there.

I can tell you this...the oil will wick up the dipstick so you should wipe it off, reinsert it, withdraw and read it. I especially see this on aircraft engines where the oil is generally thicker than what cars use.

And for the original poster of this thread, diesel engines are noisy and the oil pressure gauge is the gold standard for verifying that oil is being circulated thru the engine, not the dip stick.

The car has an Oil Level Indicator on the dash..did that show low oil ??
If NO , you are OK and it just needs topping
Your original post stated they Forgot to put in the oil. That did not happen .

Is there not an oil pressure gauge in the instrument cluster in front of the steering wheel?

Well, I'm amazed. It appears there is no oil pressure gauge in that instrument cluster.

Oil Level Indicator...so, if they forgot to add the oil , they would certainly have seen the Warning indicator..even if it was just low.. they may also have just gone by the indicator instead of the dip-stick.
Should be fine and use the Dip Stick ..1/2 way mark is fine at 20C

There sure isn't. That was deleted.

There's nothing wrong with checking your oil after sitting overnight, especially if you don't consider the "Min" mark to be a good place to leave it. You're less likely to overfill it that way.

With the gas versions of this era you can check the oil level from the dash and the display will tell you if OK or 1 or 2 qts low, etc.

The E300's of the same years do not have that feature; they only display the low oil level warning.

Thanks agian for all the responses. The Oil Level Indicator on the dash did not show low oil and the E300 does not have a oil pressure gauge in the dash so there is no way for me to tell the oil pressure.

Can we conclude that there is a lazy glow plug or guykoh did not wait for the glow light to extinguish before starting? If oil level wasn't an issue, that is.

Sixto
87 300D

Hi!
I notice today that most manual or maybe mine says to put 6.1/5 us quarts in this here E430, it actually take 8.1/5 US quarts, so don't trust your manual double check your oil before thinking you got it done.