Where Does the Oil Go?

[myoldjalopy]

Just a query, really. I noticed over a couple of days that my car was slow to pull away, but soon was fine. First thing I did was check the cab dashpot oil and it was pretty low. After topping up, the car is back to normal so a nice easy fix
Question is - where does the oil go to?
Cheers,
Pete

[philthehill]

Any excess oil is pulled into the engine and consumed during the combustion process.
The tube does not have to be filled to the top.
So long as there is résistance felt when pushing the damper down into the piston that is all that is required.
There is a tendency to overfill the damper which then leads to concerns when the excess oil disappears.

[myoldjalopy]

Thanks Phil, I don't think there was any excess oil to begin with - I usually fill it to just above the little lip where the tube opens out. However, the level was pretty low when I looked, and filling it up cured the poor acceleration when starting from cold, so there obviously wasn't enough. I just couldn't think where the oil went...just idle curiosity really