I don't understand, using lilypond 2.11.20 with this simplest script : \version "2.11.20"
\new Score { \new Staff { \relative c'' { \setTextCresc c4 \< c c c
c c c c \! } } }
I get a result where the dashed line have a weirdly laaaaaarge span... Looks like if lilyond had kept internally an odd constant for the 'dash-period variable...