Too much oil?
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Too much oil?
1272 driver with a magic tree!!
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Local Hero
Cheers
1981 1600 GTI (coming to a road near you soon…)
1983 1100 C
1983 1100 C
Posted
Old Timer
If the oil is a bit over (less than half a litre over), you'll get more going up the breather pipe, soiling your air filter, and creating varnish in the carburettor.
If it's a bit more over (more than half a litre over), you'll get excessive crankcase pressure as the breather is choked with liquid oil, rather than just fumes, and this pressure will cause gaskets and seals to leak oil all over the engine.
If you have really overfilled it (over a litre too much) and you drive it hard, you can even damage the bottom end as the crank is then splashing through a swimming pool of oil (rather than always being above it), and this can cause all sorts of problems like hydraulic lock, loading on the crank and bearings that they're not designed for, etc, as well as sapping about 5-7 BHP from the extra drag on the crank.
When filling and engine with fresh oil, I always fill the filter with new oil before fitting it (causes less "dry-running" time, the first time you start it), but it's then more difficult to estimate how much oil you're putting in, so I always under-fill the engine a bit (estimate to about the bottom of the dipstick), and then drive it gently (if I need to use the car), then let it settle overnight, and then top it off correctly the next morning.
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1272 driver with a magic tree!!
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Old Timer
When this happens you always think the worst and are sure your engine is knackered but generally changing the breather pod after reserring the oil level sorts it out.
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