Oil overfill

[BLBantz]

Will overfilling the oil by about 3/4 of a quart hurt anything? Should I drain it? For some reason, the site glass never showed any sign of oil as I filled her up. Usually you can see the oil rising in the glass, but not this time. I started her up for a few minutes and all seemed fine, but now, after resting for 15 minutes the glass shows completely black with oil. Suggestions? Thanks.

[CalLT]

You can usually take out the drain plug just long enough to drain 3/4 quart, then thread it back in. That's what I would do. Otherwise you run the risk of springing an oil leak.

[Dangerous2]

Sounds like way to much overfill to me. It may result in excessive crankcase pressure and a blown seal. Oil may blow past the rings and obviously be burnt resulting in fouled plugs.

[BaronVonGregg]

Center or Sidestand?

[bghubr]

Try draining thru the oil filter cover. Probably easier to regulate flow

[BLBantz]

Thanks for the advice. I drained some from the drain plug and it's now at the normal level. Pretty eady really as I already had all the equipment in place.

[Florian]

did you put more than 4 qts in? If not, dont sweat it. If you pumped more than 4 in, drain some.


F

[mtrevelino]

I agree with what Florian said. I usually just put 3.5 quarts in and the oil is usually dead center of the sight glass.

[sanjaun2]

s/b top of sight glass on the center stand or about half walf way on the center stand. any more and your asking for trouble. usually 3.5-3.7 quarts with filter change.

[CharlieVT]

My understanding of why over filling can be bad is that air can get whipped into the oil by the crankshaft resulting in foaming of the oil. The oil then does not lubricate well resulting in engine damage.

How much is too much in the LT? I dunno. But I don't overfill and I do check to see the level in the sight glass.

A tool that I have had around for literally decades is a Black and Decker Jack Rabbit pump. With a narrow plastic tube I can pull excess oil out of dip-stick tubes on cars and out of the oil filler hole on the LT. It works so well for this I sometimes am sloppy about measuring the amount I put in, knowing how easy it is to remove some excess.

The pump is also useful for moving gasoline and other stuff. No vested interest here, just fine this to be a very handy tool to have in the garage.

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[BLBantz]

So, why couldn't I see the oil fill up in the site glass as usual? I usually fill up and see the oil start to fill up in the glass and stop just at about 3/4 or a little more so the filter can fill and leave me at half full on the center stand. I've done this a bunch of times. But this time there was NO oil in the glass. Then I started the engine and the glass was totally full even after letting it stand for a while. How can that happen? I drained some and it came back to normal. Very strange.

[CharlieVT]

So, why couldn't I see the oil fill up in the site glass as usual? I usually fill up and see the oil start to fill up in the glass and stop just at about 3/4 or a little more so the filter can fill and leave me at half full on the center stand. I've done this a bunch of times. But this time there was NO oil in the glass. Then I started the engine and the glass was totally full even after letting it stand for a while. How can that happen? I drained some and it came back to normal. Very strange.

Sometimes when I was filling the oil, I wasn't watching the sight glass when the oil level came up. And then when it was over full, the new oil was so clear compared to the old oil I couldn't tell if the oil was below or above the sight glass.

I'm wondering if when you saw the sight glass as "empty" it was really already full beyond the top. It has happened to me.