rosros

Recently noticed oil covering underside of car, around intake manifold edges and backside and front side of engine block. No drips, just wet. No smoking from the exhaust. Oil pressure guage seemed ok but in retro may have been reading a bit high. I checked the dipstick and it was over the full mark. The car has been converted to spin on oil filter so the oil capacity is reduced to 5 qts. The mechanic must have just followed mfg specs and added in the 6 qts and out the door she went (as this car was a recent purchase the oil change was done right before my purchase). Went to Harbor Freight and got the Pittsburg transfer pump (did not want to deal with doing an oil change), ran the hose down the dipstick and pumped out a qt. Will let the oil settle as the pump probably agitated the oil. Now oil readings at the full mark so was over filled by 1 qt. Hopefully the valve cover seal will reseat with less oil pressure up top and not leak. A big slap to my forehead.

Helix9595

Thanks for posting about this. I forgot that the spin on filters use less oil. My car started seeping oil but I could not figure out where it was coming from. Last week I suspected that I might be overfull so removed some. Your situation verifies that I was overfull.

Nowhere Man

The canisters hold one quart while most spin on filters hold a half a quart. But there was some spin on filters for trucks and such that held one quart too. From memory the one for a 350 was PF1218. While the PF 35 was a half a quart. But this was for 305/307 and 350 blocks. I have no idea about spin on conversions

jforb

I'm curious about how being a bit over full will affect the engine....can you explain?

Helix9595

A bit over full may just cause a leak, A lot over full could hit the crankshaft and cause all kinds of issues. Noises, power loss oil leaks etc.

dplotkin

Overfilling an engine or transmission risks that the level rises above rotating parts causing foam which is aeration and as we know pumps for liquids will not pump air. In the engine such risks are likely far smaller than the wives tales and causes mostly leaks. In an automatic transmission however foaming ATF in hydraulic circuits can cause havoc, causing low line pressures and partially engaged clutches and bands. Overfilling is self inflicted failure, the worst kind.

Dan

jforb

How? I don't understand.

dplotkin

When oil is at a level equal to or above a gasketed area not intended to see oil under pressure, top of oil pan gasket, front cover, rear seal, anywhere oil isn't supposed to be in quantity it will seep or leak. Think about an engine oiling system that routes pumped oil to moving parts that need it. If the crank is churning through the oil, whipping it into a froth it will throw it everywhere inside and can give the oil pump a problem too.

Dan