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Overfilling the oil

To: mgs@autox.team.net
Subject: Overfilling the oil
From: Larry Colen <lrcar@red4est.com>
Date: Tue, 3 Dec 2002 21:48:32 -0800
I've been having fun with the oil level in Jasmine.

A friend had bought a baffled oil pan, I think it was from Moss
Europe. It was built to the design in the special tuning manual. He
was not happy with the finish on it. It looked like they had just
spraypainted over rust and grime, there were some spots with yucky
looking welds that might have been rust repair. He decided to spend
lots of money on a pretty, custom baffled pan, I was happy to get a
cheap functional one.

Unfortunately, when they drilled the hole in the baffle plate for the
dipstick, they just barely missed. If the dipstick isn't put in with
the flat facing the hole, it hits on the plate. This also means that
when you withdraw the dipstick, all of the oil is scraped off the
back.

Combine the confusion of "is it empty like it looks? there's no oil
being left on the rag when I look at it" with the absolute clarity of
hot oil that has less than 50 miles on it, and I added oil when I
didn't need to.

A few miles later, I noticed a little bit of oil dripping out of the
drain hole in the bell housing when the car was parked. It was engine
oil, not the redline gearlube that I put in the 5-speed.  I did't lose
oil pressure. One side of the dipstick says that I have oil.

After about 60 miles of driving, it pretty much stopped dripping.

Hmm, is there any oil still in it? One side of the dipstick says so?
Is that just oil on the baffle getting on to that side? Or is the
baffle dry and scraping off the back?

I put a little oil in it to see if the level changed. It did.

The drip came back.

It seems to me that if it gets over filled, oil will drip out of the
rear mainseal.  I hope that this is what is happening, because I
really don't want to replace my mainseal. I just got everything in and
working. 

I just drained the oil and the dipstick is dry, on both sides. So my
theories seem to be confirmed.

Lesson: If you buy a baffled oil pan, make sure that the dipstick fits
without interference before the engine is in the car.



-- 
I've found something worse than oldies station that play the music I used to
listen to. Oldies stations that play the "new" music I used to complain about.
lrc@red4est.com                                    http://www.red4est.com/lrc

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