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I took my car for an oil + filter change at my buddy's shop yesterday. I discovered they used one 5 quart jug and two quarts from the second jug. At the time, it looked like the oil was right at the full line, and so I doubted myself and wondered if I had used a make-up quart from one of the jugs. But the car had just been running. Checking the oil after sitting overnight, it is up to the "O" of "Operating Range", clearly well above the full fill line. With a long filter, 6 quarts puts it right at the full line, and that is what I instructed them to do.
Am I in danger of spinning a bearing, or does the windage tray provide adequate protection? I really don't want to get on my back in my garage and attempt to drain some out. But I'd rather do that than spin a bearing.
I always found this tool helpful for these situations. Brake bleeder kit.
Air powered suction. Put the hose down the dipstick tube and press the button. The reservoir is measured so u know how much ur taking out, Pricey though.
https://www.mactools.com/products/pbt70852
they sell them everywhere. Amazon has them cheap for $30-$60
It is not uncommon to over fill an LS motor by a 1/2 or full quart. Especially if you like to drive it enthusiastically and like to rev to higher RPMs.
It is not uncommon to over fill an LS motor by a 1/2 or full quart. Especially if you like to drive it enthusiastically and like to rev to higher RPMs.
I've heard of guys doing this for autocross and other forms of racing. But I wondered how safe it would be for normal street operation.
In any case, I called the shop owner and he told me I'd be safe to drive it back to the shop (5 miles or so). They drained out the extra quart and now i'm good to go with oil right at the full line.
It won't hurt anything. It's actually suggested to run 7-7.5 to help stop the pickup from being uncovered. Super common to overfill on drag cars. Lots of old folks told me it would have horrible windage issues overfilling mine that much. So I did back to back runs adding 1qt at a time from 5.5 qts to 8qts. Made zero difference in my et/trap speeds. But my oil pressure didn't dip when I ran 7.5qts.
This was on a pretty quick drag car that would pull the wheels a few inches with decent 1.3x 60’ times on a stock F-body pan.
Supposedly, if you overfill the oil, it becomes aerated by the crankshaft whipping through it and will eventually cause the oil pump to pull in "oil foam" which causes cavitation. I wonder about that myself, because there are oil drain paths in the block where oil can drain right onto the crank as it spins. I think in most normal engines, there's a fog of oil floating around at all times.
Supposedly, if you overfill the oil, it becomes aerated by the crankshaft whipping through it and will eventually cause the oil pump to pull in "oil foam" which causes cavitation.
That's right. He didn't know what he was doing and overfilled it by 2 quarts. Those 3.8's don't have a windage tray, I believe, but even it did, at that level I don't think it would have helped.
05-10-2024, 02:23 PM
7 Quarts in LS1? 
