Can too much oil damage your engine?

0 votes
asked Sep 13, 2019 in Repairs/Maintenance by Vijay (410 points)
Can too much oil damage your engine?

1 Answer

0 votes
answered Sep 13, 2019 by Avarado (27,970 points)
Adding too much oil to your engine can damage the engine if you overfill it by too much because then the crankshaft can stir up the oil when the crankshaft hits the oil.

When the crankshaft in the engine hits the oil in the oil pan the oil then becomes aerated and is whipped into foam which causes the oil to lose it's lubrication abilities.

This can lead to spun rod bearings, seized engine etc.

If you overfill the engine oil by half a quart then that's not too bad and it should be perfectly fine.

But if you add a quart too much of engine oil or more than that above the fill level then you need to remove the drain plug halfway and drain the extra oil out of the engine.

When adding oil to your engine you should add a little bit at a time until it gets full and if it's just a tad overfull on the oil dipstick then there's no need to drain the excess oil.

But overfill the engine oil too much then you have to drain the excess oil out of the engine oil pan to prevent damage to your engine.

98,443 questions

94,727 answers

1,269 comments

6,992,480 users

...