I know putting too much oil can cause damage (what kind of damage by the way?), but after having changed the oil this weekend, the level seemed fine. I guess waiting 2 minutes or so wasn't enough for enough oil to drain to the pan. This morning, I was curious on whether we were losing oil and I checked it cold after having sat overnight (the car not me) and was surprised to see the oil level on the dipstick was about 1/8" above the FILL/FULL line. I'm going to let her sit again over night and drain some in the morning, because I'm a perfectionist with paranoia. It's simple enough to do.

Am I right on wanting to do this?

-Anthony

 

That much over shouldn't be a problem, but what you will encounter with over'filling is the pistons slapping the oil on the downstroke. Were you parked leve when you checked it again?

 

I think you are fine, but do what makes you feel comfortable!

 

You will be fine.
You must give it at least 15 min before checking the oil, letting it sit over night is best.
I check my oil once a week, Sunday morning before we leave for church.
When you change your oil just keep track of how many quarts you put in.
your truck takes 6, so if you have 6 empty's laying on the ground you know you put in the correct amount.
If you are buying it in the 5 qt jugs then keep a empty 1 qt bottle in the garage, pour in your 5 qt jug and refill the empty 1 qt with your next 5 qt jug.
Now you have added exactly 6 qts.

I never even remove the dipstick when changing my oil.

Now to answer your other question, adding way to much oil can cause over pressurization of the crankcase and blow out engine seals and cause leaks.

 

+3 you are fine. You have to add a couple quarts over to even get close to the point where you have to start worrying about your harmonic balancers frothing your oil.

 

Thanks, everyone, for your input and the good news! I'll leave it be.
@okdiscoguy - yes, it was level (parking lot.)
@Spike555 - I used a 5qt+ jug (actually something like 5.24) and most of a single quart. yeah, blowing out engine seals would be bad
@lipadj46 - good to know. thanks!

-Anthony

 

a little engine theory for those interested...........
the crankcase operates in a general state of vaccum....as the pistons go down they "pressurize" the case.....as they go up a vaccum is created. The result of all of these ups and downs is a vaccum ...not pressure. The vaccum allows us to operate several other items under the hood( brake assist, evap system etc etc..) and the vaccum helps to keep the oil in the engine LOL ! believe it or not.
If there were a pressure in the crankcase all the time it would force oil out of every where it possibly could. The engine was designed to have a certain ammount of oil in the crankcase , since the oil takes up volume in the case that leaves a certain ammount of "air" volume there also. If we put TOO much oil in the engine it can create TOO much pressure in the base and lead to leaks and even excess oil consumption as well as a lot of "check engine issues" later. That's why you see the "dont overfill " warnings . However IMO a slight overfill as mentioned here is probably well within the spec for any margin of error by the factory. We've all done it ..and not to worry.
And while we're on the subject my DI takes 6 quarts and 20oz to register full on the dipstick with the stock size filter.......more with the bigger ones ...

 

Nice theory, too bad it's wrong.
Engine vacuum, in a petrol engine, is generated by the intake vacuum created in the cylinders, not by anything in the crankcase (look at your brake booster vacuum line, it's connected to the intake, not the crankcase).
The crankcase usually has a positive pressure and the reason oil isn't forced out everywhere because of the pressure is because engines used to be vented to the atmosphere. Now they have emissions controls, like the PCV.

As for the OP, you've nothing to worry about 1/8" above the full mark.

 

Tom ...you're right ...and in my hurry to type I left out a little. But at any rate, excess oil in the crankcase can overcome the ability of the pcv system......

 

Uhh what? Maybe if you filled the oil so high it was sucked in to the PCV port it would affect your PCV system. Otherwise as Tom pointed out there is a vacuum on the top end and a tendency for a positive pressure to be built up in the bottom end (caused by blowby) but this is alleviated by the PCV system connecting the bottom end to the top end. The reason you do not want to overfill your crank case is that the harmonic balancers on the crankshaft will aerate the engine oil like a smoothie and remove much of the lubricating and thermal properties of the fluid.