I did the oil change on my disco today and I think I filled it up a little too much. its about a cm or 1.5cms from the full mark. will this hurt the engine or is it fine. please help with this issue as I dont want to drive it like that till I know its safe.
thanks

 

You are fine. You can drive one quart over full and not hurt anything.

 

The dip stick on any vehicle s more of a guide line than an absolute measurement. Truly, anything within reason will be ok. I have personally seen several vehicles produced by GM as much as 2 quarts over filled and still running fine. The only measurement on the dip stick you need to pay very close attention to is the add/fill line.

 

More oil is certainly safer than not enough. The less oil you have the harder it has to work and the hotter it gets. I'm not exactly sure of what would happen if there is too much oil in the engine.

Cheers,

Pete

 

Heres what happens if you have way to much oil in the engine. The engine has to work harder which reduces MPG.
The more oil in the crankcase themore resistance for the crankshaft and connecting rods. Normally only the lower half of a crankshaft is submerged in oil. The more that is submerged the more it has to over come.
The other thing that happens is that because there is less space inside the engine more pressure can build up if the PCV system is not working correctly. ANd when that happens it can blow out a seal and cause it to leak. Such as a front or rear main seal.
The third thing that can happen is increased oil consumption. Because there is more oil to be thrown around by the counter weights on the crankshaft more oil is thown onto the cylinder walls and thus the likly hood that more oil will get into the combustion chamber increases.
Unless you put in so much oil that it is coming out of the dip stick tube I woudnt worry about it.
1or2 quarts wont hurt anything. 3 I'd be worried, 4 I would drain it out and start over.

 

Well, Spike, if you don't call that hurting an engine[8D].....

I would dive under the truck and take off the drain plug for 1/2 a second and re-install. Especially knowing how problematic these engines are when it comes to blown seals.

 

He is only over by half a quart. He is fine. He is going to lose 2 quarts by removing the drain plug and then reinstalling with the oil gushing out, not to mention all the oil he will get on the ground, himself and all over his truck.

The works, how many quarts did you put in? You must still have the empty bottles. 6 or 7?

 

Well, last automn I had done that myself (overfill) , and I did what I suggest. You really have to unscrew the drain plug very very slowly, keeping the bolt inline with the holeand the millisecond that the oil starts gushing out, you reinstall. Of course you need your oil change pan under there, but the part that gets the dirtiest by doing that will be your forearm all the way toyour elbow. So make sure the truck is cold.

I had my head gaskets job done last automn, so I'd never gamble with driving overfilled and cause building pressure to ruin that gasket again because I was too lasy to fix what I did wrong. Live and learn my friend live and learn. Next time you'll know when to stop filling.

 

I also did the oil change on my 04 Disco. Very easy. Quite surprised that it took 6 quarts (as per the manual). I used Castrol Syntec 10W40. It's great to change the oil and YOU DON'T HAVE TO JACK THE VEHICLE UP!!!

: )

 

Over filling oil will not blow head gaskets.

My last truck I would always put in 5 qts of oil and it
only held 4. 5 qts after 200,000 miles I still had no leaks
or bad gaskets.

What causes oil leaks is not changing oil in a timely manner.

Thats what I have seen in the 28 years that I have worked and
managed auto shops.