911C4 engine filled with oil
 

I have a 1990 911C4 that a freind of mine drove until it warmed up and stopped the car to run an errand. He came back out and started it up and drove about one mile and the engine stated blowing burning oil like the spy hunter car. It would not turn over after he shut it down. I later pulled the plugs and found several cylinders completely full with oil. I suspect that he overfilled it earlier that day and the oil when it warmed up and expanded, went out the breater hole on the top of the case and into the intake. The intake was very wet with oil. When I pulled the exhaust it was also filled with oil. The car never got overheated and he shut it off prior to a fire or locking it up. Any suggestions as to the actual problem would be apprciated. The car does have good compression on all cylinders too. about 170 across the board.

Thanks,

Garrity

The engine needs to be warm when (temp gauge at second mark or so) before you can accuarately check the oil. I would suggest you pull the plug on the crankcase, and remove some of the oil, then pull out the lugs you can reach, and was in petrol, dry & put back. Then (remember to replace the crancase plug) try to start. Expect smoke. The procedure for changing the oil is to drain completely, then add about six qt.s, start briefly, then add 4 more (use Mobil-1) When the engine is tohoughly warm, the level on the dipstick should be 1/2 way between the add and full marks. More will cause the problems you have. After you car has run for about an hour, the smoke should go away. Sometime when you feel like changing the oil, remember there is a plug on the wheel side of the fender well that makes it easy to do without spilling oil all over when taking out the oil filter. Remember to use Mobil-1 and a genuine German filter (it makes a difference)

Just as a side comment to what Horst added, which is all good BTW. At least in my case I have a difficult time determining oil level on the dip stick. I use a combination of the oil level guage when thoughly warmed up and then the visual check of the dip stick. Invariably, it takes a few iterations of the dip stick insertion and subsequent wipes to get a good measure. It seems that the fit is so tight that it often smears the oil along the portion of the stick between the marks making an accurate delineation difficult (especially with nice clean oil). The point? be careful...its easy to overfill!

I agree 100% with Jon. I use both the gauge and dipstick to obtain an accurate oil level reading. Using the dipstick alone can be tricky, for the reasons Jon has described. The best time to make a correlation between the dipstick and gauge readings is right after an oil change, when you know the level is correct.

Also, I've found that the gauge reading is very sensitive to engine temperature. I'll drive the car to work every day, and the reading will barely be out of the red once at work (warmed up, freeway driving, 0800 position on the temperature gauge). Then, I'll take the car out for a Sunday drive up the coast, get stuck in traffic, the engine reaches its highest operating temperature (between 0900 and 1000), and the gauge reading will be just shy of the highest tick.