rcarpen22

I have read every single oil overfill thread on here, I promise... With that said, I just finished doing a ton of work including clutch, valves, lots of seals, etc. I drained all of the oil via the drains in the case and the tank. After all was done, I put 8.5 quarts in and cranked up. I got tons of smoke and knocking. So, I ask WTF!? 8.5 quarts? I thought that was what you were supposed to do. Have I completely killed the thing? Any advice on next step? I intend to drain from the case and then let it idle, but I don't want to risk hydrolocking it. It only ran for 10 seconds or so and when I saw the smoke and heard the knock I turned it off. It's a high mileage engine that needs a rebuild anyway, so not that big of a deal, but I was hoping my dad could drive it easy for a while before I have to rebuild it. On a better note, I only put the primary on and it sounded awesome!

Indycam

Yeah you put to much oil in before you started the motor .
If you over fill the oil tank with oil , oil goes down the vent hose into the intake system .
When you then start the motor the oil gets into the cylinders and because the oil has low octane , the motor knocks and smokes as the oil is burned . The thing to do now is , under the cover of darkness , take a nice long drive away from everyone you know who might see you and get the motor and exhaust
"smoking hot" till the smoke is all gone .

Next time , drain the oil , put in the oil plugs , put 6 oils in , start the motor , then add more oil .
6 is plenty of oil , nothing is wrong with 6 .

rcarpen22

6 is the magic number. Dang. Ok, so driving it at this point is not dangerous? Some posts have suggested that it's not that big of a deal, while some say not to drive the car or risk total destruction and doom. I don't need to pull the bottom plugs and drain the oil out of the cylinders? Tis my first 911 so I have much to learn.
Thanks.

darth

Is it a knock or a ping? A knock is bad especially if it's not in time with the valve train. I'd be hestant to drive it either way as oil does not compress and would put undue stress on your rods and rod bearings.

Bill

rcarpen22

I didn't let it run long enough to really evaluate the noise. Just sounded like a knock. Ok, so I have already drained the tank. I'm going to drain the case then pull the bottom spark plugs and turn it over by hand a few times to force any oil out of the cylinders. Then I'll put 6 quarts in, fire it up and let it warm up. Does that sound like a reasonable plan?

darth

"Does that sound like a reasonable plan?" Sounds good.

With the plugs out and the spark disabled you can use the starter to turn it over, after turning it over by hand, listening for any strange sounds, and if you want to be really thorough clean the intake of any oil. Measure how much oil you drained, just for curiosity.

Bill

rcarpen22

Thanks. I will report the results. I might even take some pictures.

elbeee964

Huh! That's the longest reply I've ever seen Indy write.

BlueHeeler

Let me know if you need any help. I am not a pro like some of the guys here, but I can do oil.

Indycam

Pulling the plugs now will do nothing for you .
The risk of hydro lock is in the past .
Knock vs ping ?
Your car has "knock" sensors .
You motor had knocks from the cylinders not the bearings .

rcarpen22

That makes sense. The risk of hydraulic lock was from the initial oil dumping into the cylinders. Now that I have drained the tank down, no more oil will get into the cylinders, so if there wasn't enough to cause the damage the first time I started it, there won't be now. Ok, now I'll just crank it up, let it get warm, fill to the appropriate level, and then go drive off all of the oil.

rcarpen22

Blueheeler, thanks for the offer. I am going to be working on the car this afternoon. I'd welcome any help and would love to see other 964s! The car is all the way out in Sterling though. PM me if you want to come and I'll send the address. Probably be there around 4:30pm or so. Still a few things I need to do along with burning off the oil.

pete000

This is interesting, I did not know about the six qt rule.

Now I don't rember what I did the last time I changed the oil...Never had an issue though.

BlueHeeler

Crud, I will not be out of work until ~7pm. Good luck though.

rcarpen22

Thanks. I'm hoping to have it all back together and driving sometime tonight. This has been an enormous learning experience. I ordered Adrian's book before I started all this mess, but it was backordered and I still haven't gotten it yet. Probably would have saved a lot of time.