Mercury 4 stroke oil overfill

[Unknown7733]

Hello everyone, I'm new to this forum page,I appreciate any help. One of my friends just bought a mercury 4 stroke jet motor for his boat. He had it installed at a local marine place. The problem was when we took it out on the water it ran very sluggish and wouldn't even get the boat above 5 mph! We put it back on the trailer and pulled out to the oil dip stick. Oil immediately came spurting out probably around a quart poured out. We took it back to the garage and found that it was way over filled with oil. We siphoned a bunch out and now it seems to be running fine. My question is could this have cause permanent damage enough to try to get some reimbursement from the marine place or should it be okay?

 

[ondma]

Hello everyone, I'm new to this forum page,I appreciate any help. One of my friends just bought a mercury 4 stroke jet motor for his boat. He had it installed at a local marine place. The problem was when we took it out on the water it ran very sluggish and wouldn't even get the boat above 5 mph! We put it back on the trailer and pulled out to the oil dip stick. Oil immediately came spurting out probably around a quart poured out. We took it back to the garage and found that it was way over filled with oil. We siphoned a bunch out and now it seems to be running fine. My question is could this have cause permanent damage enough to try to get some reimbursement from the marine place or should it be okay?

Not sure if it would have caused permanent damage. I guess you could run a compression test to see if the valves and piston rings are still OK, or even send the old oil out for analysis to see if it has contaminants that might indicate something was damaged.

BTW, I dont think I would have tried to siphon out the excess oil. I would have just drained the oil out that was in there and done a complete new oil change, being sure the right amount of oil is added. The old oil is probably fine, but it might have been broken down somewhat (or have air or other contaminants trapped in it) by all the foaming and aeration from being over-filled.

 

[RLGL]

Permanent damage , NO. Is this a new or used unit? It is critical the engine not be overfilled with oil as you have found out. If there is water getting into the oil bucket causing the excess oil, this MUST be addressed. I have seen many cases where water is intruded the oil system.

 

[Unknown7733]

Permanent damage , NO. Is this a new or used unit? It is critical the engine not be overfilled with oil as you have found out. If there is water getting into the oil bucket causing the excess oil, this MUST be addressed. I have seen many cases where water is intruded the oil system.

It is a new unit. The engine is running like it should now so I'm happy there is likely no permanent damage. Also I don't think there's water in the oil, one of the guys at the marine shop overfilled it with oil. Thanks

 

[RLGL]

Good. The proper procedure to check the oil: If the engine has just been shut off, on level ground ,Tilt full up and let it sit for 10 minutes. Trim down until flywheel top is parallel to the ground.. Pull the dip stick to check. Proper level is half way between the marks on the stick. If it has been on the trailer and not run it can be checked from the full tilt position right away.