Driving with too much oil?
 

Long story short, I've was driving around with about a quart of extra oil in my car for about a week. I have already drained the extra oil and changed out the spark plugs, but the car is still really laggy and the throttle response isn't quite the same as before. Can anyone knowledgable tell me what else I should fix or maybe look into to solve this. Thanks.

Re: Driving with too much oil?
 

From my past experience, driving with a little bit too much oil actually helped give me some extra torque off the line on one of my older hondas I used to have. If there was toooo much however, the car would start to hesitate a bit probably from the increased compression. If you're already leaking a bit of oil from the engine in places, this will promote it to leak a bit more as well, or could promote new leaks.

As for the lag, I'm guessing people here will suggest you pull codes from the car first, and if there's no codes, re-check the timing, and maybe try changing the fuel filter (since its only about $25).

Re: Driving with too much oil?
 

I haven't seen any oil leaks and I still check it after I drive anywhere to be safe. The car also hasn't had any codes pop up or no check engine light. Ill most likely check the timing today and look into changing the fuel filter if it's necessary.

Re: Driving with too much oil?
 

Too much oil can damage ur catalytic converter

Re: Driving with too much oil?
 

this is ture if u over fill it it will try to burn all the oil and will most likely build up in the cat

and having a clog cat can case lack of power and high idle

Re: Driving with too much oil?
 

so much misinformation in here *shakes head*, not even going to bother.

the main issue with overfilling is you can cause the rods/main bearings to fail. when there is too much oil it will start to aerate which in turn lowers its viscosity. once that happens it can no longer lubricate vital engine components properly.

Re: Driving with too much oil?
 

So is there anything i can do to fix this?

Re: Driving with too much oil?
 

unfortunately no. if any damage was done, there's no taking it back. although a full quart over is quite a bit i can't say with certainty how long you'd have to run it as such before a problem might arise.

when exactly did the car start to act up? was it before the extra oil or did all the problems start once you had overfilled? on my friends old car the throttle response and power dropped considerably before it finally spun a bearing and started knockin like a sonnofabish. kinda funny really because when i bought the car, the hatch i have now, i was able to get it started after having sat for 2 years and drive it home with the engine hammerin' up a storm. i have no idea how a rod didn't come spitting through the front of the block lol.

Re: Driving with too much oil?
 

The car started lagging and losing power about a week after i changed the oil and overfilled the car.

Re: Driving with too much oil?
 

so you decided only to remove the oil once you noticed it running crappy?

i mean its possible that the problem your experiencing is unrelated but i'm not sure

Re: Driving with too much oil?
 

Yea, once it started driving like ass, I decided to check the oil thinking I was short on oil but only to realize i was extremely over. I quickly drained the oil hoping it would solve the problem but it hasn't. So by recommendation, I changed the spark plugs as well which didn't really help either. I just seafoamed the car but so far, it hasn't helped either.

Re: Driving with too much oil?
 

But if youre saying that the issue might be unrelated to the oil issue, then what could possibly be causing the lagginess/unresponsiveness of my car? The car is a 99 Si with the original b16a2 and 60,000 original miles. Never been tampered with, abused, etc. There are no CEL's and the car ran perfectly fine prior to me overfilling the oil so im really clueless as to what to do or what might be the issue.

Re: Driving with too much oil?
 

poor little b16.
Sadly my friends brother did this same thing to his b16a and from what i was told it was slugglish and a couple days later it spun a bearing. He apparantly drove it over filled for about 1k miles. When we drained it, we think it was around a 1 1/2qt over.

My friend did this to his beamer also , put a gallon to much in it. :hammer:

Re: Driving with too much oil?
 

Yea, im praying that this isn't the case for me. I probably drove it 150-170 miles AT MOST before i realized it was overfilled.

Re: Driving with too much oil?
 

Stupid to do this...bad for the engine! You loose hp, it's bad for the crank too if it starts slapping the high level of oil in the engine...you loose power too.

Why would you do this, ever? Plus....such an easy fix...drain out the extra :P

Re: Driving with too much oil?
 

Well one thing for sure, dont let that seafoam sit in the for too long, that shit will deffiently casue problems.
I agree with D16SiHATCH, it is possible there is something else going on

Re: Driving with too much oil?
 

I didn't pour extra oil in on purpose. It was an accident, a stupid, careless one, but still an acident none the less. And what's done is done, im just trying to figure out is what's wrong with my car and how do i fix it if i can.

Re: Driving with too much oil?
 

Well, if it's something else, then im even more lost as to what the issue is. The car was running just fine before i all this happened. And i plan on driving around til the whole tank of gas + seafoam is used up.

Re: Driving with too much oil?
 

Stop worrying this guy, seriously?

an extra quart is a bit much, but it wont hurt anything, when your have lsvtec motors and b20vtec motors, you have to run almost alittle over a half quart more because of the sandwich plate and vtec oil line, keep in mind tho, overfilling would more then likely effect gaskets and seals first before anything...

you drive a b16, dont expect too much..if you feel like your losing power, and its stock, more then likely its a tune up problem that could be causing it( plugs, wires, out of time possiblely)

If your running a "stock" cat you'd be surprised at how much power you lose.. we're talking 20-30 whp by using a "stock" cat..and no i'm not making this up, i'm actually in the same problem of the "Stock" cat thingy, as i swapped chassis and haven't redone the exhaust yet.

Your fine, your problem lies somewhere else -
This coming from a engine builder / Tuner... and yes, there is a lot of misinformation on here..

Re: Driving with too much oil?
 

This is by far the most positive thing ive heard so far. I know a b16 isn't a fast motor, but before all this, the car drove fine. It didn't hesitate when i gave it some gas and it didn't lag or feel sluggish like it does now. I've already drained the extra oil, changed out the plugs, and haven't changed the wires yet but checked them and they seem fine yet the car still runs really sluggish. It could be timing but i don't know how to check that so i wouldn't know.

As far as the cat, im not looking to add any power, just restore what it had. So again, the car drove perfect with the stock cat prior to all this happening so i don't see how this would be the problem?

Re: Driving with too much oil?
 

Check your timing, if you'd like to invest in a tuning service, i offer a good "tuned" service if you have a chipped ecu, that might be able to help you pick up some "pep", after you figure out what your problem is.
I'd replace the wires with some good NGK Blues, get you a set of "Real" spark plugs, get some copper NGK v powers, none of this iridium or anything like that, and get a timing light and just double check your timing..
you may not be looking for power, but you might want to invest in a good exhaust system, and remove the stock cat and go with something little more free flowing, of course, i promise you, once your motor can breath, it'll open up a whole new world.
If you need anymore help or want to inquire about my tuning service - pm me for my number i'll be glad to help you out.

Re: Driving with too much oil?
 

Interesting comments!


On overfilling motor OIL: I don't think overfilling the oil (by a quart) is going to hurt anything either.

More than likely "driving like ass" (his words, not mine) did the deed! :beer:


On the CAT: I lost a dissy in April, and blew out my cat (in the process). LoL! Looked like the 4th of July behind my car. I thought I had an electrical fire.

I replaced the stock Si cat with a MagnaFlow 22630 (OEM flanges, e.g. bolt-on). Man, I can't believe the difference. My B16A2 has a lot more power, and it sounds 'throatier' too!

I think the stock cat must have been bad for a while. The screens were melted. That didn't happen when I lost the dissy. It was probably fried/plugged and the backfiring from my dissy coming apart finished the job.

You need all the help you can get @8,200 RPM. Intake restriction is much worse than exhaust restriction. Heh! That's why they put the butterfly valve on the intake, not the exhaust. But, exhaust restriction will definitely make your ride feel laggy!


On the PLUGS: I agree with you. I ran NGK V-Powers for about 3 years. They were okay, but they only lasted about 15K (in my experience) before I'd foul one and trigger a CEL.

I'm been running Champion Copper Plus (318) RC12MC-4 plugs (MC stands for motorcycle) for about 7 years now - in both D16Y5 (HX) and B16A2 (Si) motors - and they work great! I've gotten lazy and run them for 50K with no fouling.

Anyway, carry on... ;)

Re: Driving with too much oil?
 

recheck your spark plugs. i have a b16a2 as well and when my spark plugs went out is sounded like a subi. but throttle felt like crap! so i changed the the crappy after market spark plugs for some ngks and ran smooth.

Re: Driving with too much oil?
 

My experinces come from dyno's..

ngk vpower coppers are by far the best sparkplugs vs anything out..

Re: Driving with too much oil?
 

My experience is coming out from work @ 2:00AM -- having a dead slug on startup -- followed by running around town, looking for an all-night parts store on 3 cylinders. LoL!

Matter of fact, that's how I discovered the Champs!

Autozone was out-of-stock on the NGKs I needed... :scared:

Anyway, the larger point is... I'll take copper-core plugs any day!