15 quarts of oil in my engine
 

I purchased this 99 recently and it was leaking oil on top of the headers and making it smoke, I found that the power steering high pressure line was leaking (it was actually a crappy repaired job from the previous owner with hose barbed fittings and clamps) so got the new hose made crimped and that problem is gone)
now that the largest leak is fixed I have been checking and there are still leaks on the sides, these are engine oil versus the previous pentosin leak. I have been tracing it and the normal supects as you all know are spark plug tubes and cam cover but today as I'm getting ready to find that leak and not knowing when was the last oil change I drained the oil and found 15 quarts (well no, actually 15 liters of oil) 15 liters is about 15.8 quarts!

I also found out that all plastic tubes going to the AOS are covered with oil and the sock over the oil fill tube is full of oil as well.

Is is possible that all my leaks are actually from that massive overfilled and that oil was splashing around in higher places than supposed to?

any input welcomed

Thanks

holy overfill Batman!

considering the engine holds around 9 quarts, 15 quarts would be a massive overfill, if that is even possible. Is there some huge deep sump and accusump in the car?

That's gotta have a deep sump...if not, that's the craziest overfill I've ever heard of!

If it is an overfill, I would think that could cause leaks. Possibly killed the AOS, also...
Spark plug tubes are cheap and easy to replace, so at 16 years old, may as well do them.

I have a 2 qt deep sump and after I installed it, it only took 11 quarts to put me 3 bars from the "full" line on the dash where I like to run for AOS smokebomb prevention. I also have 3 QT "Bazooka" - the high pressure one, not installed yet, but even if it was 100% full of oil, with no pressurized air, it is only a little over 3 quarts.

15 Quarts... I'm surprised it doesn't just pour out while the car is parked (or is it?), and also that there isn't a continuous smoke bomb from the AOS...

Hopefully no damage done other than a mess...

Nope, no deep sump, standard oil pan, it is crazy, yes Im doing spark plug tubes as well, prevoius owner probably was smoking something, he did say that he replaced the AOS about a month before he sold it to me.
The dipstick showed above full and the dash gauge showed all bars lit.

Now, almost 16 quarts is what I drained, and it has been leaking, inagine how much oil the guy actually poured in in the first place!

Yes it was leaking even when parked

Today I got rid of all brittle plastc tubes including the remote oil fill, dipstick and tubes to AOS since Im fabricating a custom oil separator. The new direct mount dipstick made with stainless steel thin strap is longer than stock about 1 cm from touching the bottom of the oil pan, it starts registering at 3 quarts and everytime I poured 1 quart I stamped the new dipstick with the corresponding number. It took exactly 9.5 quarts to be full in exact synchrony with the dash gauge including the oil in the filter or 9.25 quarts withouth the oil in the filter.

New custom oil separator will use a vw vr6 pcd diafragm that is just a few bucks and 10 seconds to replace, the tank is a stainless steel with a ss mesh cartridge and bafles and hold over a quart of oil but it returns oil to the sump upon condensation si even that is easy to pull the cartridge to wash it will probably wont need much maintenance, the tank has a clear lid to see whats going on inside, I will post pics soon.

Sounds like the oil went into the coolant fill instead of the oil fill.:eek:
Thats happened a time or two with new owners.

Draining it confirmed it went the the right way though thank goodness, but its an unheard of bad overfill. Surely the cause of oil leaking everywhere.

Stelan, the AOS has been a weak point for Boxster forever and if you have designed a custom AOS that works and is cheaper than the other AOS ($600+) alternatives then we would all love to see a write up on how you made it and how it has been working.

I'm sure we would all rather replace an inexpensive diaphragm even yearly rather than have to deal with a complete stock AOS failure.

Yeah, that's a crazy overfill. Sounds like the prior owner did an oil change, and thought/forgot to drain it, and just refilled with 8 quarts of fresh oil, hence the 8 quarts over.

where in hell would an extra 7-8 quarts of oil go ?

Anywhere it want to, including out onto the ground.

Could the prior owner have possibly drained (any number of quarts) some other fluid, thinking he/she was draining the oil? And then just added the 8 quarts of oil into the right place, causing the overfill??

If that's possible, some other system in your car is low on fluid. Trans many? Coolant?

My theory is:

The dipstick tube was cracked and it had a piece of hose and clamps and it was really loose at the point where it connects to the trunk area making it hard to get a good reading and I think he just kept on adding oil that way, I carefully poured oil the oil that I pulled from the engine back into the empty mobil 1 quart containers and I got a little less that 15 full so it was indeed crazy, at the beggining I thought that perhaps at some pint the negine could have been running rich and washing fluid into the cylinders into the crankcase but the dirty oil did not show fuel or water in it.

I also think that the previous owner knowing that the car was leaking a lot he just kept on adding oil without any measuring.

Stelan,
Did you ever finish this project, and if so, are there pics?
thanks.

The latest I saw was this :
http://986forum.com/forums/general-discussions/60203-new-aos-failing.html
Since then Stelan seems to have been working on an unrelated Speedster project.
It would be really great if we knew his system worked.Every month there is another AOS problem mentioned here.

Thanks Gelb. Yep I found that one.
Would also like to know if it worked -- and pics.