Outer Limits 4x4 Board

TLDR version: how much damage can too much oil do?

my cars getting some work done so i borrowed my mates 90ish model petrol ford econovan with 250,000km just to get to work and back. he paid $250 for it with rego so you can get a rough idea of the condition. its his extra car that he never uses and its a total piece of cr@p but it runs ok(ish) and idles ok(ish) and sits on 110 ok(ish).

it also leaks oil, alot. everywhere you park it leaves a patch the size of a CD(ish) depending how long you stop for of course. he told me "when you get home, pour in half of this oil... i havnt filled her in a while"

so i do as he says and get home pour the oil in and it runs for about a week. hardly idles without the choke on a little, it terribly hesitant and gutless at low revs and backfires once or twice. also likes to stall randomly at traffic lights. needless to say im looking forward to getting out of this piece of cr@p and getting back into my own car.

on the way to work this morning after almost warming up, judging by the dodge temp gauge, it starts to die at 100km. no power at all, so i drop to 4th and try there... still no power. put the clutch in, its idling as good as it ever did and revs smoothly. it keeps slowing down until i come to a complete stop.... but its so gutless i cant even take off in 1st. then it just stalls and coughs a little. try to start her up again, starter wont turn over... can hear the solenoid click but no go.

so now im late for work but luckily pretty close so i walk the rest and figure ill deal with it later. head back after work and check the coolant figuring i may have blew the head gasket. coolant is plentiful and nice and green, no oil in there either. so then i think maybe seized due to no oil at all? check the oil and theres about 3x as much as there should be in there according to the dip stick. luckily its the right colour and not foamy or milky. WAAAY too much though.

so how much damage has this done?
could this be the cause of the problem? (stupid question, probably is)
will draining the oil back to a normal level be fine or should i check something else?

the only other thing i can pick is the battery has probably seen better days.

was it blowing smoke?
if it was really over full itd be pushing oil past the rings like no ones business...just ask my sister
ended up rebuilding that one.
but if it hasnt been blowing smoke i dont think its gonna be a real issue, always pays to drop it back to the right level.
check the voltage at the battery, it may be an alternator dead and not charging, so it doesnt wanna do anything.

my guess would be alternator aswell. judging by the condition of the van, the dash lights probly dont work.

no smoke. wouldnt alternator mean dead battery? it started perfectly normal in the morning and just before when i got it home. drove it about 500m and it did the same thing, so towed it back to my place.

yea ok, so its not the alt..

next guess is blocked(?) fuel pump, sort of makes sense when u think about it...the bad idle, random stalls and hesitance at lower revs... but that doesn't explain why the starter didn't kick over....

Drop the oil to the right level. Then replace the fuel filter.

Sounds like it either picked up a piston on the bore or spun a bearing.

I still think the alternator is worth looking at. if a wire has come loose in the last couple of hours of driving, then it will be fine, start fine etc then it would have slowly dropped in power until it could no longer spark etc to run, how ever at lower revs like idle can still run but not rev.

Ive had alternator issue a few times and had very similar things happen.

easy to test though, does the battery have charge? swap in another battery and see if it starts, if so its electrical. if not its something else.

Sounds like there is no electrickery on the surface.

BUT

Does the oil smell strongly of petrol, if it does then the fuel pump is cactus pumping fuel into the sump. If it has pumped enough fuel into the sump then it may have thinned the oil enough to pick up a bearing & seize it. Also staving for fuel, hence the lack of power.

Their fuel pumps were common for doing this.

Just give it back, problem solved.

sloshy wrote:Just give it back, problem solved.

Exactly.. tow it back when hes not home

Remove the fuel cap.

and add petrol, we know its expensive but it will make the van run a hell of a lot better then what it would without it

Yeah fuel might work well.

Hey Taff, did you figure out what the problem was?

Shane