98 V70xc - Accidentally put in 10 quarts of oil and drove

ViktorNova · Post by **ViktorNova** » 22 Oct 2015, 02:26

tl:dr - I accidentally put 10 quarts of oil in my V70. Now it won't move, makes a knocking sound at idle and dies when I let off the throttle. I drove only a few miles with this much oil (it drove great at first, then overheated quickly) and I've only started it twice since the knocking sound appeared, for about 15 seconds each.

Car has been drained of oil and sat for 2 days, what should I do now???

-

Here's the details in case anyone wants to factor them in - I know this was a terribly naive and irresponsible mistake to make (I now know that the oil light means 'low oil pressure' and not 'low oil volume'=) and it's a little embarrassing, but here's what exactly happened:

After having my V70xc on ramps for a few weeks while replacing/cleaning the PCV system + a number of coolant hoses, I freaked out about having seen the oil light and didn't trust the dipstick, so i made the idiot mistake of putting WAY too much oil in before getting back on the road.

It ran fine for 15 minutes, then quickly overheated, so I pulled over to cool down, then started up again and took off. After doing that 3 or 4 times I let it sit overnight and came back the next day, only this time when I started it up it had a terrible rhythmic knocking sound at idle, which went away when I hit the gas in park. Letting off the gas brought back the knocking sound and then the engine died, so I left it parked on the side of the road as I also noticed a whisp of smoke/steam drifting from the hood on the passenger side, and figured best not to push it.

Had the 'aha moment' that night and came back the next day with ramps to drain it, and by now- it would not move. I was nearly unable to get it to drive up on the ramps but it finally crawled up there. Drained 10 quarts.

Is my engine toast, or should I check the level and fire it up? Are there things I should check or or spray out or take off and clean before I start it?

-Viktor

Post by **abscate** » 22 Oct 2015, 04:20

The danger is the Pistons were damaged by the excess oil causing a hydraulic lock.inside...

You need to run a compression test on all 5 cylinders to see what if anything has happened.

Sadness.

Post by **tryingbe** » 22 Oct 2015, 07:18

Engine is dead and beyond repair, buy an used one or get ride of the car.

Post by **misha** » 22 Oct 2015, 09:24

Your headgasket should be blown by now.Too much of oil pressure inside.

If you had some mad luck....you will need to drain the oil,replace oil filter,add proper amount of oil and try to start it....maybe it will run.

Post by **cn90** » 22 Oct 2015, 09:29

I did the same stupid thing 25 years ago on a 1984 Toyota Camry.
Tons of smoke coming out of tail pipe.

What happens is:
a. Oil get sucked into combustion chamber ---> smoke

b. The pistons had to fight on the way down against the oil at the bottom of the bore.

Drained the oil, checked the dipstick, started the engine and everything was fine.

You said you drained 10 qts, but did you refill it with the correct amount?

Worst come to worst, the same vintage model with similar miles is very cheap these days, less than $2K.

Post by **RussB** » 22 Oct 2015, 10:12

The overheating makes me wonder if you added the right amount of coolant?

Post by **Clockboy** » 22 Oct 2015, 13:46

What gets damaged on the pistons when there is a hydraulic lock?

DrJammer · Post by **DrJammer** » 22 Oct 2015, 14:33

I cannot say I know how bad things are, but in trying to comfort you, I came close to this mistake myself.

I was doing a weekend of volvo fluids. Maybe I was in a twilight zone from lack of sleep or something.

I drained the ATF, and put in that amount of oil in (the correct place though). So I had hardly any ATF, and about 10 qts of oil. I slowly drove it around the block and noticed something wrong, very fast. I realized my mistake, came back and got everything back to proper levels and the old battle wagon ran fine since.

So, I must reiterate earlier questions; did you refill oil to proper levels? what is your coolant level? thermostat new?

pistons and such is beyond my level, so I hope you can save this, these are hardy cars.

Post by **alschnertz** » 22 Oct 2015, 14:54

I'm having a hard time believing that someone - even a novice - would dump almost a case of oil into an engine without having any idea why or what it would do.
What were the circumstances when the light came on? I mean, why stop at 10? Is that when the oil light went out?

You were able to do a PCV service but didn't know anything about oil capacities?

First post? Me thinks someone is trolling....

Post by **kahl** » 22 Oct 2015, 14:59

what is trolling?