my dad has a 300D 78 with about 300,000 miles on it.
one day he overfilled the oil, more than 5 quarts because he was an idiot measuring on a hot stick. When the engine is cold, i checked the dipstick and it was twice the level of the min/max range....

what do you think will happen if i just drive it around with that much oil in the engine....i've already experience hard starting and a crap load of soot comming out of the exhaust when cranking the engine...
thanks for your posts
allan

An extra 5 quarts.... I am suprised he could force 12 whole quarts in the motor. The solution is simple. Drain the excess. The dipstick read will be accurate as a long as the engine has been off 15 minutes or so, to allow drainage back to the pan. Still, it is safer for your skin to the drain the excess after the engine cools.

An overfill invites foaming, and gasket stress. Not to mention a gooey-ucky (precise scientific language) mess should it burb back up the stick.

Regards,

Luke

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'78 300D 310K Maple Yellow / Bamboo
'87 300D 81K Barolo Red / Safron (RIP @ 113K)
2003 E320 34K Pewter/Charcoal
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I agree you should NOT drive the car with that much extra oil and think you should drain all the oil out, put the correct amount of new oil in, and be done with the problem.

If the oil level is high enough to cover the bottom of the crankshaft with the engine running, and I think that might happen at 2 or so quarts high, the engine will fill with frothed up oil, and start to get very hot due to the extra friction losses involved in splattering the oil all over the place. Most of the hot oil does not make a trip through the oil cooler so it gets real hot, and will begin to make its way past dynamic seals, like rings and crankshaft seals just because of how much more oil is all over the place. You will pump oil into the intake through the crankcase ventilation connection, and, in a spark ignition car, the spark plugs will foul really quickly shutting the engine down. If you continue cranking one of them, you can get oil liquid collecting on top of the piston, which can lead to other problems, like the starter can't turn the engine over. Anyway, the consequences of adding 5 extra quarts can be limited to the cost of an oil change if you act now. If you try to drive it they can quickly get to be more serious. Jim

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Own:
1986 Euro 190E 2.3-16 (291,000 miles),
1998 E300D TurboDiesel, 231,000 miles -purchased with 45,000,
1988 300E 5-speed 252,000 miles,
1983 240D 4-speed, purchased w/136,000, now with 222,000 miles.
2009 ML320CDI Bluetec, 89,000 miles

Owned:
1971 220D (250,000 miles plus, sold to father-in-law),
1975 240D (245,000 miles - died of body rot),
1991 350SD (176,560 miles, weakest Benz I have owned),
1999 C230 Sport (45,400 miles),
1982 240D (321,000 miles, put to sleep)

Was this during an oil change? The specs for the 617 engine is 2 gal. (8 qts.) I would cetainly notice that I was putting in 3 gals. of oil. If this was just a "top off", I would be very concerned if I had to add over 1 gal of oil. Eitherway, I would drain out the excess asap.

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1999 MB SL500 (110,000 mi)
2004 Volvo V70 2.5T (220,000 mi)
2014 Tesla Model S 85 (136,000 mi)
MBCA member