Mercury Four stroke oil overfill

[Adk Leaddog]

There was an old post regarding this, but the oil Q wasn't answered.

I have a brand new 2012 25hp Mercury Four Stroke outboard. I was performing the break-in as outlined in the manual, and everything appeared to have gone well.

Ran it at the prescribed speed profile for two hours , pulled the boat and went home. After about an hour I decided to check the oil, and it poured out of the dipstick hole. It was overfilled. I removed about 6oz of oil back to the fill line, besides what was spilled from the motor.

One interesting item, when the marina installed the motor and we were going through the first start-up, it blew oil out the same way, probably at least 6oz. It was not "refilled" at that time.

Q1: Has the motor been compromised in any way due to running it with an overfill?
Q2: What should I look for, as far as other issues caused by the overfill?
Q3: Is it a known practice that unscrupulous marinas would overfill to get "work"?

Thanks in advance!

 

[JB]

Re: Mercury Four stroke oil overfill

Ahoy, Leaddog.

Welcome to iboats.

Take a look here about this well-known thing in 4 stroke outboards.

http://forums.iboats.com/engine-fre...4stroke-making-oil-willy-b-wright-158085.html.

 

[Adk Leaddog]

Re: Mercury Four stroke oil overfill

Thanks for the quick reply! :thumb:

I will certainly keep an eye on the water issue and "making oil"!

So, since I removed some oil to the proper level, should it be ok to run? I guess my big Q is was there any damage caused by the overfill?

It has about two hours on it total, with the proper break-in regime.

I don't want to run it, until I'm confident that no damage was done.

 

[JB]

Re: Mercury Four stroke oil overfill

Don't remove any oil; drain and change it. When it "makes" oil it is merely diluting it with fuel.

 

[blackhawk180]

Re: Mercury Four stroke oil overfill

Don't remove any oil; drain and change it. When it "makes" oil it is merely diluting it with fuel.

One big advantage of doing your own work is you eliminate the possibility of someone else making a mistake. If you do it yourself and you KNOW it's filled properly, it makes trouble shooting that much easier. After following JB's advise, I'd check it often and if the symptoms persist, refer to JB's other post/link and start there.

 

[Adk Leaddog]

Re: Mercury Four stroke oil overfill

Thanks very much for the advice!

I normally do my own work, I agree 100%! I'll change it as advised.

The motor is brand new out of the box, so one would think that the marina would set it up correctly.

It was started with me being present, and a complete "go over" of it was done. The oil level was right on before the first start, so it appeared all was good.

Thanks again!