Sump oil level

[Allan Robinson]

Hi All,

Could anyone please advise what the engine oil level should be on my 4.6 RV8 in relation to the crank or bottom of the engine block? The reason I am asking is because my dip stick and tube are of unknown origin. On inspecting the inlet valves they have a thick tar like coating on the flow side and the pistons and head chamber also look oily. This oily contamination must have entered the combustion chamber via the PCV system and therefore was wondering if the oil level might be too high and being thrown about by the crank shaft.

Any guidance would be very much appreciated.

Allan

[stevieturbo]

Certainly you would not want the crank running in the normal level of oil in the sump at any time. The crank should always be in free air.

What is the makeup of your sump ? Generally you would want the oil in the sump section, not in any large flat sections above.

And presumably it's an old engine ? carbon/crap buildup on OE engines is just typical, although yes could be amplified by excess oil ingress.

[garrycol]

Just drain the engine, fill with the specified amount of oil and note the postion on the dipstick and mark accordingly.

[scudderfish]

I just measured my dipstick as 52cm long, and the distance from the top of the tube to the bottom of the sump as 67cm. That's with what I think is a 3.9 RR sump.

[Allan Robinson]

Many thanks to you all for your input and suggestions which are very much appreciated.
The first question in my mind was should the crank dip into the oil? So the answer to that looks like no.

Scudderfush, would you mind measuring your dipstick from where it fits into the top of the guide tube to the High level mark. I will then drop my sump pan to ensure the crank is above the dipstick High oil level mark.

Many thanks
Allan

[scudderfish]

47cm

[Allan Robinson]

Thank you. It looks like we have identical dipsticks and therefore I can rule out the thought that I might have been over filling with oil.

I will double check when I drop the sump.

Allan

[SuperV8]

There are several versions of dipsticks/tubes - there is one which is for 'low emissions' countries which have secondary air injection where it is basically longer meaning the oil would be lower in the sump - and further from the spinning crank.

[GDCobra]

I thought I'd posted a reply to this some time ago and mentioned that I'd done some measuring some time ago and added it to a thread at that time.
I just came across it while looking for something else, it is here.
viewtopic.php?t=14945

My reply is about 8 posts in.

Looking through some of the replies I think some people get a bit confused with sump capacity and level. To my way of thinking oil level is the most important thing, if the stick and tube are a matched pair the min and max lines will sit in the correct relationship to the sump face and with it the windage tray, crank and pickup pipe. I don't know if the many different vehicles which had this engine fitted had different capacity sumps and of course some may be modified (as was the case on that thread).
I'm currently looking for part numbers of matching sticks and tubes (I never got around to changing mine) ideally I want the type which presents the stick quite high in the engine (the kind which had a clip which fastens it to the side of the rocker cover, I currently have a short type and that area of the engine bay is quite cluttered.

[Allan Robinson]

Many thanks for this update.

To quote from your post
"For reference I also measured from the sump locating face to the stick marks and got the following.
Sump face to High mark - 50mm
Sump face to Low mark - 70mm
Sump face to end of stick - 150mm
Sump face to pickup pipe - 150mm"

The above is exactly what I have been searching for assuming this oil level works well for you without excessive oil splash and is for a 4.6 engine?
All the discussions about capacity and dip stick length are really just a distraction where all I am trying to achieve is the correct sump oil level in relation to a reference point such as the sump mating face. I can always remark a dip stick based on this. I do know that my dipstick is from my previous 3.9 and I now have a 4.6.

So can I please ask if the above levels have worked well for you without obvious excessive crank oil splash and if this was for a 4.6 or other?

I'm still working on the heads at the mo, when that work is complete I will be removing the sump to check oil levels.

I look forward to hearing from you.
Allan

[GDCobra]

Many thanks for this update.

To quote from your post
"For reference I also measured from the sump locating face to the stick marks and got the following.
Sump face to High mark - 50mm
Sump face to Low mark - 70mm
Sump face to end of stick - 150mm
Sump face to pickup pipe - 150mm"

The above is exactly what I have been searching for assuming this oil level works well for you without excessive oil splash and is for a 4.6 engine?
All the discussions about capacity and dip stick length are really just a distraction where all I am trying to achieve is the correct sump oil level in relation to a reference point such as the sump mating face. I can always remark a dip stick based on this. I do know that my dipstick is from my previous 3.9 and I now have a 4.6.

So can I please ask if the above levels have worked well for you without obvious excessive crank oil splash and if this was for a 4.6 or other?

I'm still working on the heads at the mo, when that work is complete I will be removing the sump to check oil levels.

I look forward to hearing from you.
Allan

This is NOT for a 4.6 it is for a 3.9 and I don't even know if the stick and tube combination I have came from this engine originally. What I do know is that when I perform an oil change with the prescribed amount of oil I'm in the min-max zone on the stick so I've always assumed that is is a well matched pair. I've never had any issues with this level.
The reason I've given this information is to help work out if the stick and tube you have may be similarly matched as I know there are tubes with different lengths (measured from the face on the top of the block to the top of the tube it a long tube was mixed with a short stick or vice-versa the results would not be good.

Is the 4.6 any different? I have no way of knowing this, I guess it could be as the crank has a longer stroke so will extend further from the sump face at BDC perhaps enough that the oil level had to be dropped in accordance with this. I can't think of any other reason why the level would change and it is less likely that the oil level would have been raised.

[SuperV8]

Looking at the LR parts catalogue, the 4.6 and the 4.0 both use the same dip stick and tube part numbers, .
The only difference is with or without secondary air.

LQN101060 Tube-oil dipstick Less Secondary Air Injection
LQN101150 Tube-oil dipstick Secondary Air Injection
ERR4905 Dipstick-oil Less Secondary Air Injection
LQM100920 Dipstick-oil Secondary Air Injection

addition:
ERR4905 Non-low emission vehicle (twisted metal tip) metal portion length 655mm
LQM100920 low emission vehicle (plastic tip) metal portion length 715mm

[Allan Robinson]

Many thanks guys.
Once I've finnished work on the heads I'll drop the sump and concentrate on this aspect of the rebuild.
I'll update at that time with my findings.

Thanks again
Allan