Oil Level Increased.,.. Help and Advice please

[FloridaFlyer]

I have a buddy with a 115 four stroke Yamaha about 6 years old. We fish together a lot. He is older and does not use the internet so I told him I would look for him and ask for help.

He checks his oil often. It has always been on the full mark on the hash xxxx mark on the stick. Now it is reading about 3/8 of one inch or maybe 1/2 inch over the full line. I told him I had heard about Yamahas doing this before but thought it was the bigger HP models. His is a 115.

We have tilted it then went down straight. We have looked at it with the plate down by the prop exactly level using a bubble level. The oil looks fine but might be a little dark but he says it is always a little dark. It is not milky colored at all. It was full all season and is now a little over full .... It is running great. It is not SHO but is a regular gray F series.

Please help him out. What causes this? Any worry? What to do?

Thanks.

[ajw18]

Someone will come along and give you a better answer but it seems like this is a case of "making oil." It's gasoline getting into the oil; I believe by bypassing the rings. Since it's 6 years old and this is a new occurrence I assume it was broken in correctly. I've heard that doing a lot of idling and not taking the motor to wot RPM and 140 degrees or so temp can cause it. I wouldn't worry much about it. Maybe go run it like a scalded dog for a while or just go ahead and change the oil.

[tablerockslinger]

Normally I would say this is "making oil" but late in the game to be doing that if never had that prob before. Did he just have it serviced and had the oil changed? I would guess it got over filled and that's why it reads high. Can you smell gas in the oil? If it's making oil you'll smell gas. I'd go run it hard, wot, for a bit and see if oil level goes up more. If not I bet it just got overfilled when serviced.

[FloridaFlyer]

Oil was changed in April. He has checked the oil every couple of weeks. It was fine and then slowly increased to the overfill position where it is now. There is no smell of gas. I was hoping we had a Yamaha tech here that could tell what's going on. This is one of many that have done this evidently from doing a Google search but not much info as to EXACTLY what is happening...lots of guesses out there though. I bet there are lots more but people don't really check their oil that often.

[tablerockslinger]

I changed jobs but I was a yamaha tech for 4 yrs and spent every winter in Georgia at yamaha facilities. If there's no smell of gas and no sign of water in the oil than it had to of been overfilled. It's very easy to do and there's so many small areas inside that motor where oil gets caught up and doesn't always drain down to pan. When u tilt the motor up to drain it how long did u leave it up before tilting back level? You will find other motors that "make oil" but never seen one do it all the sudden after never doing it before. When you change the oil you should always fill it half way up the dip stick hash marks. You'll never get all the oil out and this time a little extra stayed in there and now reads over since it was filled all the way full

[FloridaFlyer]

Thank you very much Tablerock...I appreciate you taking the time to help. I will pass it along. The other day I helped him pump out a little ... About 1.5 qts. Then we added some back and we tilted it back and forth. We brought it to half way up the crosshatch marks and are going to watch it.

It was very nice of you to take the time to help. If you are ever in Florida let me know. I fish a lot and can probably put you on a location to get you very good day of fishing.

[tablerockslinger]

No prob, always happy to help when I can. My suggestion when changing oil is let it run on muffs till it gets good and warm, than trim up half way and let it sit for 10 mins. That'll get "most" oil out of the cylinders and back to the pan. Trim down level than drain and refill slowly and only to halfway on hatches. I appreciate the offer, one day I'll make it down there and take you up on it! Thanks