Kubota B20 - Engine oil overfilled? Yikes!!

[mzwillinger]

Just got a B20 and doing an oil change before putting hours on it. Drained the oil, surprising little came out, est 1-2 quarts. Specs says 4.1 qt capacity. I changed the filter and added 4 quarts. I started the engine, let idle, then checked the oil level. It is very overfilled according to the dipstick, like twice as much as it should have. I am not sure what to do.

First I double-checked that I drained from the correct spot and yes, from the bottom of the oil pan. The pan seems small. Not sure if I should drain and re-fill according to the dipstick or just call it good with 4 quarts.

Advice??

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

I can't tell you what you did or didn't do, it's pretty strait forward on that model only one drain plug.

Now I do know that the stop on the dip stick rod can move and give you a false reading.

Pull the dip stick and see if the rubber stopper moves, if it does get a new dip stick!

Might even post a picture of it just to make sure.

 

[100 td]

Hope it's the dipstick and it was low on oil before.
Hopefully someone hasn't added something to the engine oil before you bought it, I did an oil change for a friend because his engine was noisy, not enough oil came out, I waited half an hour and a huge gelled mass eventually came out, whilst I'd seen plenty of sludge over the years, this took it to a whole new level.

 

[mzwillinger]

You called it! It was the dipstick stopper! It slid to the top of the dipstick. Now I can adjust it and get an accurate reading. Thanks!

 

[100 td]

Spend some buck$ and get a new one as NIW mentioned, less grief in the long run, especially if anybody else uses or checks it.

 

[D2Cat]

Sure makes one wonder how long it has been run with 1 to 2 quarts in the engine. You said that's all you got out.

If your not going to purchase a new dipstick, you need to be positive you have the correct volume of oil in the pin, then mark where to top of the rubber stopper should be. You can then rough up the steel rod, clean and use some JB weld to keep it from going up again.

 

[mzwillinger]

Yeah, I'll mark the dipstick for now and start looking for a new one.

It has certainly been running very low on oil for who knows how long. I did not notice the oil light on before and did confirm it works when starting after oil change. Hopefully no damage done, ... I'll go measure the amount of oil that was in there ...

 

[100 td]

Or you can leave it as it is, and each time you check, shove it in a bit further to make the oil level the same, probably what the last person did! If the oil light was on before, it doesn't sound good...............

 

[mzwillinger]

I measured the oil it had been running on, just 24 oz. Less than one quart yet the oil light was not on when running.

 

[100 td]

The lubrication quality of that oil at high temps wouldn't be very good, here's hoping it continues to run OK and not burn too much. Oil is cheap, personally I'd use the oil you have in it now for 5 ~ 10 hours as a flushing/cleaning agent and drop it again. YMMV.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Lucky for you that model used a D950, super tough motor.

See others with the same issue and no permanent damage was done to the motor.

Get a new dip stick:
https://www.colemanequip.com/parts/details/KubotaParts/GAUGE--OIL/15381-36410/