Can you get Pressure in Oil Tank?

[cheslr]

Can you get pressure in the oil tank? We are in the midst of trying to track down an engine problem and today when I went to check the oil, oil flowed out of the dipstick hole?? Was trying to track down smoke engine problems and thought we may have it with bad fuel and clogged injector. But now this??? Also, if I check coolant, it flows out of top of engine too? I drained a little bit of oil from bottom of engine and it did not appear to have water in it either? Anyone have any clue what could cause this?

[zeehag]

you may want someone to look into the injector pump and check lift pump as these were bad when i had diesel in my oil.
i am presuming your oil is black, not cafe au lait colored. what color is the fuel from the return line. color of fuel in your tank. check it. it could be black, like oil.
what is consistency of oil in your oil tank...if is is skinny and feels like it could be and smells like it could be , then it is diesel mixed with fuel.

all of this comes down to a fairly expensive injector pump rebuild. a new one is gawdawful pricey.
i recently had my injector pump an d lift pumps rebuilt. luckily i am here, and it wasnt that much.

check the diaphragm of your injector pump.

[Cheechako]

It sounds like you may be "making oil". That is... you have a fouled injector, bad lift pump or something else wrong that is mixing Diesel with your oil. Be very careful, the engine can run away and be unstoppable if there is too much in the oil sump. I had an engine that seemed to run fine but would add about 1.5 quarts in an 8 hour run. Turned out to be a bad injector on one cylinder.

[cheslr]

Thanks. The oil is black and I cannot tell whether or not is smells like just oil or diesel+oil? I will get someone to check the injector pump though. I am afraid because they have checked everything else and haven't figured this out though...

[sailorchic34]

Excess pressure in the engine block is generally caused by bad rings or a blown head gasket.

Making oil, that is oil level gets higher over time, is either a leaky lift pump or leaky seals in the injector pump.

With the engine running at idle, remove the oil fill cap, If you get a cloud of grey smoke, its most likely rings. If you have bubbles showing up in the water tank">fresh water tank, that's pretty much a blown head gasket.

[Cheechako]

Bad injector is usually more common than a bad injector pump in my experience, but obviously it could be either. You can pull the injectors and take them to a shop and have them tested and cleaned etc. You dont mention the type of engine or boat. Has the boat sat for quite a while?

[Cap Erict3]

Originally Posted by sailorchic34

Excess pressure in the engine block is generally caused by bad rings or a blown head gasket.

Making oil, that is oil level gets higher over time, is either a leaky lift pump or leaky seals in the injector pump.

With the engine running at idle, remove the oil fill cap, If you get a cloud of grey smoke, its most likely rings. If you have bubbles showing up in the fresh water tank, that's pretty much a blown head gasket.

What she said.

[delmarrey]

What motor type and size? And was the motor off or running. There's not really enough info to go on.

These responses are assumptions.

[zeehag]

unless you have a bunch of excess fluid pouring out your dipstick. that is usually diesel fuel in your oil.
you will have black smoke.
you will have black return fuel, when extreme..as next step is runaway, as i experienced. this runaway is stoppable by cracking all injectors.
feel regular oil between fingers, then after cleaning your fingers, feel your oil from your dipstick.
smell the diesel oil you usually use and smell your dipstick. smell your diesel tank also. i think you will find you do have diesel fuel in your oil.
blowby is from a different problem than that described by op

[cheslr]

We have brand new injectors (while old ones that were bad are rebuilt). This is a 2003 Westerbeke 30Bthree. Only has 339 hours. We just bought her and probably sat for 1 year before that without being started. Ran cruddy at idol and had grey smoke and fuel sheen on water out of exhaust while running but could get up to load or close. After putting in new injectors, after running 4 hours or so at lower rpms, she started choking black smoke and could not get past about 2200 rpm (vs. 3600 should be) - stalled on us trying to get back into slip under low rpm. Then looked and had water in half on rancor bowl so cleaned out fuel. Came to start today and sawflies this weird oil thing. Seems like every time we think we fix something, something else crazy happens?

[cheslr]

And we found that whoever last turned on the fuel tanks did it wrong. There are two tanks and it was set up to pull from one tank and return to the other. So, it was emptying one and one was filled to the lid with some that same out of air vent. That condition would not have caused a condition to where there was too much pressure to return fuel thus something blew would it?

[cheslr]

Oh, it this oil flowing out of dipstick was with the engine off. It had not even been started today..

[zeehag]

is probably your injector pump and injection timing which is part of the pump rebuild repair and reinjstall.....

[DeepFrz]

First suspect if you have diesel in your oil sump is the lift pump. You can bypass it with a small electric pump of the correct pressure capacity to check.

Also run the engine using fuel from a known clean source. A jerry jug of clean fuel for example. See if that clears up anything. Don't bypass the filters when doing this, but make sure you have new, clean filters

If you had water in your fuel, change your filters.

Oil could also, as has been mentioned, get into the sump from the pressure pump or bad injectors.

It sounds like your whole fuel system could use a good cleaning. If you want to learn how to do it and make sure its done correctly, do it yourself.

[zeehag]

having just gone thru exactly this problem, only compounded by extreme reaction of engine, the lift pump is only a small part of this problem. btkt. sad to say.
you may find a small crack in the diaphragm of lift pump, mine was fine until we started to play with it outside the engine environment. i had the diesel in the oil before we took that off and after we stopped the runaway with cracking all 4 injectors.

that is why i recommended rebuilding both pumps. i also use an electric assist pump. but the rupture in lift pump integrity came from messing with it after it was torn down.