Running a half quart over
 

I know this is a noob question...but curious what the rest of you 3.4L owners do. Our engines take 5.5 quarts. Which is really a pretty inconvenient number. My truck doesn't burn oil, doesn't leak oil. So I'm always stuck with a half empty (in this case I think "half empty" actually is the optimistic way of looking at it...) quart of oil. Now as I'm typing this I realize most of you probably set it down in your garage and use it up next oil change...

I currently live out of my camper in the summers. So I don't have things like that sitting around. Or a place to sit/set them. I already googled this and it seems to be not a big deal, but what do you think about always running 1/2 quart over capacity? I buy a 5 quart container and a 1 quart container and use it all.

Your truck do what you will .

Is that extra half a quart enough to raise the level in the pan enough that the crank counter weights are beating the oil like a mixer

Kinda rough living out of a truck

I seem to get a bunch of half filled quart containers that get dumped in the waste oil tank.

I never seem to find them when changing oil

Well I'm not looking for you to tell me it's ok :) Asking if it's ok, or not ok. Maybe next oil change I just stick with 5.5 and figure out what to do with the half quart. Stuff online I was looking at said even a quart is not really enough to worry about the frothing, but obviously I don't want to chance it...

if you use the tacoma 4.0L oil filter and buy 5L oil jugs you will find that there is maybe a 50-100ml left over and you will be below the full mark like your suppose to be, whats a qt, who uses qts now a days anyways, never mind the US uses miles and *F so why not use qts as well as a US Gal..

That's what I wondered. "Better" to be a half quart low or a half quart high. Sounds like low, but then why not just deal with an extra quart of oil and not risk doing any damage to my truck is I guess the best way to think about it. Yes it's silly we haven't adopted the metric system. But we still use quarts, and it's what my manual gives engine capacity in.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.yot...c8a4aede27.jpg

Perhaps get some more input on Tacoma World

Just use 5.5 quarts, like you're supposed to. And then decide which irks you more - storing a half quart of oil until next time, or just pouring the half quart of new oil in with the old oil and just disposing of it all.

Personally, I'd tend toward running it a half quart low vs. running a half quart high. A half quart low is certainly in the normal operating range. the engine was designed to operate properly at that level. Half quart high? Almost certainly OK, but it wasn't designed to run over full, at *some* point overfull will start to cause problems, and it's probably a lot more than a half quart over full, but who knows? It just simply wasn't designed to be run overfull, I just tend to think that they designed it where modest overfilling wouldn't cause any issues.

That definitely seems right to me. 1/2 quart is almost nothing, and if tolerances were that tight, we'd all have a lot more problems than we do. But...why consistently overfill it? Just no reason to do that to the engine. I'll just figure out what to do with that 1/2 quart.

This would not work for me... Too redneck.... :D

It may work just fine for Mr. 83 though.

I always fill until the oil level is right at the "Full" mark on the dipstick. Of course I have a place to store my extra oil and do use it up between oil changes.

As a side note, when family members have taken their cars to Jiffy Lube, they are always over the full line about 1/4 to1/2 a quart. That is not the way I do it personally, but it must not be a problem for the quick-lube type places....

:safari:

Not sure it would work for me, either, though it's actually a pretty good idea. Out where I live, I'm pretty regularly out on dirt roads. Bumpy, sometimes washboard dirt roads, but maintained enough that I'll drive down a dirt road at 45-50mph for an hour or two. Anything not strapped down seems to get lost...

How'd you know?? :D jk

Well I may give it a shot. I'm sure I can find a place for it in my camper, too. I'm just making excuses.