How much oil!!!!!

[foxstein]

Well having purchased a 9-5 2.2tid for spares or repair, decided after swapping injectors and it still smoking thought i really ought to have a serious look at the oil level, although I had checked it before and noticed it looked high but I had other fish to fry. The oil is thick and black but wow overfilled beyond belief, I must have dropped nearly a gallon out of it before it reached anywhere near where it should be. Can't believe the engine is still alive!! Who would fill it that much, or is the lack of water in the bottle a clue, but there isnt any evidence of water in the oil.
Going to start it tomorrow and see if the smoking has stopped and see if the water level goes down and the oil up, then it's def gonna be the doner car. 

[Audax]

I once had an apprentice do an oil change on a car, he replaced the filter but forgot to drain the old oil out and claimed he'd checked the oil level carefully. He was fired not long after.

I also know of a TTiD where the owner was very paranoid about the oil level and so decided that it would be a good idea to overfill it so the oil level was at the point the engine could run on its own lubrication, this destroyed the engine and caused a small fire. 

[collywobble]

Being the owner of a 9-5 2.2 TiD and an Astra G which has the 2 litre version of the same engine I soon discovered that for some reason you cannot just drain the old oil, replace the filter and refill with 5.5 litres of fresh oil as per the service schedule as you will definitely overfill it.
The only way to ensure you don't overfill is to put 4.5 litres in to start with and let the car stand for at least half an hour and then slowly fill with oil until you have reached around halfway between the upper and lower marks on the dipstick. 
Then run the engine for a minute or so to let the oil circulate, let it stand for another half an hour then check again.  The only reason I can think of for this is that a lot of oil is retained in the head around the valve gear so if you fill it in one go with fresh oil to the top mark on the dipstick you wil have overfilled it - and there is a label under the bonnet warning against overfilling with oil so Saab must have known about this when the cars with this engine were built.