Oil Level after Service

When I owned my F355 I got oil foaming depending on the brand of oil. I noticed it mostly with Mobil 1.

 

The 430 manages fine 1/2 way between the marks. you will get foaming with most oils hence the reason you have such a lot of oil in the sump. It allows the oil a greater time to release any bubbles before it does another circuit of the engine. A big industrial diesel might have 3500 ltrs in a dry sump engine, plus an oil centrifuge running all the time cleaning the oil.

 

Interesting dilemma. These cars don't seem to use much oil. I would probably opt for halfway between the marks.

I've had a number of air cooled Porsche 993s, and if you topped them off they tended to use oil until they got down toward the low mark on the dipstick and then the usage would stop. There's probably a sweet spot on the California, but most certainly better to be slightly low than to be too high, because that will make a big expensive mess to clean up.

 

Not familiar with the California engine but been doing oil changes for a very long time. Always fill to the recommended level which has been the top mark or just below so as not to overfill. I think the dealer's comment about foaming above the lower mark is strange at best. I also think the procedure for a dry sump is involved enough to have some error in it so I wouldn't worry about it. I asked and received an extra quart bottle when I bought the car for topping off. I don't think anyone ever asked before based on the surprised look. In your case having your car sent back to the dealer just to add a small amount of oil is quite the bother. Have him ship you a quart of the natural gas stuff and toss in a quarter of it and re-check.

 

Overfilling the engine oil on a Ferrari can cause thousands of dollars worth of damage to the engine. When overfilled the oil will travel though the breather system into the intake of the engine. It will then coat the hot film air mass sensors, fill the intake plenum with oil and foul the spark plugs.
Once the hot film air mass sensors are coated with oil, they are destroyed and cannot be cleaned, as the cleaner used for the older hot wire air mass sensors will damage the film used on the sensors. They have to be replaced. The intake plenum on some cars must be removed and cleaned and the spark plugs must be replaced. All of this adds up to a large repair bill.
Ferrari training recommends to run the oil level near the minimum mark. Ferraris hold 10+ liters of oil. There is no difference in performance or safety of the engine when the level is near the minimum mark.

 

Very informative. Is there some sort of factory or manual documentation covering this topic you can post or direct us to?

Thanks Motob

 

There is no manual or documentation regarding the oil level. As long as you are checking it correctly (engine oil hot, like 10+ miles on the freeway hot) and are setting it according to
the owners/shop manual, then anywhere between the min and max mark is ok.

It is just better to err on the minimum side, as even a slight overfill can be very costly and there is no benefit to having it near the max mark.