Over-filled with oil - damage?

[eltax91]

Hi guys. Not quite a car, but an engine all the same. I bought a 230V compressor from machine mart last week, and in the instruction book it explains the compressor is not filled with oil and you should top it up until "half way" on the sight glass. I dutifully started topping it up, only to discover it didnt appear to hit the glass. I stopped and thought I would give it a whirl once I picked up the fittings I needed for the tool.

So, fast forward to today and I switched the compressor on, it fired up keenly and started pissing oil out of the "bung" in the filler hole. I switched it off within seconds. I need to move some stuff around to get the compressor out. Where should I go from here. Empty it out totally into a clean container and totally refill from scratch? Or can I simply shroud the thing in a cloth and run it till it stopes spitting oil, meaning it will have reached an acceptable level?

It uses SAE30, so I have some for the lawn-mower.

Question is, 5 seconds or so running whilst spurting oil all over the place (about half a pint i'd say), will it have damaged my shiney new toy?

[Life Saab Itch]

I reckon wait until it has spat out what it doesn't want.

Bear in mind it's probably a splash lubricated unit. There is meant to be some oil splashing around in there.

Put the filler cap back on and wrap a cloth around the bottom.

[seagrey]

If it`s fitted with either a water or oil trap I`d definitely drain it or you will be fitting new filters for ever.
Not good if you are going to paint with it.
Also don`t forget that this `engine` is designed to pump air not oil,which if the oil is high enough it will try to do,with no means of clearing it by burning it off like a combustion engine it could theoretically hydraulic itself.

[eltax91]

seagrey said:

If it`s fitted with either a water or oil trap I`d definitely drain it or you will be fitting new filters for ever.
Not good if you are going to paint with it.
Also don`t forget that this `engine` is designed to pump air not oil,which if the oil is high enough it will try to do,with no means of clearing it by burning it off like a combustion engine it could theoretically hydraulic itself.

Thanks for the help. The compressor is the one in the following link:- http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/...

The "sight glass" appears to have a hexagonal head on it, but there does not appear to be enough to get a spanner on it. So I'm unsure if it's a drain hole. I can't see any other obvious place to drain it. I should be able to tip it on it's side with a little help and empty it through the filler.

I intend to use the compressor for an Impact wrench, air rachet and pumping tyres. Don't intend to paint with it...