Splitter hydraulic fluid overflowed

[Ctwoodtick]

Changed the engine oil and hydraulic fluid on my 25 ton dirty hand tools log splitter this afternoon. I’ve done it before but it’s been a while so I was a little bit out of practice with it. It definitely didn’t go as smooth as I would’ve liked.
Couple of things I noticed-the capacity amounts referenced in the manual seem to not be very true to life, as it seemed like the oil would start to overflow after less than the minimum amount was put in. For reference, I did the oil change on the flat surface of my garage. The manual references 20 ounces of engine oil so I put that amount in after I had drained the old oil. I would say after about 15 ounces it started coming back on me. I let it drain until it was not dripping anymore. Put the cap on and called it good. Then started doing the hydraulic fluid. After draining it and then putting on a new oil filter for it, I began putting in the new oil. The manual specifies that you put in 4 gallons and then you put the splitter through a couple of cycles and then put an additional gallon in. Well, just under the 4 gallon mark it started overflowing. I’m glad that I had put down a sheet of plastic ahead of time because it would’ve been a real mess. I was able to siphon out the excess oil and was able to get the oil level to be within the OK range. ToMorrow I will run the splitter for a few cycles and the check the hydraulic oil level again to make sure there is still a good level in there.


Just wondering if this is a common experience for people when they are changing their splitter fluids. I’m wondering if there is residual fluids that essentially cannot be drained unless of course you have the splitter tilted. I would’ve figured there would been a bit of fluid left, but the amount with especially the hydraulic fluid was really surprising.
Thanks in advance for any info you can give me!

 

[salecker]

I have never changed the hydrolic fluid on my splitter,you would have to use it everyday for years to ever need to change fluid unless it gets contaminated.
I never change the hydrolic fluid in my equipment,filters yes.
As for overfilling, just check you levels.

 

[blades]

Have to remember that there is the fluid still in one side or other of the cylinder. You should not fill supply tank full as you need to leave room for heat expansion of the hydro oil. When changing also need to cycle system several times to get any trapped air out.

 

[Ctwoodtick]

I have never changed the hydrolic fluid on my splitter,you would have to use it everyday for years to ever need to change fluid unless it gets contaminated.
I never change the hydrolic fluid in my equipment,filters yes.
As for overfilling, just check you levels.

Thanks for the info! Also take that advice about not changing the hydraulic fluid unless it’s to be contaminated, I wasn’t aware of that and just figured it should be changed every once in a while like every couple years or something.

 

[Ctwoodtick]

Have to remember that there is the fluid still in one side or other of the cylinder. You should not fill supply tank full as you need to leave room for heat expansion of the hydro oil. When changing also need to cycle system several times to get any trapped air out.

Thanks! In a couple weeks when I’m back home, I will take out some more oil to allow for air expansion and then check levels after cycling it through a couple times.

 

[Eman85]

Possibly wrong manual with wrong capacities?

 

[Highbeam]

I have never changed any fluid and refilled by alleged capacity. They have dipsticks. Use them. Filling by alleged capacity is likely to leave you underfilled or overfilled as you discovered.

Maybe as a rough guide, if the manual says it needs 15 quarts, you add the first 3 gallons really fast and then add the remainder a bit at a time checking with the dipstick. This is what I just did on my diesel pickup last week.

 

[Ctwoodtick]

I have never changed any fluid and refilled by alleged capacity. They have dipsticks. Use them. Filling by alleged capacity is likely to leave you underfilled or overfilled as you discovered.

Maybe as a rough guide, if the manual says it needs 15 quarts, you add the first 3 gallons really fast and then add the remainder a bit at a time checking with the dipstick. This is what I just did on my diesel pickup last week.

For sure- lesson learned. Thanks for the info

 

[brenndatomu]

I have never changed the hydrolic fluid on my splitter,you would have to use it everyday for years to ever need to change fluid unless it gets contaminated.
I never change the hydrolic fluid in my equipment,filters yes.
As for overfilling, just check you levels.

Water or contamination for sure...and most log splitters have much smaller oil tanks than what is recommended by hydraulic engineers, so they tend to run hot, heat is the enemy of hydraulic oil/systems...I would propose that any splitter that runs long enough, hard enough that you can barely touch the tank, (140*f) should get new oil every couple years. If it runs into the 160* range definitely needs fresh oil on occasion!
Depends a lil on how many hours you put on too...

 

[salecker]

Water or contamination for sure...and most log splitters have much smaller oil tanks than what is recommended by hydraulic engineers, so they tend to run hot, heat is the enemy of hydraulic oil/systems...I would propose that any splitter that runs long enough, hard enough that you can barely touch the tank, (140*f) should get new oil every couple years. If it runs into the 160* range definitely needs fresh oil on occasion!
Depends a lil on how many hours you put on too...

Heat is not an issue here...
As for my equipment, when a hose blows or you change an attachment there is fresh oil added.My excavator got 20 fresh gallons a couple weeks ago as a hose blew, and the first replacement was not built right and it only lasted an hour. Each time the hose blew 10 gallons got discharged before the machine was shut down.

 

[Highbeam]

Heat is not an issue here...
As for my equipment, when a hose blows or you change an attachment there is fresh oil added.My excavator got 20 fresh gallons a couple weeks ago as a hose blew, and the first replacement was not built right and it only lasted an hour. Each time the hose blew 10 gallons got discharged before the machine was shut down.

Did you get a nice hot shower of oil? Good memories!

 

[salecker]

No oil on me but a good coat of rust proofing on the 200
Going to give it a bath today as it was running hot in the warm weather we had

 

[Ctwoodtick]

So I’m back home and I think all is well with the oil and hydraulic oil levels. I’m gonna unleash the splitter on a small load of black birch as we speak. I did mess up and I’m really glad it was a small mistake. After checking the hydraulic oil levels, I decided to add a very small amount to just top off what I already had in the system. I ended up doing so with 5W-30 oil! It was a very amount, I would guess maybe an ounce or two. I’m going to just run the splitter and figure it to be fine. Because I know that folks on this forum tend to know a lot more mechanically than I do, just wanted to see if that would be, any issue, or something completely insignificant, like figuring. Thanks again!

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I don’t think it’ll be an issue short term. The reservoir is not going to run dry, the oil isn’t going to compress, it lubricates… Long term, who knows what the additives will do. My guess is nothing. I might take a peak at the oil to see if any weird stuff is happening after the first couple uses, lol.

 

[Ctwoodtick]

I don’t think it’ll be an issue short term. The reservoir is not going to run dry, the oil isn’t going to compress, it lubricates… Long term, who knows what the additives will do. My guess is nothing. I might take a peak at the oil to see if any weird stuff is happening after the first couple uses, lol.

Thanks for the input! Anything in particular I should be looking for when I look at the oil after a couple uses? I could just drain and replace the hydraulic oil out of the system but it seems like a waste of money and fluid if the chances of a problem seem low.

Dumb move on my part… the containers for the 2 were in the same style container and I didn’t look prior to putting that small amount in.

 

[brenndatomu]

I ended up doing so with 5W-30 oil! It was a very amount, I would guess maybe an ounce or two. I’m going to just run the splitter and figure it to be fine

Yes, it'll be fine...there will be no issues from it.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Thanks for the input! Anything in particular I should be looking for when I look at the oil after a couple uses? I could just drain and replace the hydraulic oil out of the system but it seems like a waste of money and fluid if the chances of a problem seem low.

Dumb move on my part… the containers for the 2 were in the same style container and I didn’t look prior to putting that small amount in.

No idea, lol. You know what it’s supposed to look like now. Any signs of foam/froth/not clean/metallic would be my guess.

 

[brenndatomu]

Engine oil gets churned under basically atmospheric pressure a lot more than most hydraulic systems do their oil...the valvetrain, crankshaft, etc...there won't be any foaming from a couple oz of engine oil...run that suckah!

 

[salecker]

Nothing to worry about
Years ago before hydrolic specific oil, 10W was the oil of choice for hydrolic systems.