You would be surprised at how often this happens. Especially with the
service at a quick lube set or those that let the gas station attendants
check their oil. Yes there is a right way and many wrong ways to check the
oil level.
The waterboxer doesn't like this as the with the cylinders lying sideways
the excess oil puddles quickly behind the pistons and passes the rings into
the combustion chamber.

Since the engine sat for while in this overfilled condition I would remove
the spark plugs, lower the oil level, disable the fuel pump and ignition and
then use the starter to crank the engine and let any excess oil in the
cylinders get blown out of the spark plug holes. Then clean up the mess, put
the plugs back in, reconnect everything and start it up. Let the smoke clear
and see what happens.
Most of the leakage may just be valve cover gaskets.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Cunegonde
Sent: Tuesday, August 20, 2013 8:51 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Excess Oil Pressure Damage in 1.9l WBX

Well... Cunegonde's co-owner put 2qts of oil in an all ready full 1.9l WBX
engine.
Huge clouds of dark smoke everywhere,
oil squirting from somewhere near the driver side cylinder head onto the
exhaust manifold, oil clouds coming out of the head/exhaust header joints,
oil coming out the tailpipe.

Engine will run but not going to risk a fire!

Now that Cunegonde's towed home, what's the prognosis?
Engine has about 45k miles.
No oil in the coolant.
I've drained the excess oil from the pan; if there's a chance it will run
again, will empty and refill completely and change filter.

Next step... Remove a head and examine it and the gasket for damage? What
else to check?
Also, clean engine & exhaust headers thoroughly in hopes most of the smoke
was hot headers?

If repair is in excess of 12 hours of work, or if engine will be even less
reliable than usual, we're prepared to install a VW inline 4 or Subaru
replacement engine.