Ok, I hate to admit I did something stupid...Actually the older I get the easier it is to admit my failings....I thought it wise to share this with you in the event it could help someone down the road (pun intended).
I am dry-camping and using my Honda 3000 generator on a daily basis to recharge my RV battery and to enjoy the amenities in the evening. It was on my mind to check the oil on Monday evening before starting it up that night...it was grieviously low. Since it was late and all stores were closed I didn't use it that night and drove into town next day. Stopped in at the RV/Generator repair place and bought my oil and was given a card for the generator repair guy that comes in for a few hours each day. I go back to my campsite and follow the directions for adding oil...it has a nice dummy-proof diagram next to the dip stick. It shows adding the oil in at an "unfriendly" angle, kinda dumb I thought. So, I tilted the generator to more easily get the only in the hole and not all over the place......"I don't need no stickin funnel"......"It sure is taking an inordinate amount of oil", I said to myself. So, I start er up after the oil is in and blue smoke flies out of it like a crop duster; it chokes and dies. Then doesn't start again. I realized what I had done and emptied the oil down to the proper amount but it was too late. Good thing I had the "card" from the repair place. I called and he said c'mon down.
Of course since I had put way too much oil in, because the tilted angle allowed it all to pour past the reservoir and into "everything", spark plug, cylinder, filters, etc. He had certainly seen this before and took out the spark plug and filters wiped up as much as he could, blew some cleaner into the cylinder, etc. and replaced the spark plug and started it up, plugged in a portable heater to make it work harder and it blew smoke out for half an hour. Blue smoke filled the sky, boy, was my face red. He assured me it wasn't damaged and it would burn all the residual oil out and the filter would be fine, all was well. He told me not to feel stupid, said I wouldn't believe some of the things that men have done, this being just one of them. Turns out I learned some things while there. About using the "Environmental friendly switch" which causes it to run at a lower RPM and burns the carbon out, said I should use that setting (unless running something big like the A/C) and once a week go ahead and run it at full RPM so it that gets used too. Told me to run the generator to get it hot before doing the oil change (which is really easy to do, even for me) that way the oil is hot and will run out real quickly and fill the reservoir more quickly. So, $65 later I am back in business and a little smarter.