How far can the car go without oil?

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I just ran into an interesting post here.

Here's an excerpt from one of user TRD VVTi's posts on that page:

Quote:
How far can the car go without oil? It really depends. I've seen cars go for 30 miles without oil and have seen cars that locked up after just seconds of running. For some reason Toyotas seem to fair well though. I've seen an Avalon run for over a half hour without oil and then still keep running for over 15 minutes after running at 4,000 RPM's (rough estimate from memory).

Is this even reasonable? I've certainly never tried it myself. I do remember a Syntec commercial once, where they did this.
 
To many factors, vehicle type, weight, engine type, oil in use etc.

I'd never intentionally run it without oil.
 
Sounds like a bit of a stretch to me. After blowing up several in the cash for clunkers debacle I can say about five to eight minutes is the limit. The small block and modular Ford's seem to go the longest. It took over 9 mins for a low mile (75k) 351 Ford to lock up and that was at wide open throttle!
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Originally Posted By: SAJEFFC
Sounds like a bit of a stretch to me. After blowing up several in the cash for clunkers debacle I can say about five to eight minutes is the limit. The small block and modular Ford's seem to go the longest. It took over 9 mins for a low mile (75k) 351 Ford to lock up and that was at wide open throttle!
crazy2.gif


Was that with the silicate solution poured into the engine or without?
 
My Z24 (now dead a 2nd time, lol) and what got me started on oil paranoia in the 1st place, went from downtown Tulsa to the edge of Sapulpa. Which is around 14 miles. No oil showing on the dipstick and an emergency to get to, I took off. Just barely fell short of my destination.

It's a "Quad 4" engine. 2.4l DOHC. I abused this car sooo bad too. Ran it hard all the time, never waited on heating anything up. Went way way way over the limit on oil changes. When and if I did change it was just wal-mart specials. It was always low on oil when someone would check it and tell me, which I ignored. Then ran it out of oil completely and it went 14 miles. At this point, it had over 200 thousand abused miles on it.

Had it rebuilt. Babied it, put good quality oils in it. Had changed to synthetics in fact. Changed it regularly, checked it daily. I think it made it 3 thousand miles total. lol. Oh the Irony. In reality, it was just a bad rebuild from a bad rebuild company.
 
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+1 it is not apples to apples if that junk is poured in and the engine is abused.

Loading and resultant heat load is the important thing. Also define without oil? no drain plug? just the dummy light on?
 
Originally Posted By: SAJEFFC
Sounds like a bit of a stretch to me. After blowing up several in the cash for clunkers debacle I can say about five to eight minutes is the limit. The small block and modular Ford's seem to go the longest. It took over 9 mins for a low mile (75k) 351 Ford to lock up and that was at wide open throttle!
crazy2.gif



What a waste.That cash 4 clunkers thing took out a lot of (still good) used auto`s
 
I spoke with a neighbor who had an Iffy Lube do a oil change minus the oil.
It was on his wife's suburban, they never check the oil, just go in every 3000 miles.
According to his account She made it 1200 miles.

I find it hard to believe, but who knows? Maybe they left the old filter on there also and that pint helped out.
 
Wow. I must say I'm surprised. I always imagined that the engine life would be measured in seconds.

A further question then. Would the (residual) polar molecules of ester synthetics be expected to do significantly better than the residual of an oil with nonpolar molecules?
 
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Originally Posted By: lexus114
Originally Posted By: SAJEFFC
Sounds like a bit of a stretch to me. After blowing up several in the cash for clunkers debacle I can say about five to eight minutes is the limit. The small block and modular Ford's seem to go the longest. It took over 9 mins for a low mile (75k) 351 Ford to lock up and that was at wide open throttle!
crazy2.gif



What a waste.That cash 4 clunkers thing took out a lot of (still good) used auto`s


Yes a lot of otherwise good serviceable cars went to the junkyard. Also a lot of good parts that could keep older cars in good shape on the road were destroyed too.
 
I had a Saturn that burned oil. Once I was at a red light and the car just shut off. I checked the dipstick and it was dry. I walked to the gas station bought 4 quarts of oil and filled it up and it started again.
 
Originally Posted By: bkbenjy
I had a Saturn that burned oil. Once I was at a red light and the car just shut off. I checked the dipstick and it was dry. I walked to the gas station bought 4 quarts of oil and filled it up and it started again.


OK.
 
These folks who run miles and miles without oil... don't they wonder, even a little bit, what the oil pressure warning light on the dash means? Do they just make a mental note to ask their spouse about it when then get home?

Maybe they are just so used to their "Check Engine" light being on all the time, without noticeable ill-effect, that they think they can do the same with the oil light?
 
Thay wanted to spur sales for the bailout, I get it, but those running cars(and they had to be running to qualify)could've been donated to WORKING poor families to make ends meet ,to find a better job or second job etc.It makes me sick ,this waste.
 
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IF YOU PUT SLICK -50 IN A DODGE VIPER, DRAIN AND IT, IT'LL RUN FOREVER. HECK, YOU CAN EVEN DUMP STONES IN THE VALVETRAIN AND IT WON'T HARM ANYTHIGN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111!
 
I swear this is true:

I came home from school once, and found a large oil slick on our driveway, with a small plug in the middle of it.

My father had taken the car that morning, and gone into the city, and gone to several meetings/appointments - all stop and go driving, probably about 30 miles total.

He came home, and I showed him what I had found. He had gotten an oil change on the 1989 Toyota Tercel the day before at the dealership. Had seen the oil light 'flicker' a few times, he said, but hadn't really paid attention.

Got car towed to dealership, and wanted a replacement engine. Toyota said it would only be replaced if it actually failed. My step-mom wrote off the car about three years later by crashing into a tree...car burned a fair amount of oil, but still ran just fine.
 
Originally Posted By: sbergman27
These folks who run miles and miles without oil... don't they wonder, even a little bit, what the oil pressure warning light on the dash means? Do they just make a mental note to ask their spouse about it when then get home?

Maybe they are just so used to their "Check Engine" light being on all the time, without noticeable ill-effect, that they think they can do the same with the oil light?


Many vehicles don't have any kind of low oil pressure or level warning.
 
Originally Posted By: cchase
Many vehicles don't have any kind of low oil pressure or level warning.

Are you serious? Examples?
 
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