....if you were using ProLong Super Lubricants, you would not have to worry!
DID I DESTROY MY ENGINE?! Need encouragement
- Thread starter olddognewtrks
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Originally Posted By: olddognewtrks
Today has been one of those horrible days. The biggest horror-Changing the oil and filter on my '05 Honda Element/2.4 liter, and partial R and R on the P/S fluid. Had a huge brain poot and ran the engine twice with NO oil, for about 20 seconds each time, when trying to get more P/S fluid into the reservoir.
No nasty noises after filling it and running it at idle. Please tell me that Honda engines can tolerate some stupidity abuse without spinning a bearing.
Also, what else should I be looking out for in the future. I really, really hope I haven't wrecked my car.
I wouldn't worry about it. I've had two occasions when a family member has tracked me down after driving home to tell me there's "a light on the dash". Both times, no oil in the pan due to a leak. Both times, I put oil in it and we kept driving it for years afterward.
Today has been one of those horrible days. The biggest horror-Changing the oil and filter on my '05 Honda Element/2.4 liter, and partial R and R on the P/S fluid. Had a huge brain poot and ran the engine twice with NO oil, for about 20 seconds each time, when trying to get more P/S fluid into the reservoir.
No nasty noises after filling it and running it at idle. Please tell me that Honda engines can tolerate some stupidity abuse without spinning a bearing.
Also, what else should I be looking out for in the future. I really, really hope I haven't wrecked my car.
I wouldn't worry about it. I've had two occasions when a family member has tracked me down after driving home to tell me there's "a light on the dash". Both times, no oil in the pan due to a leak. Both times, I put oil in it and we kept driving it for years afterward.
JHZR2
Staff member
It was not loaded. It was only 20s per time with rest in between. I wouldn't lose sleep. Just learn from it and implement some sort of a process so it doesn't happen again.
Oil pressure tells the whole story.
no problem at all we had a Dodge 318 van with 200,000 or so miles on it that ran 5 miles with zero oil in the crankcase the guy ran over a street sign and ripped a hole in the oil pan. We put a new pan on it and he ran it another two or three years and another 30,000 miles. He is a painter and goes all over. He now has a three year old Ford van with over 70,000 miles on it. And the kicker is he brings all his vehicles to a friends jiffy lube from the day he gets them.
What you did is a handful of "dry starts" like after you do an oil change and the oil pump spends extra time filling the filter before the engine bearings see pressure!
A while back I added up all the dry starts from 3K oil changes over 180,000 miles and it was 900 sec / 15 minutes!
Since then I pre-fill the new oil filter before screwing it onto the engine so my dry starts are a lot shorter!
A while back I added up all the dry starts from 3K oil changes over 180,000 miles and it was 900 sec / 15 minutes!
Since then I pre-fill the new oil filter before screwing it onto the engine so my dry starts are a lot shorter!
Now that you've checked starting your engine without oil off your bucket list you can move on. There're plenty of other careless or stupid things to be done before you can call it quits. Everyone has such a list and most people are diligent about working through it before they retire.
Everything that I've read and heard, here and elsewhere, is that the majority of engine wear comes at startup due to lack of lubrication.
Not trying to be pessimistic or anything. Just wondering.
Not trying to be pessimistic or anything. Just wondering.
exactly why i change my filters every other time.. Dry starts!
Most wear occurs just after startup and continues until normal operating temperature is reached.
With emergency generator sets the time under temp is a time of more wear than a lot of starts.
When a generator has a cooling system that is kept warm there is much less wear.
With emergency generator sets the time under temp is a time of more wear than a lot of starts.
When a generator has a cooling system that is kept warm there is much less wear.
Originally Posted By: i_hate_autofraud
What you did is a handful of "dry starts" like after you do an oil change and the oil pump spends extra time filling the filter before the engine bearings see pressure!
A while back I added up all the dry starts from 3K oil changes over 180,000 miles and it was 900 sec / 15 minutes!
Since then I pre-fill the new oil filter before screwing it onto the engine so my dry starts are a lot shorter!
To this and the other similar posts, I say PHOOEY!
Due to...er...(what was my excuse again? Oh yeh, STUPIDITY and..) the blazing row that always seems to be involved when getting women to "help" do anything mechanical with a car, mine was towed in gear with the plugs out around the block, with the new oil below the pump pickup.
It didn't kill the car but it didn't do it much good either. Its noisier on startup, and there was a novel whitish deposit in the sump that was almost certainly bearing metal, and this is without any compression, much less combustion load on the engine. This is NOT the same as a "dry start" because a dry start isn't so dry. The engine had been draining for a long time though, so maybe if the OP did a quick oil change there'd be less damage.
Still, best guess is the OP has damaged his engine, as I did. We both just have to deal with it and try to rebuild our shattered self-esteem (sob).
What you did is a handful of "dry starts" like after you do an oil change and the oil pump spends extra time filling the filter before the engine bearings see pressure!
A while back I added up all the dry starts from 3K oil changes over 180,000 miles and it was 900 sec / 15 minutes!
Since then I pre-fill the new oil filter before screwing it onto the engine so my dry starts are a lot shorter!
To this and the other similar posts, I say PHOOEY!
Due to...er...(what was my excuse again? Oh yeh, STUPIDITY and..) the blazing row that always seems to be involved when getting women to "help" do anything mechanical with a car, mine was towed in gear with the plugs out around the block, with the new oil below the pump pickup.
It didn't kill the car but it didn't do it much good either. Its noisier on startup, and there was a novel whitish deposit in the sump that was almost certainly bearing metal, and this is without any compression, much less combustion load on the engine. This is NOT the same as a "dry start" because a dry start isn't so dry. The engine had been draining for a long time though, so maybe if the OP did a quick oil change there'd be less damage.
Still, best guess is the OP has damaged his engine, as I did. We both just have to deal with it and try to rebuild our shattered self-esteem (sob).
Originally Posted By: NibbanaBanana
Everything that I've read and heard, here and elsewhere, is that the majority of engine wear comes at startup due to lack of lubrication.
Not trying to be pessimistic or anything. Just wondering.
You haven't read any of my threads ?
Just 101 and some claptrap ?
The majority of wear occurs during warmup, while there's plenty of oil...and it's flowing.
For a 2 hour run, 75% of the wear occurs in the first 6 minutes...for a number of reasons, and the contribution from no oil pressure is small, provided it doesn't run too long (e.g. improper selection of "W" rating in an extremely cold environment.
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/4048953/75__of_wear_occurs_at_startup.
The bearings will always be full of oil due to capillary action, yes you can squeeze that out pretty quickly.
The oil sits in the piston rings for whole minutes with the engine running, so there's plenty there, even dry after an oil change.
The oil in service forms a protective tribofilm, which protects in the boundary lubrication regime, again offering protection for this case of misadventure.
I'm never going to say that the OP did his engine any favours, but it's going to reduce the life of the engine by a tiny amount in his scope of ownership.
Everything that I've read and heard, here and elsewhere, is that the majority of engine wear comes at startup due to lack of lubrication.
Not trying to be pessimistic or anything. Just wondering.
You haven't read any of my threads ?
Just 101 and some claptrap ?
The majority of wear occurs during warmup, while there's plenty of oil...and it's flowing.
For a 2 hour run, 75% of the wear occurs in the first 6 minutes...for a number of reasons, and the contribution from no oil pressure is small, provided it doesn't run too long (e.g. improper selection of "W" rating in an extremely cold environment.
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/4048953/75__of_wear_occurs_at_startup.
The bearings will always be full of oil due to capillary action, yes you can squeeze that out pretty quickly.
The oil sits in the piston rings for whole minutes with the engine running, so there's plenty there, even dry after an oil change.
The oil in service forms a protective tribofilm, which protects in the boundary lubrication regime, again offering protection for this case of misadventure.
I'm never going to say that the OP did his engine any favours, but it's going to reduce the life of the engine by a tiny amount in his scope of ownership.
It'll be fine.
In around 1997 or 1998, when I was about 18, I had a Nissan Maxima (the boxy one) with the 5-spd manual gearbox. Really fun car. It had about 56,000 miles on it when I bought it.
Took it to an instant oil change place and when I left to make the 2-mile drive home, I started hearing some engine noise (at that time, I didn't know much about cars or engines). I ended up driving it up to Firestone and dropping it off with them. They called me and said the engine had zero oil and the oil pan drain bolt was missing.
They installed a new drain bolt, filled it with oil, and the engine stopped making the noise.
I drove the car for tens of thousands of miles after that, eventually selling it.
In around 1997 or 1998, when I was about 18, I had a Nissan Maxima (the boxy one) with the 5-spd manual gearbox. Really fun car. It had about 56,000 miles on it when I bought it.
Took it to an instant oil change place and when I left to make the 2-mile drive home, I started hearing some engine noise (at that time, I didn't know much about cars or engines). I ended up driving it up to Firestone and dropping it off with them. They called me and said the engine had zero oil and the oil pan drain bolt was missing.
They installed a new drain bolt, filled it with oil, and the engine stopped making the noise.
I drove the car for tens of thousands of miles after that, eventually selling it.
Originally Posted By: JimPghPA
Years ago I had a 175 Yamaha 2 cycle motorcycle that my friends and I use to take out to some abandoned strip mine and take turns beating the heck out of it. In the winter we would throw big snowballs at the cylinder whenever the person riding it got close enough. If you hit the cylinder with a big snowball the cylinder would shrink enough to grab the piston and stall the motor. The person riding would have to wait a minute or so for the temperatures of the cylinder and piston to equalize before the motor would again turn freely. We beat the heck out of that bike and the motor, and years later when I sold it it still ran fine.
Motors can sometimes take a lot more abuse than you would think. There is a good chance that your motor will be OK.
Great story Jim!
Years ago I had a 175 Yamaha 2 cycle motorcycle that my friends and I use to take out to some abandoned strip mine and take turns beating the heck out of it. In the winter we would throw big snowballs at the cylinder whenever the person riding it got close enough. If you hit the cylinder with a big snowball the cylinder would shrink enough to grab the piston and stall the motor. The person riding would have to wait a minute or so for the temperatures of the cylinder and piston to equalize before the motor would again turn freely. We beat the heck out of that bike and the motor, and years later when I sold it it still ran fine.
Motors can sometimes take a lot more abuse than you would think. There is a good chance that your motor will be OK.
Great story Jim!
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