1996 Honda Elite SR50 ran the oil tank dry... Soft seized

[Brybo86]

So we have this scooter up at the lake...
50cc 2 stroke with autolube separate oil and gas tanks.

It doesn't get much use. Mb 100-200 miles a year.

Driving to get ice cream tonight... 10 minutes ride at 25mph.
The oil light flickers, once. About 3 mins later it loses power.

I get on it and BIL gets off it.
I get it started with what seemed like slightly stiffer kick starter.

It revs ok and I take off as we are just a few mins from the house.
I get about 75 ft down the road and it loses power then the engine stopped quickly.
Although I had only read about an engine hard seizing or soft seizing I knew it had just seized. The way it abruptly stopped with a grunt.

So we toss it in the back of truck and get it home. Oil tank is bone dry...

We take off the head and surprisingly the cylinder walls were as smooth as my bald spot!

I dumped about a couple tablespoons of two stroke oil on top of the cylinder and rotated the engine down to let the oil filter down into the bottom end.

We cleaned the filter on the oil tank which was covered in goo. And then primed all the tubing to the oil pump and back to the carburetor.

Dumped a bit of oil in the gas tank for kicks and giggles.

Put everything back together and the thing was smoking like crazy...

Drove it around for a few mins and everything seemed to be ok....
I feel lucky.

 

[user52165]

No warning lite for low oil?

Opps - I just noticed it does.................sorta.

You're not lucky - just smart...................for buying a Honda.

A lesser bike might not take this abuse.

 

[Silk]

Drop the exhaust off and have a look at the piston through the exhaust port to see if there are any seize marks on the piston skirt. My Piaggio Zip 50 2T recently had a blocked oil feed port in the carb, but picked it up before it went too far. Disconnected the oil pump and now on premix.

 

[justintendo]

hopefully the rod and mains are ok...they are whats lubed first in a two stroke before the top end. a good oil has a protective film that hangs around in the bottom end awhile after running out of lube..i bet you check the oil tank a lil more often now!

 

[spasm3]

Like I've mentioned before, I'd premix on the tank. I don't trust those systems to mix properly as you ride.

 

[mk378]

And with pre-mix when you're out of oil you're also out of gas, so no one restarts it to cause further damage.

 

[joekingcorvette]

Good you caught it early. Sounds like a fun bike. Take care of it!

 

[meep]

VW beetles could do this too. Dad had one that would seize when hot to the point where WOT and it would just stop. Cool down and keep going.

FIL ran a 3.5 Chrysler LHS dry on I-40 many many years ago. Seized on the interstate at 55mph in knoxville Tennesee. Stopped dead and couldn't turn over. Walked back with 5 qts of oil and poured them all in after he got back and it had cooled. It cranked on its own. Family got another 100k out of the car. It forever had a limp in it's idle, but with that "big" V6 up there (it did fill that massive hood, think it was a 90deg motor), dual intakes, with the crankshaft pointed the right way (it was not transverse though it was FWD), it rocked back and forth like it should and felt like a lumpy cam. All was good.