Hey is it bad to run an engine without any oil in it? Yesterday I was getting the tractor ready for today's gig, changing a bearing in the front hub and doing some other maintenance. was waiting for some permatex silicone to dry so I started the oil draining. Left the oil plug out so all the old oil would drain well and went to town to do an errand. Later on in the evening, the axle had slipped out of the front differential a litlle and didn't want to go back in. Was getting exasperated so I asked my wife to turn the tractor on for a minute so I could wiggle the hub and axle back into the moving gears. It worked, popped in in about 30 seconds. Then while I was finishing putting the pin bearing thing back in i realized the engine still didn't have any oil in it! All in all we ran it twice for maybe 20 to 30 seconds each time. Engine sounded normal. Filled the engine with oil and went to work today and everything seemed fine, within parameters. The thing blows a ton of smoke out the breather tube, did it before and does it after. Gonna have to get new rings soon regardless, but I may have hastened it with my goober move. Anyone else ever do anything this dumb on their machine? any advice? (I was not drunk or stoned, so don't say that, perhaps I should have been)
Well it runs...and needs a rebuild with that much blow by...so never good with no oil...but no load and no heat in block...so best case in a bad situation...
Based on my experience I think you did no damage at all. One of the very experienced guys on here recently posted about working an excavator out of a bad spot with a broken oil sump for about 15 minutes I think, and he said that motor seemed to be all right. It is when you let them get hot or start working hard with no oil that they really tear stuff up it seems.
My advice would be to cut open and inspect the oil filter. If there's no metallic bits then put it to work. If there is, take a look at the bottom end before you make it worse.
I say> Button it up & move on.. {it prob. got enough oil out of the filter}..
I've had the sump smashed on an excavator and it had to be moved no if's or but's so a blast could go off. Ran it for 15 min to clear the shot and so it could be repaired. The sump was repaired and the engine continued work for many thousands of hours with no ill effects .
What was plan B if she would have locked up?
Yea good question! I think if I was in that situation I would want a few witnesses to be there when boss said to move it! Might even want to have cell phone on camera mode to video him say to move it after you told him why you did not want to run it. That said I did restart a 8V-71 in a drill rig that I knew had a broken crank so operator could remove drill rod and lower the mast on the drill rig. Lucky it was a truck drill so we could drive it up to the shop to then restart a second time to raise mast so we could remove the engine.
I have had a few engines that were started without oil over the years (1 by me, most by apprentices). Basically did what Cmark suggested, checked the filters for any metal and if nothing there put them back to work. Never lost one of the engines that showed nothing in the filter Worst one was a Cat 14G grader. Had a fellow that was a not used to working on the machine. Dumped the engine oil and filled the trans up instead. Flashed the machine up and let it idle for quite some time. When it started to squeak, he figured out what he had done. They filled with oil and got it running, pulled the filters after about 10 minutes and full of metal. Ordered a reman the next day. I would try to run it, filters are cheap, run for a bit and check the inside of the filter, if nothing there, do it again.
Plan B was the shot had to be guarded around the clock until the machine got moved.
Been there, done that. Had a track drill break a track right beside a loaded ditch line. The blaster stayed with the machine until I got there. He and I fought the track back together and got all the equipment moved off the shot. Did I mention that it was on about a 15-20% grade just to really make it fun. Let the shot go, he did his check then I drove him to his house (3 hours from the job site) I think it was about 1 am when I got him home, poor guy. Personally I wanted them to let the blast go and take that beat up POS drill with it, but the company did not see eye to eye with me. FYI, the drill rig was built on an old M32 tank undercarriage.
Run with fresh oil, rinse, repeat....
A fellow on another forum started his Kenworth with a Cat 3406 with no oil and let it idle for two minutes before he woke up in a panic. He ran it for many thousands of miles after that until it failed for another reason. Even then the crank journals were fine. Then there was a farmer friend in Stanton, ND that had much worse luck. He drained the oil on his $80,000 tractor with loader and went to town for oil and filter. While he was gone a thunderstorm rolled through and lightning started his 4 row, 1/4 mile long stack of big round bales on fire. A neighbor driving by saw the hay on fire and stopped, running to the tractor, started it up and started moving bales to make a fire break in the bale row. The engine seized and the fire burned the tractor and many of the bales.
Thanks everyone for making me feel better. In that others have done it in varying situations and that the thing is probably fine. Thanks Tones especially, that really makes me feel better. It's up on a mountain farm right now in the middle of a job so I probably won't be ripping the oil filter open right away. It worked for about six hours yesterday and didn't lock up so I imagine it's fine(ish). Thing blows more smoke out the breather than the exhaust pipe but it did that before, that was the reason for the oil change, .To switch over to 25w-60 for old beat engines. There was a whole bunch of stp and no smoke magic potions in there cuz of the blowby, that sticky goop probably helped minimize the damage. Truth is the thing works fine except for all the smoke. I'm thinking I'll route a tube from the breather into the exhaust pipe (figuring something out for oil drips) to remove the appearance of the blowby and keep working happily until my mechanics and my schedules align for a ring job. Out of sight out of mind.
we well spoken
This is why when I change oil, keys get pulled and put in my pocket. If I'm going to let it sit overnight, I will sometimes lock the door.
Ouch!
Shimmy, that's what I do when I pull an inj. pump.. TAKE THOSE KEYS.. even if the customer insists that "noboby's gonna mess w/ it".. Yeah right.. I heard that one before..
within the last couple years I had two high-hour engines run low on oil but wasn't so lucky. nothing blew up but i had small particles in the oil when the filters were cut apart so both times the engines had to be replaced .years ago, one shop I worked at did not have a disabled procedure in place. I had removed part of a driveline and the shop foreman said " its ok right where it sits ". after a couple of days, the shop trucker decided to move it, got the keys, and proceded to move it with a driveshaft flailing around. foreman was not impressed. only minor damage was done. customer however was quite agitated. I started a new procedure with a DO NOT OPERATE tag attached with my name on it attached to steering wheel, or other prominent area. the rest of the mechanics started doing the same. cya(cover your ass) lol
Our shop has do not operate tags as well. I think insurance requires keys in the ignition in order to be covered in a fire.