hotrod9168

Wheew!! Just dodged a big one guys. Here is the story, on Monday I got up to drive the camaro to work as usual. But, as I drove away from the house the oil cooler seal pushed out and the engine began to lay an oil slick 1.5mile long. As I drove I smelled something burning and noticed in the rear-view smoke pooring out the back. I pulled over immediately and shut her down. Dumn guy move coming up, I didn't suspect an oil leak. The car didn't spot the driveway, never used oil, and runs great. So I lifter the hood, smoke everywhere and still no guess that the smell was the oil burning on the headers. I checked everything, coolant, plugs, distributor, even pulled the dipstick which showed oil. I never looked under the car to notice the last two quarts of oil drip onto the pavement. So here is the dumn move, I restarted the car to continue to diagnose and find the problem. The lifters didn't rattle at all and after 30 second of idling the engine gave up. I found out what was wrong very quickly after that.

Now the good news. I towed the car into the do it yourself shop on Post and found that the oil-by-pass valve or oil filter adapter had been cracked the last time I changed the filter and had now broken. This let the cold oil push out the oil-cooler's seal to the block which sprayed the oil on the road. Not a rod!!

The fix - found another fitting from a junk car, installed it, new filter, more oil, and quess what - the engine would turn over. But after 20 seconds of running, it shut off, not until it got 60PSI of oil pressure though. So it was promising as least. At this point the starter would only inch the motor a bit everytime I hit it. I let it sit for about 30 minutes, pulled all the plugs out, and it turned over but not very easily. Put all the plugs back in and it started up having sounded like it had a weak battery. I had to give it some gas to keep it running but oil pressure was 60PSI and it didn't rattle, shake, nothing.

Drove it home just now, didn't do anything else but take it easy. No smoke, no noise, warmed up normally and drove like always. I think I got very lucky with this engine.

Also, nothing on the magnet plug in the oil pan either.

Hotrod.

fervernt

I agree I think you got EXTREMELY lucky. Good to hear your ride didn't get hurt though.

hotrod9168

I took the car out again today, runs just fine. Even ran it hard. I am being very sensitive to every noise the engine makes, maybe to sensitive. I am not hearing anything but the injectors tapping - as always.

What could I find if I tore the engine down. A main bearing that is now showing its copper? Could I expect this engine to eventually start rattling and throw a rod? The engine does run differently, but it could be the tune.

ASE doc

Unfortunately, if the engine did tear up a main bearing, you may never know without dropping the pan. If a main bearing gets bad enough, it will scream and squeal like dry metal being rubbed together. Otherwise it may run for years. Your oil pressure is a good sign but not a guarantee of no damage. Watch oil pressure with the engine hot. If it is lower than it was before the incident, this is a sign of lost bearing material.

Another clue is of course to watch the oil the next time you drain it. Look for babett(looks like aluminum) in the oil. Rod and main bearings are coated in babbett. It's a soft metal that provides friction modification against the iron or steel crank. If you see babbett in the oil, it means you peeled some off running with low or no oil pressure. Now, anyone who has ever taken apart a high mileage engine has see an engine that ran for who knows how long with little or no babbet left on the bearings. Having said that, bearing manufacturers tell us that when the babbet is gone, the bearing is gone. I have personally seen engines run without oil pressure for just a brief period in which I had to roll in new bearings.

oamhmad

iTrader: (1)

I once forgot to screw the oil pressure gauge sender after an intake manifold job and started up my old 305. I was dumbfounded as i watched smoke billowing off the headers. It wasn't until I noticed that the oil pressure gauge had dropped to zero before I quickly killed it.

I had the motor running for a good 45 seconds or so and even revved it up a few times. It lost a good 3 quarts in that duration.

Screwed in oil sender, refilled with oil and it was like nothing ever happened. No knocks rattles, squeals or loss of oil pressure.

Later when I pulled the motor during a swap, I tore it apart out of curiosity and all the bearings and caps looked perfect. Guess I got lucky.

hotrod9168

That is good to note about the babbett. I will keep a look out.

It's been a week of driving, still nothing out of the ordinary. I haven't run it as hard as I'd like or as I used to. The day before the oil slick I had run the car hard all day, as hard as you really could without entering an autocross event, lots of fun. You know the real reason for building these kinds of vehicles. I will run her again eventually but I am shipping out in two weeks and I need the car to survive the shipment back to the States.

Hotrod

ASE doc

Likely she'll be fine. Just watch your hot oil pressure. It's normal for it to drop to 30psi at idle but should spring right back to 45-60 by 1,500. The general rule is at least 10psi per 1000 rpm.