Nightmare senario...lost my oil plug and oil

[NY_Yankees_Fan]

Would using synthetic oil have helped reduce the wear in this incident?

 

[AStanton]

I would trailer the tractor to Tijuana Mexico and sell it there.

 

[Sonorous]

Would using synthetic oil have helped reduce the wear in this incident?

The 'incident' was the absence of oil, synthetic or otherwise! No oil can do much to help as it oozes into the dusty trail behind you. If you remember those oil additive commercials from the 90's they would show an engine running without oil after using their additive for several minutes. The truth is that the engine would actually run without the additive for several minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WLOccckJ5o

I'm not saying engine oil X vs Y might not perform differently, but my guess is gear oil would outperform either! I don't think the distribution between regular and synthetic would be all that great either. I've seen Audi engine failures from the oil pump chain tensioner giving up. The synthetic oils in them did not spare anything!

 

[Cherokee140]

No it would not make one bit of difference....well no real world difference. In this case (oil leaving engine) we really only talk about the oil keeping the engine slippy. How long the engine parts stay oil covered can very slightly from type to type, but it is still going to leave and then problems arise. I would bet if the guy in the above video let that car cool down it would start and run for about 5 minutes again then freeze up. Rinse wash repeat....till it was just nothing left. You noticed it did not even sound THAT bad. Put the hood down, oil pan back on and some pretty darn THICK oil in it and I doubt you would have gotten any real nasty sounds from the engine.

I don't want to be hard on the OP, we all make mistakes and goof up....**** I have some epic failures in my time....just learn from your mistakes try to pass that on to our kids and the world keeps a turnin.

But really if that was my machine I would be VERY nervous about it.

 

[Cat_Driver]

No you didn't ruin the engine. This happened to me trice. Once when I was a kid I drove over a brick that was on the high center of a gravel drive way and it poked a hole in the oil pan. I should say HUGE GASH. I was young and picked up my date, we drove around did the date the 69 Camaro shut down, not a drop of oil. Got home, told my Dad, he pulled the pan welded the gouge filled it up and I drove another 50K miles.
Second time years later my employees brought one of my vehicle back KNOCKING and smoking. I checked the oil, not a drop. I took it to a service guy he said the engine was shot. I left filled it with oil it ran another 40K miles before I sold it. It ran as strong as ever.

 

[Cherokee140]

So you are telling me you would happily buy a machine and pay current market price for knowing this? I am betting the answer is no.....and if you say you would.....well lets just say I am doubtful you really would.

No you didn't ruin the engine. This happened to me trice. Once when I was a kid I drove over a brick that was on the high center of a gravel drive way and it poked a hole in the oil pan. I should say HUGE GASH. I was young and picked up my date, we drove around did the date the 69 Camaro shut down, not a drop of oil. Got home, told my Dad, he pulled the pan welded the gouge filled it up and I drove another 50K miles.
Second time years later my employees brought one of my vehicle back KNOCKING and smoking. I checked the oil, not a drop. I took it to a service guy he said the engine was shot. I left filled it with oil it ran another 40K miles before I sold it. It ran as strong as ever.

 

[maddog69]

Wow, I'm glad I have provided so much entertainment on the forum and I appreciate each and every one of your replys. I pulled the FEL off and I am having it taken to the shop and re threaded for a larger bolt. I have ran rotella T 6 in it since I got the tractor 12 years ago and have treated it like a baby. I'm going to keep it running as long as I can and not worry about it...just my way. Why worry about what might happen. The tractor sounds like the day I brought it home and I will not burden anyone else with my mistake. Think good thoughts and thanks again....Brad

 

[ruffdog]

Sounds like a plan to me, Brad.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

The engine didn't run without oil all the time it was draining. It likely took about a minute for all the oil to drain so some oil was still circulating until the level got too low for the sump pump to pick it up.
Surely you did some damage or at least extra wear to the engine, but if it isn't knocking or making any funny noise, I doubt that you caused damage severe enough to cause immediate or near future catastrophic failure. The rod bearings would likely be the first to go and the piston rings. Keep an eye on the oil usage and if it is not using any oil, the rings must be ok. If rod bearings, it will develop a knock and even a low sounding knock is time to shut it down and overhaul it before you throw a rod thru the block.
I don't know if your engine has hydraulic lifters but if so, they are likely the cause for shutdown due to lack of oil and perhaps they shut down prior to any major damage happening.

I would lean in the direction of Gary at this point in time.

I really can not believe some of the remarks some are making however.

This is a good case to try Ceratec or Archoil AR 9300. Actually I have tested Ceratec and did a write up on Bobistheoilguy.com site where we patched up a Polaris 325 with a spun rod bearing due to a blown oil cooler line running down a paved road. It chewed up the crank and connecting rod. We did not remove the crank but just hit it with some emery cloth to smooth down the rod bearing material that was deposited on the crank working through the the hole left when removing the cylinder jug and when back with a standard size rod bearing and a used connecting rod.

We let it fast idle for 10 hours so the ceramic coating could build on the metal surfaces then started revving and loading the engine a bit and I could make it knock when getting on it. At 11 hours and about one million revolutions we tore it back down. Sure the chewed up crank was hard on the new bearing inserts but they had not spun and were coated with a glassy coating as was the head and cam bearings wear surfaces.

After this tractor story I am going to get moving on getting this nano technology in all of our engines so if they run out of oil it will not be metal on metal for a while.

We bought the ATV knowing it had been ran without oil and would die if given gas as a project bike. If I had a good tractor I would pull the pan and replace all of the rod and main bearings to be on the safe side as others have noted.

The rod in the Polaris engine and crank were messed up due to high (6K RPM I expect since 40 is top speed on a paved road) but from the wrist pen on up seemed OK but I did replace the rings before doing the Ceratec 11 hour run time experiment.

In a slow turning diesel engine I expect the rods took most of the abuse and if the crank is still smooth you would be fine just replacing the bearing inserts.

 

[MHarryE]

Wow, I'm glad I have provided so much entertainment on the forum and I appreciate each and every one of your replys. I pulled the FEL off and I am having it taken to the shop and re threaded for a larger bolt. I have ran rotella T 6 in it since I got the tractor 12 years ago and have treated it like a baby. I'm going to keep it running as long as I can and not worry about it...just my way. Why worry about what might happen. The tractor sounds like the day I brought it home and I will not burden anyone else with my mistake. Think good thoughts and thanks again....Brad

Good plan, Brad. That's what I would do except I would worry about it to some extent because that's my nature. But I would just keep on plugging away.