Ok get ready for another long rambling post.
That痴 called a rolling prelube and ensures the bearings get an oil film if not before firing, it least after very few rotations.
Turning the engine over with just compression doesn稚 cause much wear but once it fires and gets up to speed there is a lot of wear on a dry bearing. 80-90% of the wear on most engines happens at startup.
Most newer digital controllers either have this feature by default or at least the option to enable it. Basically it won稚 enable the fuelling until oil pressure is achieved or a certain number of rotations are completed.
Cylinders are lubricated by the oil that intentionally gets past the oil ring. Piston cooling nozzles are just for cooling the pistons, not for lube. A common belief is that the less oil a new engine uses, the better. In reality an engine that uses too little oil will wear out the cylinders prematurely. There is such a thing as too much oil but it痴 always a lot more than most people realize. On a 15L engine that has a a 45L pan, you could expect to use about 4-5L per day and up to about 12L in a 24hrs before any investigation is required.
On another note, with all the wind and rain here the pst few days, power went out about 3AM Saturday morning... so I rolled over and went back to sleep. We have a gas stove so coffee and toast with the camping toaster wasn稚 a problem in the morning but by 9AM and no crew dispatched figured it was time to start the OLD Emerald up. I run the fuel pump first to fill the carb then it fires after only a couple seconds. (17k hours I知 not worried about rolling prelube anymore) Ran about 6 hours getting two freezers and 3 fridges cold again, recharging phones and running the water pump. Was just about ready to shut it down until dinner time when the power came back.
One leads to two, then..... :laughing:
