How Bad did i **** up ???

finished doing a long list of things to the jeep 1990 to day. lift, all new suspension, belt, coolant flush, oil change, diff fuild change.
went to crank the jeep, cranked it and remembered i had forgot to refill the oil :banghead:i had started for less than a second, im pretty sure ive killed my baby :bawl:how bad is this going to **** it up ?

edit: ive filled it back up with Castrol GTX High Mileage havent started it. im considering starting it tomorrow letting it run and pulling a sample and sending it into a lab to have an oil test done for metal particles

any advice would be great thanks

If it's trashed, it's already trashed. Start it up. Listen for more noises than normal. It's probably fine. A couple seconds of no load idle, with all the oil residue that didn't drain. In an old timey Jeep engine.

alright anything i should look for in the thousand miles or so ?

if you really want, unplug the coil and crank it for 10-15 seconds to build oil pressure, its probally fine either way

Drove mine cold for at least a minute or two, thought the 300k mile switch was stuck in the sub freezing weather. Turned out to be the oil pump.

It's fine. Look at your cam bearings if you get in there for anything, I could see what I've heard for so long, just a hair louder now, I'm sure.

It takes more than a second to get oil pressure after changing the oil. I wouldn't worry about it.

alright thanks you guys made me feel a little better about it.
i think it might have been the stupidest thing ive ever done
ill probably be changing the oil every 2000 miles just for piece of mind from now on....

I will add to the "I think you are fine" chorus.

A guy I worked for while in college had a Morgan (Brit car) with a Buick 215. Had one of the employees change the oil one time. (It lived at the company shop...roll it around if need be to move it out of the way) Probably a week or so later the owner went to fire it up. I was there. It made an awful valve racket. Owner poking around while it is running trying to figure out what on earth is wrong with the car. All of a sudden, after several minutes, he realizes that he has not started it since he had assigned the oil change job. Shuts it off immediately and checks the oil. Sure enough, not a drop on the dipstick.

Oh excrement!

He put oil in it and pressure came up fine, but he still was worried about what damage he might have done. Out came the engine and off to a shop for a rebuild. I saw the bearings when they pulled them: Absolutely no sign of damage. He probably could have left it alone and been just fine for many, many more miles. Only issue would have been his own peace of mind.

Having been present when the engine was running without oil pressure and having seen the bearings at teardown I really do think you are fine and that you do not need to worry at all. Had you driven it and put a load on the bottom end it might be a different story, but at idle, with no load, for a duration that would be measured in seconds I wouldn't sweat it much.

"Drive it 'till it drops!"

Since it already had oil in it, the bearings should have been lubricated. I know several people who would pull the drain plug, let all the oil drain out, then start the engine for a few seconds to get the last of the oil out. I would be really surprised if you caused any damage.

I bet you never do it again. :roflmao:

My father used to change his oil like so:

1990 4.0 XJ Empty oil, Add 1 gallon kerosene (back when it was cheap), start engine and run idling for 30 seconds or so, drain kerosene. He's let it sit, draining, for an hour or more. Then he replaced the filter, filled it with oil, buttoned it up, and drove it for another 4-5 k. Then did it all over again.

He passed away 12 years ago, I inherited his XJ. It had 180K when I got it. I drove it for 100K and gave it to my 30 y/o son...he's had it for 4 years, daily driver...and wheeler.

He did this on ALL his cars/trucks as far back as I can remember...I'm 62. All his vehicles Chevys, Fords, a couple Mercedes and the XJ ran forever.

I think you're good.

P.S.

md21722 said:

It takes more than a second to get oil pressure after changing the oil. I wouldn't worry about it.

Click to expand...

Especially if you're using a Fram filter