How long can an engine run without oil?
Don’t know yet, To give a little back ground of what happen I just had a race engine rebuilt and was trailering the car back from Chicago in very cold weather. When I was getting ready to unload the car from the trailer I had started it up and was watching the gages, with everything looking good and the engine idling well. I got out to give instructions to the guy who was going to make sure my tires wouldn’t run off the ramp. This took a few minutes then my wife showed up and I talk with her for a minute. With my wife there I went to check under the car and that’s when I saw oil just pour out under the engine. The time I was out of the car was only a few minutes and when I rushed to turn the engine off the oil pressure light was on but the car was still idling smoothly (no noises like taping or banging) Turned out the oil filter had work itself loose enough to break the seal. I’m not sure it was running dry yet but it sure may have? It took 6 quarts to bring it up to being 1 quart down
Hey, you may be ok with this. I think the damage comes from running down the hiway unaware of oil starvation for long periods. There is always some oil left there but you’re right. It took a lot of oil to bring it back to full. I helped my son install a used bolt on turbo kit. A week later, the oil feed tube broke off and emptied the oil completly while driving at night. The only reason he noticed was because of the smoke from oil on the exhaust manifold. Now that, my friend, was running empty on oil for an extended period. Still, no problems. It runs but the life of the engine is on shaky ground.
