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drove car with no oil! replace head?

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97dsmGST

Probationary Member
14
0
Apr 28, 2005
Jacksonville, Florida
i have a 1997 gs-t and i carelessly drove it with no oil :beatentodeath:. it started making a ticking, clicking sound and eventually grew louder and was not drivable. from reading around i understand that i probably have bent valves, damaged pistons, and off timing.

so the question is: will i be able to fix the car just by replacing the whole head? are there any other components damaged? and what will it take to fix this problem? :confused:
 
Is it seized? I would worry about the crank , rod, bearings first. Pull your oil pan down and take some rod caps off. No oil will not mess with valve timing or bend valves, check the low end first.
 
what do you mean by seized :confused:? i thought it would be around the head because i thought the clicking or ticking noise was from the piston hitting the valves or something. hmm, guess not. thanks for the heads up. will check on it when i get the chance
 
Timing shouldn't be affected, its all controlled by the timing belt, not the oil. Your bearings, on the other hand, have a high probability of being toast, which could be causing the noise you're hearing.
 
aggred. your on the fast track to throwing a rod
 
what should be recommended to fix this? should i might as well buy a new engine ? :(
 
How did you manage to run with no oil?
Did you pop he dipstick and it read zero? If so, most of the time that does not mean the car doesn't have no oil in it. Sometimes there is like 2 quarts in there even if the dipstick reads zero.
 
im burning oil somewhere because the exhaust emits bluish smoke, and im pretty sure its from the head gasket or valve cover gasket. i would have to put in oil from time to time to compensate for the loss, as indicated on the dipstick. well the light for the oil is always on and off so i never pay attention to it. i guess i just ran in too far without adding more oil and it just burned up all the oil :cry:
 
What do you mean by not drivable? If it physically stopped and you cant start it, you probably seized the engine. Try and turn the crank with a ratchet.
 
it didn't physically stop, but the clicking or ticking noise became so loud and unbearable that i coulnd't drive it as is. i was driving it home from work and the further i drove the worse it got.
 
If you're burning oil in the exhaust, then it probably isn't an issue with the valve cover gasket, as that would just be a leak that might burn off on the manifold or some other part of the engine bay. Headgasket, maybe, are your oil and coolant mixed? Another likely possibility is that your turbo shaft seals are blown and the oil is leaking there, are you still on the stocker?
 
This is going way overboard. Pull your oil pan. If you literally ran it out of all oil, you will know. Metal doesnt like to rub on metal without some type of lubricant.
 
When you pull your pan im shure you'll find spun rod bearings at least. By your noise description it will be cheaper to buy a used engine. When you drive with no oil pressure rod bearings are usually the first to go, from there the whole engine is filled with metal filings and metal chunks that destroy everything in its path including crank bearings cam caps all the way to your turbo. Sorry will not be a cheap fix. If you fix the engine or buy a new or used one make shure you flush the oil lines to turbo or you end up buying one seen it many times good luck.
 
You may, just maybe, in some sort f act of god get lucky. I did once when i was 16, the mini-van i was driving lost it's oil drain bolt and all it's oil.. It started knocking horribly (loud clacking..way more than ticking or ticking) and i stopped it there and walked home... Looked at it with a flashlight the next day and came back with an oil drain bolt and some oil and that same van lasted another 129k miles before we gave it to goodwill... you just may get lucky, it's worth buying a few quarts of oil and at least see if you can buy a few months of driving to work while you save for the new motor you're going to need anyway.. by lucky i DON'T mean your motor is fine. I mean you MIGHT be able to drive it for a few weeks to months as you save for a replacement engine. Do a 6 bolt swap if you can.. Best of luck
 
You may, just maybe, in some sort f act of god get lucky. I did once when i was 16, the mini-van i was driving lost it's oil drain bolt and all it's oil.. It started knocking horribly (loud clacking..way more than ticking or ticking) and i stopped it there and walked home... Looked at it with a flashlight the next day and came back with an oil drain bolt and some oil and that same van lasted another 129k miles before we gave it to goodwill... you just may get lucky, it's worth buying a few quarts of oil and at least see if you can buy a few months of driving to work while you save for the new motor you're going to need anyway.. by lucky i DON'T mean your motor is fine. I mean you MIGHT be able to drive it for a few weeks to months as you save for a replacement engine. Do a 6 bolt swap if you can.. Best of luck

Remember, this is a DSM. They can be reliable, but without oil.... yikes. :cool:
 
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