Likely Blew the Motor

[FadedBlue]

On my way to school this morning I had just gotten on the highway and was accelerating and it was smooth until 55mph in 3rd about 4000ish rpms it would not accelerate any further, so I shifted into 4th immediately the car gave kind of a burp and I smelled something burning but I wasn't sure what it was I shifted it back into third and about a mile further it just shut itself off on me I got off to the side of the road threw on my hazards and smoke started coming out from under the hood, I lifted the hood and there was this terrible burning smell and I couldn't quite figure out exactly where the smoke was coming from. I got it home checked the oil and its bone dry. I haven't tried starting it or putting oil in yet. Also I had just changed the oil with fresh full synthetic about 200 miles ago. Did I blow the motor? Its a 1.8

 

[uummm]

Sounds like it locked up, though I'm not sure why it lost all of the oil if you only changed it a couple hundred miles ago. Even with a locked motor, it can still be rebuilt, but it is probably going to need a considerable ammount of machine work.

 

[11Banger]

Drop the pan & pull the head. You should be able to figure out whats going on from there

 

[FadedBlue]

Ok I'll start working at it later today, also it has 231,000 miles. So depending on how things look I may just sell it or junk it and look for another one in better shape with less miles.

 

[kayosfrawg]

I'd think it might have blown a seal or something and spurted all the oil out. That would account for all the smoke and lack of oil. And also potentially why the motor froze.

 

[nelliott500]

I'm wondering if maybe the oil filter (assuming you changed it) wasn't put on properly the the oil leaked out over 200 miles. Just a guess.

 

[Dsm42oA]

When my motor ran bone dry on oil and "blew" it was my oil filter leaking, so that could be why like said, but only so much machine work can be done, so hope you didnt warp your bearings to the crank like I did..

 

[FadedBlue]

I'm wondering if maybe the oil filter (assuming you changed it) wasn't put on properly the the oil leaked out over 200 miles. Just a guess.

I did change it properly, did the usual oil around the rim of it screwed it in then used my oil filter wrench to get it nice and snug. I will check it in the morning though I guess its possible.

 

[pauleyman]

Is the drain plug still there? Find out where the oil went and you'll have the root cause. Probably won't help though.

 

[gabytech]

you definitely did leave something loose or something broke.. Also did you change from regular oil to full synthetic right away ??

 

[FadedBlue]

Is the drain plug still there? Find out where the oil went and you'll have the root cause. Probably won't help though.

Yep the drain plug is still there that was the first thing I checked when I got it home

you definitely did leave something loose or something broke.. Also did you change from regular oil to full synthetic right away ??

I'm doubting it went from regular to full synthetic right away, because it was already up over 230k when I bought it so full synthetic had probably been switched to a long while back I'll check the maintenance records I got with it see if I can find anything out.

 

[Archer Fabrications]

Have you checked around your oil filter housing?

 

[FadedBlue]

Have you checked around your oil filter housing?

Not yet, planning on doing it in the morning. Right now I can't stand to look at it its been a bunch of dumb problems since I bought it last month. Just getting frustrated with it, ran fine in the test drive and on the way home and then it just hated me from then on.

 

[freshbboy]

had to be losing oil and was losing it fast. i did an oil change on my gf volvo and they have this dumb seal thing and when i put it back together i put the seal in the wrong spot and it leaked out oil like crazy thank god her oil light works because i was like why is the oil light on, went and checked the oil and there was hardly any left on the dip stick. i put more oil in and again the oil light came back on in a few days. i checked the oil again it was almost empty hear to find out the seal was in the wrong spot so it never got snug around the oil filter and it just leaked while the car was on. i spent so much in oil just to find out i put the seal on the wrong spot but least i figured it out before she blew the engine.

 

[WES_393]

Have you checked around your oil filter housing?

This. If the oil cooler isn't tight the filter will back itself off and dump all your oil. So I'd check that and the drain plug first. Are you sure there's zero oil in the engine, or is there just no oil on the stick?

Hopefully it's an easy fix, like a seized pulley or something like that. If the engine seized up from lack of oil, there's a very good chance you'll need a complete rebuild. The cylinders and cam journals would be scored badly and the bearings would have taken a serious beating.

 

[miliman13]

before you start taking things apart try this.

get a 1/2" drive ratchet/ torque bar and put it to your Crank pully.
try to spin it.
if it doesn't spin. Then you may have siezed a rod to your Crank. This happened to me.
Sucks.

Regardless plan to pull out and tear down/ Best of luck to you.

 

[FadedBlue]

This. If the oil cooler isn't tight the filter will back itself off and dump all your oil. So I'd check that and the drain plug first. Are you sure there's zero oil in the engine, or is there just no oil on the stick?

Hopefully it's an easy fix, like a seized pulley or something like that. If the engine seized up from lack of oil, there's a very good chance you'll need a complete rebuild. The cylinders and cam journals would be scored badly and the bearings would have taken a serious beating.

0 oil on the stick and I checked multiple times. If it did lock up then it locked up fast because as I said I was driving along then it would not accelerate at all I shifted it accelerated only slightly and I believe it was more to do with the angle of the road than anything, shifted back into third went a little further and it just died completely at around 45mph. I'll be looking at it in the morning

 

[uummm]

0 oil on the stick and I checked multiple times. If it did lock up then it locked up fast because as I said I was driving along then it would not accelerate at all I shifted it accelerated only slightly and I believe it was more to do with the angle of the road than anything, shifted back into third went a little further and it just died completely at around 45mph. I'll be looking at it in the morning

When it starves the pump completely it doesn't take long to mess things up, but I would think it would have make a knocking noise first. When I helped my brother rebuild a motor for his 90 cutlass the motor had been sitting for like 5 years with no oil. We made the newb mistake of not pre-oiling the bearings (bottom end was okay at teardown, the head was trash) and it likely spun the bearings on startup (there was oil in the crankcase by then). About 10 miles later it started knocking and we were pulling the motor back out for a new crank and rods.

 

[1glaserfwd]

That sucks big time bro, with it being a 1.8 probably not worth fixing though!!

 

[nelliott500]

I did change it properly, did the usual oil around the rim of it screwed it in then used my oil filter wrench to get it nice and snug. I will check it in the morning though I guess its possible.

The reason I mentioned the oil filter is that there may have been something small between the filter and mating surface. On my old Lumina Z34, I replaced the filter and a small piece of electrical tape got stuck between the filter and mating surface. Leaked oil out within a few hundred miles.

 

[96awd16g]

I have never seen a reason to tighten the filter down with a filter wrench. I have had to pound screw drivers through enough oil filters (to get them off) i put on by hand, that I wouldn't even consider using a wrench to tighten it. That being said, if your concerned about it vibrating loose, a k&n (because of its nut on the end that has a hole) and some safety wire will prevent that.

 

[gusu]

I've said this a couple times recently but...

NEVER RUN SYNTHETIC OIL IF YOU HAVE EVEN A TINY OIL LEAK!

Synthetic oil has a higher flow rate than conventional oil even of the same viscosity. This mean oil will slip through a leak that conventional oil may not, if you are leaking with conventional oil at all you may even end up with a fountain on your hands... not really but it will leak a hell of a lot faster.

 

[pauleyman]

Synthetic oil has a higher flow rate than conventional oil even of the same viscosity. This mean oil will slip through a leak that conventional oil may not, if you are leaking with conventional oil at all you may even end up with a fountain on your hands... not really but it will leak a hell of a lot faster.

I'd like some more objective data on this please. Start a new thread

 

[2gnt99]

Any way you could have left the ring off the old oil filter in the oil filter housing.
Last time I changed my oil I almost made that mistake.

 

[FadedBlue]

Ok well I went out and checked it today with just some looking around I didn't see anywhere it would have leaked out, Oil filter was fine and the oil plug was good too. I tried to see if it would turn over and wasn't going at all. So I'm not sure what I'm gonna do at this point. A 1.8 is simply not worth rebuilding. Either gonna buy another 1.8 and drop it in, sell it/part out, junk it, or just find a place to store it til I can spare the money to just completely build it since I like the fact that its rust free.