So it's not necessarily that you're *unable* to think -- it's that you're
*unwilling* to do so.

Fascinating. Sad, but fascinating.

Wow. Your stupidity knows no bounds, as it seems. Or at least no bounds
you've displayed so far.

I was kidding about the Slick 50 which I understand to be snake oil.
However considering this 20 minute to blew example I have doubts that
running an engine for a few seconds without oil will harm it if it was
fully warmed up and fully lubricated (as it was) then shut down right
before draining the pan. OTOH I wouldn't try this on a cold engine.

WVK

And you *really* can't figure out why this was a stupid thing to do?
Really?

I suggest you follow these tried and true steps:

1. place drain pan under oil drain plug
2. remove drain plug and allow oil to drain (good time to eat something or
have a beer)
3. after slowed to an occasional drip, replace drain plug and tighten
4. move oil catch pan under filter
5. remove oil filter and allow to drain completely
6. clean up drips and make sure the filter gasket did not stick to the
engine
7. rub a small amount of fresh oil on the new filter's gasket
7a. for vehicles with vertical mount filters (3.0L, 2.7L), fill filter with
fresh oil
8. re-install filter (get tight, but do not overtighten - 1 turn max after
hand tight)
9. add oil (I put in 5 qts for my '99 3.8L)
10. start engine, run for 2 minutes, turn off
11. check under vehicle for leaks
12. check oil level using dipstick (usually right at MAX)

Good luck and hope your engine was not damaged too badly by the oil
starvation.

Bob

I'll try my hand at tackling that one.

Another poster here (nospam.clare.nce@snyder.on.ca
<nospam.clare.nce@snyder.on.ca>)   related a story about how at the
MoparFest
at NewHamburg they had a Sunfire with a 2.0 liter running with a brick on
the
accellerator for 20 minutes before it blew up.

Let's assume that this Sunfire's top speed on the highway was about 80Mph,
that's pretty consistent with the smaller engine vehicles I've driven.  At
that speed
it would be equivalent to a brick on the accelerator.

So that works out to about 26 miles running without oil before
blowing up. (60/20 = 3, 80/3 = 26)

Assuming that a normal engine lifespan is 150,000 miles with an average RPM
of 1200
and average speed of 50Mph.  Without oil, it's lifespan is 26 miles, or
.017% of it's potential lifespan.  (26/150000 * 10)  Another way of saying
this is the wear factor (constant) in terms of miles without oil is 5769
times greater than with oil. (150000/26)

So now we can estimate the amount of damage you did.  Let's assume you ran
your
car at idle for 30 seconds without oil.  I'll estimate that at idle your
running about half
the RPM you would be going at speed with the foot off the throttle, so the
damage is
more equivalent to 15 seconds at an average RPM used for the normal engine
lifespan
estimation .  Thus, you put approximately the same amount of
wear that driving it for 24 hours would have done  (((5769*15)/60)/60)=24
and at
the 50Mph average we are looking at about  1,200 miles worth of wear put on
the
engine.

Of course, this is assuming your letting it idle.  If you were gassing it
for that time,
so your average RPM was more like 1200RPM, you would have doubled the amout
of life you took off the engine.

And this comparison is also based on a 2.0L.  If your vehicle engine is
larger, you
would want to increase the amount of wear because the increased number of
unlubricated
surfaces greatly increases the chances of seizing, so presumably a bigger
engine would
fail faster, and not make it to 20 minutes without oil.

Also, you want to consider that the last 5-8 minutes of the life of the
Sunbird's engine
that by then the rings were so worn that the engine would not have passed
emissions
inspection without a rebuild, thus it was effectively used up.  So assume
more like a
10 mintes lifespan without oil and adjust the calculations accordingly.

So yeah, maybe 30K miles of wear is excessive.  But for a big V8 and someone
gassing
it without oil, I don't think that 10K miles of wear in 30 seconds is that
unreasonable.

And if your doing this every oil change, it's going to add up quick.

Ted

In most vehicles it likely would do not harm. But a better procedure is
this. After the last drip, put in about a cup of fresh oil to drain out some
of the residual old oil. But I only do this on my motors that lack an oil
filter, and perhaps even an air filter, i.e.. (Honda 50cc motorcycle, Honda
snow blower, a vintage roto-tiller, & a Honda lawn mower, etc). Remember, an
oil is designed to break up the sludge and dirty oil and hold the solids in
suspension until you change the oil. A bad oil stays "clean".

Richard.