engine abuse

[andyli]

hi, I topped up the engine oil for my 91 vn v6 but forgot to put the engine cap back. drove for 10 km and finally found that. chnaged the engine oil soon after but found it make lots of noise and not like smooth before. did I damage some parts of it?

[jolly_97]

just a guess, maybe when you were driving some grit and general sh!t thats under your bonnet went into your engine? my mate had sand in the pistons of his AU ute when he bought it, cost a fair bit to get fixed even though he got it under warranty... (the sand scraped clean scores through the cylinder block and it lost heaps of compression. leaking stuff left right and centre) i think he got a new engine off memory... or he had the block reco'd...

just a thought...

cheers
Josh

[bradcad]

Not likely- at least I wouldnt have thought so. Good on you for changing the oil so quick. Its not like you lost oil pressure or anything. The only thing is the motor wouldnt have been real happy to run while losing crankase pressure- perhaps rest the computer?

[Lost_Pete]

Leaving the oil cap off for 10km won't hurt your car unless you are really unlucky. Generally it just makes a mess as oil is sprayed out into the engine bay.

The question is, how low was your oil before you topped it up and has it been using oil?

[vn calais manual]

it would have been fine, unless ur engine bay is covered in ****, or you were out bush bashing, 10km would do no harm unless like has been said you were real unlucky, it does loose crankcase pressure but i cant see it have done any damage. id agree with the above statement. why was your oil low in the first place... leaking? burning? did you put the right oil in ?

[RockyVX]

Had a friend with a ricer once did this, and fried an sr20det. only took about 7Km, but it was a tt, which would influence things. I would imagine that a vn might handle 10K, but like everybody has said, the quality and level of oil would be another question, as would the condition of the engine in the first place.

If your valve guides and associated gear was sketchy before, it could be shagged now.

I would check the valves and top end gear, and if nothing showd up, then start getting worried. In the mean time, a oil change with flush, a good filter, and some nice texas tea could do no harm.

[andyli]

Leaving the oil cap off for 10km won't hurt your car unless you are really unlucky. Generally it just makes a mess as oil is sprayed out into the engine bay.

The question is, how low was your oil before you topped it up and has it been using oil?

I have been using penrite gas10 and gas for 2 years and my engine got a bit leak under, not much, few drops overnight. I do not think it uses oil and maybe I put too much this time. this morning drained some out and it got a bit better. I like my vn better than the mazda tribute 2002 luxury with leather and sunroof. the vn is easy to maintain and cheap to run( mine is on dual fuel). I changed several hoses this week on my commodore and it is a please to fix your car by yourself, especially when the mechanics charge you a leg and arm. I do not know why mazda( well it is a ford really) design the tribute like this, It took me two hours to chnage the oil filter. well I was planing to sell the vn but now I will keep it for another 10 years, maybe get a k and N air filter later, have not figured out how not to let the wife know.

[calais_cruzin]

I dove my VN close to 100km b4 i relised i didnt have the cap on, when i pulled up it had a slight bit of smoke comin from under the bonnet, lifted it to find the cap sittin there on the strut tower.

Didnt do any damage, car is close to 450,000km now, it would have been about 300.000 when i did it.

It dont have a clean engine bay either.

[RockyVX]

You think mazda's are a pain? try a Renault. I used to have a 19RT. to check the oil dips you had to squash two radiator hoses outa the way, and slip your hand between them. The dip also had to turn 3/4 to come out & go in. not fun. even when cold, the hoses made this near impossible for me with larger hands.

I guess that leaving off the cap in this case is basically the same as installing a Poverty-spec oil breather. at least the sound proofing under the bonnet should be black (albeit rather sticky!)