I guess the first thing is,
most importantly, this is a bit like "
I can kick my dog, but you better not think about it."
So if the dealership did something outside of the norm, then they should be responsible for it. Make them give you an extended warranty on the engine.
That being said, the details of my craziness:
When I change my oil, I have a fully hot engine on both water/oil, at least 200F each, then I shut down, take an oil sample via the dipstick, and then pull the drain plug. This is within about 5-10min of shutdown. The oil coming out is still very hot. The engine is fully warm and lubricated. When the vast majority of oil has drained, I then jump in and start the engine for about 10sec. This purges the pump etc, resulting in another ~1/2qt coming out. As a side note, I usually let the pan drain/drip for several hours while I'm doing other things like rotating tires and/or cleaning stuff.
Now the filter is in place while I do this 10sec run, but the comparison between my method and what you suspect happened to your car is that the engine was "run" without oil/pressure.
Why I think maybe this isn't catastrophic, and perhaps not even "bad"... (Re-read my first statement in this post)
- Do you ever start an engine on a really cold day? Like truly cold, less than 0F, or colder?
- Do you ever start an engine that has been sitting for an extended period of time? (weeks or months)
- Do you believe that engines ALWAYS have 100% oil pressure?
- Drag strip launches? 1-2g's accel (and this is fully loaded to boot)
- Road courses? ~.8-1g sustained cornering
- Do you believe that bearing oil film layers go dry at the first instance of low oil pressure?
- Do believe that the bearing load at idle is significant?
As a side note, Cadillac for a while was advertising that their engines could be actually driven without oil pressure in an emergency, I don't recall the details of this claim, but I also don't believe there was anything special about those engines. This isn't a item I rely on for this, but it is an interesting thing to consider. .02
Why I do it? Because I want that 1/2 quart of dirty oil, which is a notable percentage of the 7qt fill, out of there.
Do I recommend this to anyone else?
NO! Not at all!
But I present it as an interesting case study. I've done this for 30 years on my engines, over the life of 6 vehicles, with the last 3 having the oil analysis behind them to show that copper, the primary component in bearings, being low. Included in there is my HC, which has been run hard at times.
Oil analysis from my Power Wagon 6.4L that has endured this craziness:
Note the copper that is 1/2 that of the universal averages (other people's 6.4s), and further that it has been on a steady decline since ownership (compare current with location average)
Now, the obvious problem is, YOU don't KNOW what THEY did. Again, read my first statement.
2
1
