Quote from BlueFlame :

0 oil pressure yes. It's not a race car, it won't matter, as long as there is residue of oil inside the cylinders. He didn't fill it up once with oil. It was a "lets see how long it will go for" deal.

You're trolling, right? It doesn't matter if it's an F1 car or a lawnmower, a car with no oil will not survive 3 months. It will barely last 3 minutes.

Old Honda's last forever, my sister bought one to drive around America, she basically went from the east coast to west coast and back again, all in a car that had already done 100,000+ miles and had zero problems.

Quote from ATC Quicksilver :

..all in a car that had already done 100,000+ miles and had zero problems.

Well no wonder, that Honda is barely broken in with those miles.

I've had an old P10 Primera with over 320 000km on it, no problems with it for the couple years I had it as a daily driver.

Had a 4wd Galant GTI too with over 400 000(!!) kilometers on it. It worked just fine for a winter, then I sold it to a new owner halfway across the country and it's still working reliably for him.

Can't really say the same about the cheap BMW's with high mileages that I've owned. The german engineers seem to have a strange way of suspending every single mechanical part with twenty rubber bushings. After many years and kilometers pass by, all those bushings are kaput and the whole car feels like crap.

Quote from DeKo :

You're trolling, right? It doesn't matter if it's an F1 car or a lawnmower, a car with no oil will not survive 3 months. It will barely last 3 minutes.

You can run alot of cars on no oil, it's not going to instantly destroy your engine, did nobody tell you that oil tends to never dry up?

Quote from BlueFlame :

You can run alot of cars on no oil, it's not going to instantly destroy your engine, did nobody tell you that oil tends to never dry up?

I can't believe you're being serious, that's astounding. It is catastrophic to an engine to run with no oil.

It doesn't matter if oil doesn't dry, you said it was flowing out of a massive hole in the sump, so there would be none left. You really are something else.

The fact is that depending on engine and the oil it had inside you could run the engine without oil even for few hours before it destroys itself. Oil tends to leave a greasy thin coating on everywhere it touches and it takes some time before this "oil skin" (how should I call it in English really?) wears out. After this little oil is gone the parts start to wear and heat and after some driving, something(s) breaks. Most probably you won't be able to break the engine in few minutes.

But yes the 3-months thingy sounds really exaggerated. Maybe he only drove it twice during that time, dunno.

And about the original topic. I think that if you want to buy old car for cheap, it's not the most important thing to get the car what you think is the most reliable one, if it's old it's most important to properly check the car before buying. Old cars can brake pretty much from everywhere, but if the car has a history of good maintaining etc. it can be really reliable.

Quote from BlueFlame :

You can run alot of cars on no oil, it's not going to instantly destroy your engine, did nobody tell you that oil tends to never dry up?

Utter nonsense, all modern engines have pressurised oil lubricated main and big end bearings, without constant lubrication you've got steel on steel. Severe wear to an engine is near enough instantaneous as soon as the pressurised feed is lost, oil surge during cornering is an engine killer. If you don't stop immediately the engine will be lost, by the time the warning light (usually quite a bit lower than correct oil pressure at high speed) comes on it will often be too late.

If, however, one chooses to ignore the minor inconvenience of no oil in the sump (a common occurrence in rallying) an engine will usually last for some time before it seizes up, up to 40 minutes is achievable. The trick is not to let the revs drop, if they do the engine will seize and everything will weld itself together, it'll never restart.

Quote from DeKo :

I can't believe you're being serious, that's astounding. It is catastrophic to an engine to run with no oil.

It doesn't matter if oil doesn't dry, you said it was flowing out of a massive hole in the sump, so there would be none left. You really are something else.

I said the sump ripped itself off, I didn't say it was pissing out. Either way, there was a dank ammout.

It's a wonder engine I guess, there was a video on youtube by some Russian guy who did the same thing, and he kept posting videos of it, there is a defect in the casting around the sump plug and the sump plug gets pulled out, and some.

I'm trying to find the video, it astounded me, but I'm telling you, it's true. I didn't believe it myself until I saw it, but this Citroen took a damn long time to die.

I'm fully aware of engine friction when there's no oil present because I read up alot after this happened, it could be the guy was putting some kind of lubricant in with the fuel, that I don't know, I guess two stroke oil may work , or something similar that doesn't take too much trouble to burn.

Quote from BlueFlame :

I said the sump ripped itself off, I didn't say it was pissing out. Either way, there was a dank ammout.

It's a wonder engine I guess, there was a video on youtube by some Russian guy who did the same thing, and he kept posting videos of it, there is a defect in the casting around the sump plug and the sump plug gets pulled out, and some.

I'm trying to find the video, it astounded me, but I'm telling you, it's true. I didn't believe it myself until I saw it, but this Citroen took a damn long time to die.

I'm fully aware of engine friction when there's no oil present because I read up alot after this happened, it could be the guy was putting some kind of lubricant in with the fuel, that I don't know, I guess two stroke oil may work , or something similar that doesn't take too much trouble to burn.

I know you didn't say it was pissing out, I did. With no sump, where else would the oil go?

And no, putting 2 stroke oil into the fuel tank of a 4 stroke engine would do nothing, probably worse than nothing.

Quote from BlueFlame :

I'm fully aware of engine friction when there's no oil present because I read up alot after this happened, it could be the guy was putting some kind of lubricant in with the fuel, that I don't know, I guess two stroke oil may work , or something similar that doesn't take too much trouble to burn.

If the fuel can lubricate the bottom end of a four stroke somethings gone very wrong...

I'm surprised your Friend had the utter stupidity to drive a car around with a ripped open sump dropping oil all over the road. Does he realize that even one drop of oil spreads surprisingly far when it rains, and that one drop of oil is all it takes for a cyclist/motorcyclist to come off?

BTW, I also think your story is bollocks. It is true that oil leaves behind a layer of lubrication, but it would soon wear off from the heat of an Engine (Hence the need for a constant oil supply, which is something a ripped open sump would not be able to do.). I would barely believe it ran for 3 hours, let alone 3 months.

One drop cannot make a motorcylist fall off. I speak from experience.


*goes back into lurking moar*

OK I admit, I was being a little optimistic with how far one drop can spread, but all it takes is a little dribble for it to spread far. If you don't believe me Jamie, get some oil and splash a few drops onto your pavement, then see what it looks like after it has rained. Let's face it, a car with a ripped open sump would still be leaking out loads of oil even after dumping most of it.

BTW, I'm pretty sure a drop of diesel would do it. That stuff is nasty in the rain!

Well the engine was still running with a sizeable section of the sump disgarded, I'm not on here begging for people to believe me with a weird story, I was telling you what I saw with my own eyes, I don't like Citroens, so why would I go to this extent to tell you what I saw??