You sir, should not be allowed to work on cars. Did you seriously put something combustible in the oil pan??

Most forms of brake clean are so un-flammable that they can be used to put out fires. Seriously.

I flushed mine out with mineral spirits which is combustible, no issues as of yet. I also run rich which lets gasoline (you know, its a little combustible) get into the oil pan :dunno:


Falcon-> Abnormal wear will show up as deep scoring or gouging, or heavy scuffing.

Ive set my hands on fire with brake cleaner on numerous occasions (yes, on purpose)
It doenst burn very hot...

Nope.

Just following directions from this website "sir". Many people have flushed it with brake clean. And even if there is a trace left, I did the brake clean first and then flushed it with oil after.

Ok. I'll take a look tomorrow. I'm honesty mostly concerned with the bottom end. I have a new head going on soon, with a full port job. So worst case scenario, if the caps have wear I can always swap the head early.

Any scoring that you can catch your fingernail on is no good. Make sure you use a torque wrench in INCH pounds to tighten the caps back down.

Edit: and i'm seriously considering selling the top. I'm poor.

So you flushed it with oil after but you still had a quart of oil in the engine when you started? Post 1 says you had a quart of oil in there.

I flushed the pan with oil/brake clean with the drain open, so it went right into the drain pan. Then left it for a day or so. That's why I forgot. Drained it on Sun morning, and finished everything yesterday night. I didn't remove the filter, and from experience there is usually 3/4-1 qt of oil reside in the filter/filter area.

ok.

I just talked to one of the mechanics here at work (motorcycle dealership) and he said if I drove 100kms already not to worry. He also said at the worst there may be some cam cap wear but the bottom end should be fine. He is going to help me check the head tomorrow.

Drive it like it never happened. If there is damage, that ship has already sailed. For the record I nearly did the same thing when I installed my first turbo on this car. Had the key in the ignition and everything, lucky for me a friend stopped me! Being tired and enthusiastic can be a dangerous combo.

^^ That was exactly it. I had so many hurdles along the way that I was excited when it was done. Totally off my mind that it had no oil.

Oh well... exactly... IF there is damage, it's already happened. Nothing I can do now but drive it until/if it lets go.

Agreed. My guess is that you will have no problems.

FWIW, I cleaned an oil pan with gasoline awhile back, though it was totally off the engine and I then washed it down and dried it and let it sit for a couple days.

The real lesson to learn is not to let it happen again. When you drain the oil, put the oil fill cap on the hood latch so that the hood won't close. Something like that.

I have a similar ritual for removing tires. Before I take tires off, I put the torque wrench on the drivers seat. Just makes it more difficult to forget the important stuff.
--Alex

As if it hasn't been beaten to death already, it should be fine. 20-30 seconds at idle isn't much, and there was still oil left on the parts, so that should have been more than enough.

I've done similar, but mine was with the trans. I did a full engine break in (3rd and 4th gear 2k to redline pulls) and probably 20 additional miles with a dry trans (well, maybe quart low). Probably where my trans noises came from. :facepalm:

Yeah when I first got my miata the clutch went out and when I went to pull the trans I drained the fluid and it was almost completely water. Took the tranny apart everything was fine replaced with fluid and has been working fine for a long time and there was no telling how long I drove the car with hardly no trans fluid. I couldnt believe there wasnt any damage.

Well the car made it through dyno tuning and this whole last weekend I beat the absolute shit out of the car at the Knox Mountain Hill Climb (http://www.knoxmtnhillclimb.ca).

I think it will be just fine :D


example of what I did on the weekend

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Khn4XCXcYk0

in had my drain plug fall out on the highway.....cooked my turbo, not m engine. drove for 2-3k with oil pouring out. epic fail.

That looks like fun. Do you have to have a competition license? I see references to it on the forms but nothing stating whether it is required.

Yes.

I took a school and now hold a novice race license as well as a Sr. Solosprint (thats what the hill climb is) license.

What did it put down and who did your tuning?