Busted an oil pan: Is the motor still good?

[Nic01101011]

Hello,

Today I had a little accident and ended up busting the oil pan. I didn't realize the oil pan was broken immediately though, so I the car sat for about 30 seconds idling, and then I did a quick 3 point turn onto the side of the road. The oil didn't pour out, I could see from where I crashed to where I parked the car there was only a narrow trail of oil. It only puddled up after it had been sitting there for a few minutes(I didn't start the car again after this obviously). I turned the car off when I noticed the oil light and the engine making sputtering noises, is the engine toast?

[StereoInstaller1]

Very hard to say without a proper teardown.

I would replace pan, filter and oil (duh) and fire it up.

Either way, it is very likely you shortened the life dramatically, so plan on major repair/replacement soon.

[SpecM]

that sucks dude

when you have the oil pan off, check for bearing play and see if you did any big damage

[HST]

I'd go replace the pan etc. As mentioned above first. The sputtering could be caused by something else that happened in the wreck, like a vacuum leak or something.

[sticksdaman]

engine is fine i wouldnt be concerned... swap the pan fill with oil and be on your way.

ive done far worse with no issues

[ETeurowerks]

Allot of times when you vent the crankcase (as with a hole in oil pan or oil cap left off) it will stumble. I'd replace the pan, change the filter & see how it does!

[Adrian_Visser]

when i ripped my pan off i drove for proly half a block then realized the oil pressure light was on and that noise was my lifters running dry. my oil pump pickup screen had metal chunks stuck in it and the pickup screen is pretty coarse so im sure some particles went through. anyway the moral of the story is that happened a year and a half ago and my engine is still kickin (with a new oil pan of course) so i wouldnt worry too much

[Nic01101011]

I finally got a look underneath, and it's pretty nasty. It's not just a crack in the pan, the whole things ripped off and I can look up into the engine. :(

[416stroker]

My last m20 made it 5 miles with out an oil pan.. the crank wasnt even that bad

[Unearth078]

well

engine is fine i wouldnt be concerned... swap the pan fill with oil and be on your way.

ive done far worse with no issues

id agree with this. if you tore it off the and it was a time span like mentioned most likely wasnt enough time to catastrophic damage.

[Nic01101011]

I hope thats the case

I could probably manage to change the oil pan myself, but dont have anywhere near the resources to swap the engine over at the moment

[Unearth078]

eh

oil pans easy as long as nothing was stripped and/or snapped. all you need is a 10mm wrench and some advil for when your arm starts burning from the repetitions. engines easy to as long as you label everything, have a bently manual, and have someone to help you line it all up when its going back in. only thing is the time!

[accident]

Hah, only a little trail of oil? Lucky bastard. When I wrecked my car i broke the whole side of the pan off. It was hanging on by the oil level sender.

[Nic01101011]

Hah, only a little trail of oil? Lucky bastard. When I wrecked my car i broke the whole side of the pan off. It was hanging on by the oil level sender.

the whole part of the pan that sticks down below the steering rack as well as the oil pump/pickup was torn right off. I drove by where the accident occurred and there's a 3 foot black spot on the curb. LOL

the good news is that I finally got everything back together, and the engine runs fine.:)

[accident]

the whole part of the pan that sticks down below the steering rack as well as the oil pump/pickup was torn right off. I drove by where the accident occurred and there's a 3 foot black spot on the curb. LOL

the good news is that I finally got everything back together, and the engine runs fine.:)

haha same thing. i drove back by about two weeks ago (the accident was in may) and there's still an oil stain.