Hey G, got a ? concerning my pully Fan

[joshxrmora]

So i waited two extra months to change my oil. Not on purpose of course but with the holidays and life getting in the way my 7k mark was overshot and i wanted to be sure that i got a good flush. So as i was buying Oil i went ahead and bought two extra qts. when i had flushed all the old oil out and replaced the oil filter i stuck the drain bolt back in and filled the truck with just two qts. of brand new oil. after this i started the engine and let the truck idle for about 2-3 minutes. i wanted to do this to see how dirty the brand new oil would come out. but i didnt want to waste a whole 4.5 qts either. anyway after this i flushed the 2 qts (which by the way looked far from new after only 3 minutes at idle) and finsihed up by putting the 4.5 qts back in and went to check the oil lvl. when i turned the truck on to let the oil cycle though the engine my oil filter wrench slid off the engine cover and into the fan gaurd. the result was a flying oil filter wrench, a chunck of plastic out of the fan gaurd, and 1 of the 7 blades on the stock pully fan had been broken almost entirely off.

Heres my ?.

Will one blade missing from the plastic fan cause noticable imbalance on my engine?

Im asking because now when my truck is at idle i can feel a slight pulsating vibration. or a shake that isn't constant but comes and goes almost like if the engine were missing a spark.

I also want to know if i may have (fu**ed up) by starting the engine with only 2 qts? could this cause a issue that would result in a slight shake in my engine.

thanks,

 

[Gadget]

You purposely ran your engine with only 2 quarts of oil in it?

That is not good. You may have sucked the sump dry and ran the engine out of oil.

You will need to replace the fan. Ask around, someone on here my have a spare from when they did an electric fan conversion.

G

 

[joshxrmora]

I had thought that an engine always needs a higher amount of oil because of forces acting on the fluids as you drive. for example if your taking a wide turn off an offramp at 50 mph then most of your oil is being foced to one side or the other which could result in the opposite side not gettin the oil it needs for lubrication. but when on a flat surface at a stand still isnt there always more than enough oil then required because of the above example. Now when i did this i only let it idle for about 3 mins on a level surface, thinking it wouldn't be very detrimental to the engine. was i wrong? what damage could be done if said (sump) was sucked dry? Sorry i know enough about engines that i usually do everything myself but not familiar with the sump.

 

[whippersnapper02]

There is no reason to flush the oil out. If you want you can pour clean oil with the drain open and the engine off to "flush" the pan but you won't get all of it out anyway.

If the pan (sump) ran low then the rest of the engine could have ran low. Bearing surfaces can get scarred and the top end runs dry. Basically everything would be metal on metal. I'd check your filter and the oil in the pan for shavings.

 

[Amo-cat3]

Was the oil warning dash light on while it was idling? If not you should be ok. Not sure at how many quarts you drop to before oil light comes on.

 

[justin13703]

Was the oil warning dash light on while it was idling? If not you should be ok. Not sure at how many quarts you drop to before oil light comes on.

I'm pretty sure that light comes on at like 5psi, at that point your motor is pretty much done for lol

 

[Grumpy]

Oil pressure light is useless. I've starved my engine of oil from high lateral load and the light never came on.

In theory, your 2quarts flush would work out fine. In practice, not so much. While idling, there's about 0.5 - 0.75 quart in circulation. Oil in the galleries lubricating bearings and what not. That leave slightly more than one quart in the pan ready to be picked up if the oil drain back down from the head quick enough. Oil pick up tubes fairly low in the pan. Low enough to be submerge in slightly more than one quart....for your sake, I hope so. Next time you drain the oil, catch a sample of it in a clear plastic cup (cut up Gatorade bottle) and look for metal chunks.

 

[sdxrunner619]

Check your oil with the truck running. Usually you will see the level between 1\2 to low mark which is near as makes no difference LESS then a quart.

I would still have NEVER done that, but assuming he didn't drive it or rev and was on a flat ground, he should be fine....I'd contact your local shop and get a quote on replacement of all bearings and cams, and compare the two and ask your self what you'd rather spend...

 

[joshxrmora]

hey guys just wanna let everyone know how things turned out.

I relplaced my clutch fan yesterday with a new one i bought from amazon for like 40 bucks. it was very easy. as soon as the new fan was on the slight shake in my engine disappeared instantly. (whew). Its amazing that a couple grams in plastic could throw my balance off to the point where its physically noticable. Anyway I went ahead and did another Oil change for shits and giggles afterward and there were no metal shavings or signs of damage.... so all is well. Thanks for everyones input.

 

[Torspd]

Glad to hear the good news! I am sure that is a relief.