lost engine oil!

[Steph]

I was sailing today then winds changed and motored about 45 minutes. The engine (Westerbeke 13 dieisel) ran great, normal temp and oil pressure. BUT, when I got back to the dock and was closing the thru hulls, I was shocked to see the entire area below engine and bilge were full of black oil. Dip stick was bone dry!!! I visually checked the engine and the only oil I could see on the outside of the engine was in the area from the oil filter and below. The Oil Filter was on tight. Nothing on the head gaskets or the outside of the oil pan. Rest of engine was clean! So I think I blew a seal around the filter??? Any ideas? No smoke noted and the engine had sounded normal. Again, temperature, RPMs and sound were normal. Anyone have thoughts? Could the engine have been badly damaged by brief but definate lack of oil? The access is nil/ lousy on the starboard/oil filter side. Any idea of repair cost? Thanks

 

[Stu Jackson]

Good news

If the engine was still running and you didn't hear any alarms, you might be very, very lucky and just caught it in time.

Obvious answer from here: we can't blinkin' see your engine, nor can we tell what it could be and what repairs may be necessary until YOU check out the around the oil filter and refill the oil and find out if it leaks with a new oil filter.

A pinhole leak in the oil filter body could have caused this, from rubbing against a hose. I have to check mine all the time.

Good luck, but that's about as detective-ey as we can get from here. Lotsa folks may tell you what will happen if the engine ran with no oil forever, but that wouldn't be long and may not apply to YOU, yet.

Take it a step at a time.

Good luck.

 

[Maine Sail]

With

With limited to no access on that side of the engine it is entirely possible you have the old oil filter o-ring and the new filters o-ring in there as well.

It is not uncommon for an oil filter o-ring to stick to the engine and not be noticed during a filter change. It's happened to me. Fortunately I noticed the old filter had no o-ring on it before firing up the engine. Double o-rings can cause the oil to blow out between the two o-rings or as it heats up one deforms and slips causing a big oil leak that may not happen imediately.

I'd change the oil & filter first but also look for other sources of leaks. You're engine just might be fine. Just because you can't see it on the dip stick does not mean there was no oil in the pan. If you want to know how bone dry it actually was, refill and measure how many qts. it takes to get to the full mark on the dip stick. and subtract from the engine manuals stated capacity.

 

[higgs]

An engine overly starved of oil will overheat.

 

[Steph]

thanks

thanks for your suggestions. After cleaning it all up (bilge, floor and engine) I'll replace the filter, check the washer / O-ring, and see if I can find the leak. Guess that's what a mechanic at $95/hour would do, right? What a mess! Hope the engine is ok...gut feeling is it's ok since there was no overheating or smoking. thanks again.

 

[Ross]

Re: thanks

Steph , It takes a long time for the bearings and cylinder walls to get dry enough to suffer damage and there may still be oil at the oil pump. I would search for the cause of the leak and refill the crankcase and run the engine while I was watching it for leaks.

 

[Sailm8]

Had this happen on my Yanmar. Turned out I had a pin hole leak in an oil line. Replaced with no damage. hope his is the case with your engine.

 

[kloudie1]

Steph, I hope your leak is something simple like the oil filter gasket, or some other problem that can be addressed without major surgery !

Interesting problem.. I recently was on a delivery of a boat that had that same engine .. It leaked at a constant rate of a quart in 6 hours of run time. After we figured the leak rate we started adding without even shutting it down. Yes, we caught the oil in a pan and diapers and absorbent so it would not get pumped overboard. I suspect that the oil pump cover was leaking on that engine .. the oil was leaking out of the flywheel case. The oil pump and cover are inside the casing where ya can’t see it without pulling the transmission and bell housing.. It also could have been the rear main oil seal, which coincidentally requires pulling the transmission and bell housing.. I did notice in the engine literature, in big letters, DO NOT use an oil with a viscosity greater than SAE 30.. The engine had 15W40 diesel oil in it… I have a hard time thinking that is the problem but I do know that it is in the literature. I also believe that if the drainback hole on the bearing side of the rear main seal is too small, it could do that. The thing that occurs to me is that oil is very cheap compared to the cost of fixing a problem like that.. as long as the leak doesn’t get worse.. Yes, the owner is having it fixed this winter.. but over this summer and fall, it has been sufficient to keep a close check on the level and make sure that no oil gets out of the catch pan that we put in there. He has not tried putting SAE 30 in there yet.

 

[Steph]

found the problem

It turns out, I had a cracked oil pressure sender which was replaced for $35 plus a couple hours labor. Whew! Engine's fine. Dodged a bullet this time!

 

[kloudie1]

Ahhhhhh.. Good news !