screwedup

Guys I did a really stupid thing. Ran my 3.1 without oil for 15-20 seconds. I was changing the oil and sparked the starter with my filter wrench. Freaked out and started to make sure nothing fried. Came to my senses and shut it down quick. Its a 2003 3.1 with 28,000 miles. The filter was on and full, the drain plug back in and it had been warmed up 40 min. prior. I've farmed and worked on equipment my whole life and feel TERRIBLE, absolutely stupid. Its ran 250 miles since, runs fine. Has a slight ping when started cold(winter time), but goes mostly away after a minute, really have to listen hard. It may have always been there. My mechanic listened without knowing the story and he didn't hear it was already warmed up then. I might just be paranoid. Any opinions on whether I screwed it up bad?

in2pro

I would suspect there was enough oil still in the system to prevent any major issues. 15-20 seconds is a long time but pretty minimal in the big picture...
when you regularly start you vehicle you are starting it dry for several seconds anyway...
the lifters hold a portion of oil that is never drained out, the oil paths for the bearings also hold a small portion of oil...the only thing that would have been dry for any amount of time would be the cylinder walls....
I don't think 15-20 seconds would really do any real appreciable damage...

MDTAHOE

Believe it on not it accidentally happen often even in shops. I have seen cars go on test drives without oil and be perfectly fine.

in2pro

lol... yeah... that just kinda scares me.....

therewolf

Bear in mind there was a thin coating of oil still in the engine from when you warmed it up before the oil change.

I agree that you're engine is probably OK.

You may want to disconnect your negative cable before you work under the hood anymore, though. I do it so people can't honk the horn when I'm under the hood. I guess that's funny to THEM.

longtimechevyfan

Its probably okay its a good think you realized quickly what you had done.