I took the truck offroad today and got it stuck nose down in a ravine. The front was probably six feet lower than the rear, maybe a little more, and it was dumping oil out the draft tube. I ran it like this for maybe 45 seconds or so while attempting to back out until I broke the front driveshaft u-joint. The truck then sat for a bit over an hour until I got someone with a winch and a truck big enough to get me out. After I was back on flat ground and had the driveshaft removed for the drive home it started right up but I had lost seven quarts of oil. I drove maybe two miles slowly and at low rpm to get to a gas station and got more oil.

Oil pressure is currently fine and all gauges read normal, there aren't any funny noises or anything else out of the ordinary so I figure I'm fine, but I wanted to ask here and let the voices of experience chime in.

 

i rebuilt a cummins once. The guy had the nose down low trying to pull someone out, not sure how long he had it running like that. A month latter it started to knock, took the oil pan off, found a main bearing baddly pitted. So he dicided to rebuild. Hope you don't see an issuse down the road.

 

So you had four quarts left. I doubt the drive back harmed it. Just depends on how hard you rassed it trying to get out. IMHO

 

Mine got a re-man short block because the previous owner (stepson) did that exact thing. Only it sat for 12 or more hours like that. He drove it for three days with it smoking out the countryside with white smoke and making all kinds of funny noises. He called me saying he thought he had a bad u-joint and wanted me to fix it. He about covered the neighborhood with smoke when he came in and the rig sounded like it had a fouled injector. He puts the window down and says "I think I gotta bad u-joint." Without much further ado (with no knowledge of what happened), I said " buddy you got way worse problems than a bad u-joint." His bad u-joint was actually the turbo scraping inside the housing. That's the first thing that gets oil. I would check that for play and drain the oil to see what comes out. I got metal chunks out of the oil that approached 1/16" in diameter. The engine was toast. The guy is basically a mechanical moron.

 

my guess is your engine is fine but i would go get an oil analysis done just to be on the safe side. they will be able to tell you if something doesn't seem right and that way you can get stuff fixed before you have to shell out big $$

 

Earlier this year a loose oil filter caused me to unknowingly lose 6 qts of oil. I ran it for several miles at close to 90 mph. As I got off the highway I heard the knock.
I tore down the engine and the damage was the number 6 cylinder was scuffed by the piston. 210,000 miles on this thing doin 90 miles an hour on 6 qts of oil and the ONLY damage was that cylinder. I even re used the connecting rod bearings.
These things are tough.

 

Only one way to find out now... when it stops running.


Really though, when you noticed you had no oil left on the dipstick and you had another truck there that had pulled you out...you didn't think it would be prudent to get a ride to the gas station and come back with the oil? It's not like it's expensive to replace these engines...

 

It was triple A that pulled me out and he was pretty intent on getting the hell out after he got me unstuck. If it had just been some guy out wheeling then I would have asked him to give me a ride. I'll get the oil analysis done and see what it comes up with though, that's a really good idea. The oil pressure was still okay, just a little below 60 on the drive to the gas station.

 

i wouldn'treally worry. you lost oil because of the angle of the engine. giver her an oil change and hope for the best. you never know.


and like everyone said do an oil analysis.

 

Be very worried and hope for the best!!

The oil pickup is at the far backside of the oilpan. If the nose end is down too far, even if the engine is full of oil, the oil pickup is sucking up air.

Did you watch the oil pressure gauge at all when nose down?

I was once offroading and descended a hill (i think its in my gallery), with full oil level at the start and only a few seconds into the downhill descent the gauge was at ZERO. I shut that thing off slicker than snot and rode the brakes down hill hard.

I only imagine yours was nose down even more, because mine wasnt even far enough to lose oil and the gauge still hit Zero!

 

Oh yeah, the gauge hit zero before I hit the bottom of the slope and I did the same thing. I would just restart it, briefly try something and shut it off again. I think I restarted it four times all told. That's the whole reason I'm posting here.

 

I wouldn't worry about it. These motors can take a massive beating and still be just fine. Change the oil and filter and driver her. If it dies it dies but chances are it won't.