engine run with no lubricate oil.

I was slightly hit by a bicycle in a afternoon peak traffic hour. It was fine I didn't pay attention to my bike. In about 20 mins (I can't tell exact from now) I felt the engine making some different noise. She has oil cooler installed. I saw oil pipe was folded, and whole engine oil was leak out completely. :eekers::eekers: no............:eek2::eek2: I immediatly shut the engine off. Dismounted myself stood still for a min or two, couldn't accept the nightmare as to any engines.

I pushed the bike search for a repair shop, luckily I was only 1 km away from one. Got the pipe repair and added 900ml engine oil. It started.

When I found out the leak out, it had been run for 20min or 10km proximately (ave rev range 3-4k, low thottle). Possible no more oil circle to cam (opened valve obeserv cap, light cooked smell), gear, clutch, piston. and the oil was pumped out to my right foott. But after added the oil back, rode for a few kilometer, I didn't feel much difference. The horsepower was till there.

Engine is Suzuki GS 125. My quenstion are:
1. What could be most possible wear, damaged? piston ring? cameshaft?
2. What should I look further?

cheers.
TD

Holy shit, TD! Good thing you ears were attuned to the sound of your engine, and you sensed that something was amiss. Some newbie thoughts:

1) It's an air-cooled engine, right, so you probably did not subject the engine to substantially higher operating temperatures during the low-oil period. That's a good thing.
2) What's the total oil capacity of your engine, and how does that compare with the 900ml you added? If it only holds 900ml, I'd be more worried than if it holds 1500ml, as this would mean it was not running completely dry.
3) I'm thinking the most vulnerable parts would be the main piston bearing, which bears the greatest load, and the clutch, which needs that oil bath to function properly.
4) It's now been several days since your post. What's happened since then? Are you riding it? Any further trauma or abnormal behaviors? Have you had it checked?

Please do post updates, as this is something that could happen to any of us!

Also, glad you weren't hurt in your encounter with the bicyclist.

Good luck.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by euphonius

What's the total oil capacity of your engine, and how does that compare with the 900ml you added? If it only holds 900ml, I'd be more worried than if it holds 1500ml, as this would mean it was not running completely dry.

---

It's completely dry :eek2:
Good old GS125 w/filter 850ml | w/o filter ~950ml

I would be concerned with the top end the most. If there was anything left in the bottom, it was probably splashing the crank and clutch parts, but the top end could have gotten cooked. Sounds very similar to the oil pump failure I had on the QM250, and the smell of the top end was pretty obvious that the cams and valves were damaged.

Hope your machine is OK.

Cheers!
ChinaV

euphonius it had only got 100 ml oil left when I found out.
She has been riden for a couple of hours since then. Nothing strange happen, engine runs fine. but I suspect, as ChinaV suggest, camshaft, vavle could had wore. I'm going to replace the oil pipe as now I have disconneted the oil cool system, and replace engine oil as soon as I can.
I searched internet, not much infor can be found about motorcycle engine with no oil. I found a case a car engine run without oil hunder of miles before complete engine seized (the service shop guy forgot put oil back to engine).
I guess my engine has shorten the lifespan in a great deal, but could possible run for sometime with no failure. I'm not deserved something like this.
Anyway, now I'm living in meizhou, shenzhen is history.

Since I like motorcycle that much, my mate has mentioned a few times give me a 250cc+ "crotch rocket" as gift, hehe, if ever the suzuki engine suffer compelete failure, at least my mate's word lights me up.

TD,

Glad to hear the patient is doing OK. And, no, no one is deserving of this kind of mental trauma.

You are right: There's not much out there on the web about running a motorcycle engine without oil. I did find a few references....

...in yahoo answers
...in cycleforums.com
...in kawasakimotorcycle.org

How about pulling off the valve cover and doing a visual inspection?

What are you doing there in Meizhou? Surely beats Shenzhen for riding pleasure, no?

cheers

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by euphonius

What are you doing there in Meizhou? Surely beats Shenzhen for riding pleasure, no?

---

It's next to gamble to ride in Shenzhen guannei(关内/city center), I see some motorcycle taxis at guanwai frequently(关外/郊区).
I return to Meizhou for establish my own business. The motorcycle is not ban here.

Just a quick update.
I changed oil today, checked filters, one under, the other at side of engine. Both were not seem any metal scraps. Two very experienced technicians checked the bike. They all said the engine sounds fine, althought a little oil-fried smell was coming from top. Fried gasket I guess, but I live with that.
I think the little suzuki has survived in a 10km/20mins torture.:lol8:

That's good new TD, let's hope that it's the end of this incident!

Dear TD,

you are now the proud owner of a "heat-treated, dry-seasoned" engine, and you can hold your head high! Some day we'll all be following in your footsteps and breaking in our bikes using this method.

Now put it behind you and resume riding!

cheers