honda engines ...heres what happened

[garlicbreadman]

my friend did an oil change on his k24 engine. there was some communication problems between him and his friend about if they tightened the drain plug. i think they were working on the car together. anyways, long story short..the drain plug was only hand tightened.

my friend took a 150 mile round trip and just 5 miles before reaching home..all the lights on the cluster lit up and the car stalled. he saw the oil light go on first followed by everything else. he looked at the drain plug area and saw that it was MISSING! a small stream of oil was still pouring when the car shut off by itself to prevent further damage. We dont know where the plug came off at..it was probably losing oil the entire trip.

engine damage...no knocking noise surprisingly but there is an audible valve tap. i looked at his camshaft and there is definitely visible wear on it because i have the same engine and mine looks much cleaner than his. the engine had less than 50k on it. i think the valves needs to be adjusted and the car is ready to go thousands of more miles. still drives fine but he says there is a noticeable loss in power above 4k rpm. i was surprise that the car still ran pretty well...it drove like mine under 4k rpms, however there was a burning smell every time i got out of the car.

thoughts on what problems his engine is exhibiting now? im assuming there is also a lost of compression from the piston ring and cylinder wall wearing from running dry..??

 

[JHZR2]

Lucky lucky lucky. IIRC some engines dont puke the oil out the drain hole when operating. Wonder if that was the saving grace.

 

[spackard]

The burning smell is coming from all the oil that was caught in the airstream and coated everything from the hole back, maybe?

 

[Ken2]

Fill it with 20W-50 and trade it in.

 

[dparm]

That sounds pretty ethical to me. I say do it.

 

[demarpaint]

Nothing your buddy can do now but hope, and speculate on what might or might not have happened. Adjust the valves and see if the pep comes back above 4,000 rpm, if it does consider that a good sign. He should consider it a lesson learned when working with a partner.

 

[Bladecutter]

If you are unsure if your friend did something correctly, you double check it yourself. A quick turn of the torque wrench would have prevented this whole adventure.

BC.

 

[oggb]

Who puts a drain plug on hand tight? I never just pop those things in and find something else to do.

Maybe he oughta stick with cheaper vehicles.

 

[dparm]

Jeez, if in doubt it would've taken him 20 minutes to get the car on jackstands and tighten it. Sloppy...

 

[HTSS_TR]

The title is misleading. This "the drain plug was only hand tightened" is owner error, it has nothing to do with Honda engines. If Honda manual said this "Tighten the drain plug by hand only", then it is their problem.

 

[Sayjac]

^^^^Good point. Owner error...that's what happened.

 

[JOD]

That's not the way I took the thread title, at all??

Fact is, this probably would have been a much more disastrous event if the car had hydraulic lifters! If there's ever an engine on which to pull this stunt, it's probably the K24...

BTW, I agree with the thoughts on the burning smell. I'm sure oil is in every nook and cranny on the underside of the car, in subframe holes, etc. It's probably gonna take 4 or 5 thorough washings with a pressure washer at the car wash to really get ALL of it out. That's probably the source of the burning smell. I'm betting a valve adjustment, a short OCI and everything will be OK.

 

[JonC]

Originally Posted By: dparm
That sounds pretty ethical to me. I say do it.


My laugh out loud moment of the day!

 

[garlicbreadman]

Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
The title is misleading. This "the drain plug was only hand tightened" is owner error, it has nothing to do with Honda engines. If Honda manual said this "Tighten the drain plug by hand only", then it is their problem.


yeah...meant to title it regarding how impressive honda engines are considering it ran on no oil for who knows how long...

there was miscommunication if the drain plug was tightened or not with wrench..Im assuming someone tightened by hand and didnt have the correct wrench to tighten and asked his partner to tighten later and then forgot to.

Originally Posted By: Bladecutter
If you are unsure if your friend did something correctly, you double check it yourself. A quick turn of the torque wrench would have prevented this whole adventure.

BC.


2 things
1) Read carefully, i wasn't there. heard about this incident after it happened..
2) dont need torque wrench to torque honda drain plugs.

 

[sciphi]

It's rustproofed now...

Glad to hear your friend got off lightly with that catastrophic loss of oil.

 

[ltslimjim]

I'd be curious to see what a valve adjustment and followup compression test would show.

...or a UOA on the current fill!

 

[rslifkin]

If he shut it down as soon as the light came on, it probably sustained minimal damage, as it still had some amount of oil being pumped through until that point.

 

[Bladecutter]

Originally Posted By: garlicbreadman
2) dont need torque wrench to torque honda drain plugs.


Actually, your whole post is proof that you DO need a torque wrench to tighten the drain plug on a Honda.

You can't prove me wrong with the evidence as provided in this thread.

BC.

 

[Mau]

Originally Posted By: Bladecutter
Originally Posted By: garlicbreadman
2) dont need torque wrench to torque honda drain plugs.


Actually, your whole post is proof that you DO need a torque wrench to tighten the drain plug on a Honda.

You can't prove me wrong with the evidence as provided in this thread.

BC.


Actually you don't. Use a new crush washer, tighten it by hand. I've had 5 honda's in my life time and all of them never had a torque wrench touch it for engine oil and transmission oil changes. Always new crush washer and hand tight.

 

[JOD]

Originally Posted By: Bladecutter

Actually, your whole post is proof that you DO need a torque wrench to tighten the drain plug on a Honda.

You can't prove me wrong with the evidence as provided in this thread.

BC.


having a hard time figuring what forgetting to tighten the drain plug has to do with using or not using a torque wrench?

I'd also guess that as a percentage, more drain plugs are stripped with a torque wrench than without--but that's a different discussion all together...