A lot of things can happen to an engine that wasn't properly maintained. If the sister thought she didn't have to change her oil in 12k miles (probably rightly so) and then carelessly ignored the car without checking fluids (wrong assumption)- she could have toasted her own engine. Oil lines could have been leaky due to sloppy installation. A new engine also CONSUMES oil because it needs to break in for the rings to seal properly. Also, if the mechanic left out the restrictor orifice, or put the bypass filter in SERIES with the engine instead of in parallel (bypass) that would also cause a meltdown. Additionally, you need to add a quart more to your oil sump in order to displace the oil that fills up the hoses and bypass filter. Bypass filters aren't for the careless. Some stupid OPERATOR mistakes will cause an engine failure regardless of whether a bypass filter is installed or not. I remain highly skeptical until you provide more details.
[ May 17, 2005, 06:32 PM: Message edited by: mjo ]
[ May 17, 2005, 06:32 PM: Message edited by: mjo ]