On an oil starved Diesel what would get damaged first? Would it be the main bearings? The connecting rods, where they? Or the Connecting Rod bearings?

I think the rod bearing would go first. I've heard plenty of spun rod bearing stories, but never a spun main bearing story.

FWIW...My 944 has a spun rod bearing. I bought it from a kid who ran it low on oil. The oil pump starved and the #2 rod bearing spun. The mains had not spun...yet. I only pulled the rod caps so far, but the mains appear ok.

I think they will both be damaged, but it seems that the rod bearings always fail first. At that point most people stop driving the car and get it fixed. Thus the main bearing do not actually fail, unless you continue to drive the car.

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1987 300TDT
1981 VW MKI Caddy 1.6 diesel, waiting on engine swap
1983 D-50 Power Ram 4x4 "Mitsubishi" 2.3 turbo diesel
assorted gas powered crap and motorcycles

RIP: 1984 300TDT, 1982 300TDT, 1984 190D 2.2, 1992 300D 2.5, 1987 300TDT, 1982 Maxima LD28, 1983 Maxima LD28, Isuzu C223 P'ups X3, 1983 Holiday Rambler 6.2 Banks turbo diesel, 1984 Winnebago LeSharo 2.1 TD, 1985 Allegro 6.5

[QUOTE=Carrameow]On an oil starved Diesel what would get damaged first?

Your wallet??

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Bill Reimels
Now down to one:
1972 300SE 3.5 W109 (Euro delivery)

Bill has it right, your wallet would be the first to go.

The timing chain is going to heat up pretty fast when totally deprived of oil. A friend of mine tried to connect from the crank pulley to propellor shaft on his small boat with two row heavy chain non lubricated. Turned beet red in a couple of minutes as had no constant lubrication at all. The crank rotation was probably about 4,000 rpm. He changed to heavy pulleys and belts and it seemed to be okay. This was a crosley engine that he could tuck under his arm and walk away with. This was years ago now mind you. Wonder if one should check the timing chain for loss of temper or worst if rebuiding an engine that was run dry of oil?

I thought that some mechanic told me that in a powerstroke engine, the oil powers the injectors and as such it is impossible to run the engine without oil.

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01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

Turbo?

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-Randy Wakefield

1969 220D 4 speed (parts car)
1976 280C
1976 280S
1981 240D 4 speed (parts car)
1982 300D
1983 300TD (Ivory)
1983 300TD (gold)
1985 300TD (gray)
1987 190D 2.5
1970 280SEL (sold)
1977 240D 4 speed (sold)
1974 280 (rusted to death)
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1927 Chevy 4 door sedan
1938 Chevy 2 door sedan
1950 Willys Jeepster
1955 Studebaker President 4 door
1977 Ford F250
1979 Glastron 17'
1948 John Deere A
1960 John Deere 2010
1979 Satoh S650G
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2000 Bichon (Doby)

i think the question is, what kind of diesel owner would starve he diesel of oil?
honestly WTF

You might loose an oil cooler line or perhaps a feed line to the turbo or even return line. If any of the above happens you are going to probably damage the engine on a long trip before you notice it. Volkswagon had one of the best systems, perhaps not as good as total shutdown. If oil pressure drops under something like 30 pounds pressure at engine speeds over about fifteen hundred revs a buzzer is activated that will wake the dead. Always knew it was there after going through large puddles on road. This was in addition to the normal pressure indicator.

I don't care what breaks a rebuild will still cost me $7k!

I think you 617 guys could get away for $5k or a little less.

I will never run mine that low on oil, besides something major would have to blow like an oil cooler line to dump enough oil to hurt anything. I think I would smell the oil burning and see the lights go off on the dash and be able to stop it and shut down before I lost oil pressure.

My oil cooler lines are new so I am not worried one bit.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

I agree. The first thing I did on my 300TD is replace the oil and trans cooler lines plus all the rubber fuel lines. I also replaced the rubber brake lines. Anyone who doesn't is playing Russian roulette with 5 bullets in the camber...

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Bill Reimels
Now down to one:
1972 300SE 3.5 W109 (Euro delivery)

I recently ran my 1985 300D VERY low on oil. To make a long story short, I went about 1-1/2 days with a hole in my oil pan. By the time I figured it out, there was almost no oil left in the oil pan. I did not notice what my oil pressure was before I shut it down.

I replaced the oil pan and the car seems to run the same as before, but my turbo might be leaking oil. I'm thinking it might have gotten pretty hot towards the end there.

I "inherited" a 240d that had been run low on oil. The #1 rod bearing melted and spun babbit out in sheets. The rod then welded itself to the crank. The rest of the bearings looked relatively ok, but it underwent a complete rebuild anyway.

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1979 240d "Rosie" 148K

Were the rod and crank junk or were you able to have them reground?. Personally I would never rebuild an engine that was stressed in that way. Much better to get a decent U-pull-it motor for $100 and start fresh with that.

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Bill Reimels
Now down to one:
1972 300SE 3.5 W109 (Euro delivery)

All VW diesels have a two-stage oil pressure monitoring system. The first one will activate a light if the pressure drops below ~10-15 PSI @ <1500 RPMs. The second, as stated above, activates the light and a loud buzzer if the pressure drops below ~30PSI @ >1500 RPMs. I don't know if the pressures at which the alarms activate are the same throughout the years, but the engine speeds are the same.

aklim, you're right, the PowerStroke's injectors are powered by oil pressure. The new PowerStroke's oil pump creates astronomical amounts of pressure, somewhere in the neighborhood of 120+ PSI, IIRC.