Ok, here’s my story. Last winter my sister rolled her 2000 5.0l explorer in a snow storm, not very hard, but it did make 2 revolutions and came to rest on the passenger side. She had a full tank of gas at the time so the engine continued to run on its side for what she believes was a minute or two, possibly more as I’m sure she was in shock. When I went to recover the vehicle all the fluids were at good levels and of good color, as well as all the systems were intact, so I started it up, kicked first time, and it ran as if nothing had happened. All I did was drive it up on the trailer for the 6 hour journey home. A few days later after inspecting every inch it seemed as if the damage was purely cosmetic so I drove it around and it again ran just fine. We then sold the truck to an auto shop.

My best friend’s 93 explorer (4.0l) overheated this weak and started to sound like a steam train. After a compression check, he has a dead cylinder, I believe it’s a valve. So instead of fixing it he’s decided it’s time to upgrade a little. So we went car shopping and guess what we found? My sisters old explorer all fixed up. He’s seriously considering buying it because it does have a very good price, and like i said, it didn’t roll very hard at all.

So I gave you that long winded story to ask you this, What if any damage do you think was done to the engine while running on its side, and do you think it will have any effects on its life span. It currently has 56,000 miles.

 

I'm a little surprised that the Inertia switch wasn't triggered in the rollover which would have killed the engine within seconds.

My main concern would be posssible damage to the bearings. Laying on its side with the engine running for a minute or two would probably have most of the oil away from the pickup. There would probably be some getting splashed around, but not really pumped to the bearings under pressure. At idle speed there's no load to speak of on the engine so it's possible that no real damage was done, but I'd check the oil pressure (with a real mechanical gauge) and listen very carefully for any signs of rod knock. Even so, it may not surface till a ways down the road. Were it me, I'd probably take the chance if it was a really good deal and just be prepared for the possibilty of having to do the bottom end at some point. But that's me...

 

I totally agree with Dan but wanted to add, that I doubt it ran that long. Adrenelin has some really strange affects on the human brain, one of them is making time stand still basically what seems like minutes is actually a few seconds. An engine on it's side even a fuel injected engine will usually die within about 5-10 seconds from the oil on the backside of the pistons slowing them down. In that time it's probably not going to hurt much, and if you still have good oil preasure the bearings are not hurt very bad. I once seen an engine that was accidently run until it siezed up with no oil. Put oil into it, started it, and checked the oil preasure which seemed ok, and continued to drive the vehicle (not mine long story, for a different time) but last I heard that vehicle now has over 100k miles (had about 35k when this happened) and still running strong with no problems. Not that I recommend running them without oil but it doesn't automatically mean toast.

 

She's positive she had to shut it off, it didn't kill on its own. I'm reasonably sure it ran for a min from the sound of her story.

 

Maybe you can use the fact that you know the history of the vehicle and that it was a rollover to get the price down a little if they're not disclosing that fact...

 

Well it's priced at $5,995, we havent spoken to the dealer yet. It'll be intresting to know if they tell us or not. Other then some body lines being a little off and a side step bent up a little, I think it's a fair price for a nice explorer. We haven’t driven it post repair, but from driving it after the crash it seamed to run and sound just fine.

 

IMO, do a compression check and oil pressure test and if those check out....then end your worries about the engine...


5.0's are cheap and cheap to rebuild/replace in the first place.

 

I forgot about one other thing. Those engines are equiped with a low oil preasure cutoff switch for the fuel pump, so when the oil preasure drops below about 3lbs it shuts off the fuel pump. So basically there is 2 scenerios here, one the engine wasn't actually running that long (most likely) or it never totally lost oil preasure. There is a third scarey possibility and that is that someone in the past has hot wired the fuel pump and bypassed the safety switches and this is possible expecially since the inertia switch didn't cut it off. But my guess is still that the engine was actually not running after the roll, and the your sister just thought it was probably because the radio and/or fan was running, like I said adrenaline does strange things to the mind. I have watched people swear up and down the engine is running in these types of things when the engine is infact died but the ignition is still on and that is minutes after the accident.
The low oil preasure switch is why when you turn the key on the fuelpump only runs for 2 seconds (timer that bypasses the switch to charge the fuel rails) then it shuts off and waits for oil preasure which cranking the engine will develop enough to turn on the pump. That switch is in there for exactly that reason, just in case the inertia switch fails in a light roll the engine will loose oil preasure and the switch will cut off the fuel to keep it from pumping or if the accident or something else severse a fuel line, the engine will quit running but without that switch the fuel pump could keep pumping gas out the broken line causing a major fire hazzard.
Personally I wouldn't worry to much about the engine most likely it's fine and like Justin just stated they are pretty cheap.

 

Thanks everyone, your info has been extremely helpful. Especially that bit about the oil pressure cutoff. The only reason I say it was still running is because a bystander had to yell into the truck for her to shut it off, but maybe they just heard the fan as it was winter and probably was on high. I'll talk to her again to see if she remembers anything.

P.s. I just noticed your all moderators, I had better be good.

 

Yes, you've just been triple-moderated!

And if your buddy buys the thing on your advice, don't let him hold you responsible if it blows up sometime down the road! (I doubt it will, but you never know!)

 

ok, well after talking with her she believes it was only running for about 7 seconds, so I’m not going to worry.

As for the triple-moderation... whatever you think it is I did, I didn’t do it I promise.

 

7 seconds sounds a whole lot better than 1 or 2 minutes. I think you have it right, nothing to worry about.

And don't worry about being triple-moderated, these other guys just drop in here to check up on me once in while, trying to keep me in line!

(Good luck with that! )

 

Now thats a lost cause

 

Just out of curiosity, is the Explorer we're talking about here the blue one you're driving onto the trailer in the pic thread?

 

Yes it is. It's the most recent one I have with me in it.