Somebody rolled my Rancher 350 over on the right side. It was more over on the side, rather than completely upside down. It didn't stall the engine, and they were stunned and didn't have the sense to hit the kill switch very quickly, so it sat there running for perhaps 1-2 minutes.

So, I am wondering if any parts of the engine got starved for oil. The oil filter is on the right side, so I am assuming that is where the oil pump is, so maybe the pump still got oil during that time (???). The crank was probably high and dry, but it was only at idle, so that may have helped out there.

I am running RedLine ester synthetic oil. Synthetics have very high film strengths, and the ester molecules are charged so they stick to metal parts (like a magnet), so that may have helped me out some as well (???).

Anybody with any experience with this???

 

Regardless of where the oil pump is, I'd bet the oil pickup/strainer is in the bottom of the case, and that the engine likely had no oil pressure while on its side.

Roller bearings tolerate interruption of oil supply much better than plain bearings, and these engines seem to survive brief loss of oil pressure fine, particularly when there is no load on the engine. As long as it sounds fine I'd bet there is no long term damage.

I've seen a thread or two about a high mileage Rincon that suddenly won't move in forward or reverse. I'm sure people try reving it up and dink around with it running for a bit... Oil pump drive chain jumped off turns out to be the cause, and once that is corrected the machine is generally fine.

Short version, if it sounds and runs good, I'd say it is good.

 

It's not something I would want to happen to my engine but it will be fine.

I saw a demo once where an engine was drained of fluids and started up and taken to full throttle. It took right at 25 minutes to lock up!!! I could not believe it. I would have bet a hundred bucks that it would not have lasted more than about 1 to 2 minutes before going bang. It never really did blow up. It just sort of slowed down and stopped.
If it was under load and at high RPM making lots of heat my answer would be different. This is not the case with your engine.....It's fine.

 

Funny it ran that long at all with the fuel petcock being on the left side and fuel dumping out of the carb. It probably didn't run as long as they figured. Since you keep your oil up to snuff I wouldn.t be too worried about debris in the bottom of the engine contaminating the cylinder. Piston should have had plenty of lube from the oil that ran to the side. Like Jeff said, the crank is roller bearing and should be ok. Oil should have drained back down the pushrods so all the oil didn't stay in the top end. The oil pickup is on bottom center of the motor.
I think it is ok

----- Gimpster -----

 

Yeah, I was thinking that, too. A few seconds probably seemed like a couple minutes after just flipping someone else's atv...

 

We were riding here: http://jeep.off-road.com/jeep/...eDetail.jsp?id=330535


The rider is an experienced sport quad rider, but had not done much highly technical riding. I had ridden ahead a little, but when he didn't follow I returned to find it laying on its side still running. He was unhurt, but kind of pinned against the canyon wall. I had him hit the kill switch right away.

There was a guy in here a few years ago, who had a new 250EX for his kid. The dealer offered a free 1st service, so he took advantage of it.

Thing is, they didn't refill the oil!!! He said his kid rode it for half a day before it finally seized up. Pretty though little engine!

 

my buddy's rancher , ran completely upside down for about 10 seconds before it shut off from lack of fuel, and mine has stayed running threw multiple rolls and flips, believe me mine has seen tires up more then once, just check the air filter, sometimes the crank likes to dump some oil in the box

 

I let you know something I do not tell everyone. When I do an oil change, I start the unit up with the drain plug out, and let it run for 30 seconds to a munite. This gets all the oul out of the top end and drysump. The places the oil stays in the engine is where deposits can build up. A little off topic here, I know, but when I drain the engine oil to remove an engine, during tear down On some models I would say anywhere from 1/2 quart to 3/4 quart oil is still in the engine. Mainly in the top end. If someone were to change oil, forget to refill with oil, the engine still is not totally dry. Probably why some of the stories mentioned above are true as far as how long these things will run with no oil in them. They still have some, just not enough

----- Gimpster -----

 

Just don't try that with a plain bearing engine...

 

S-K-W-E-E-K !!


----- Gimpster -----