Pretty sure our engines are bullet proof.

So I know it's not recommended,  retarded even...

But with my old Truck F--ked buick, I ran it 200 miles in the winter with a seriously cracked radiator and coolant temps were about 280 for most of that and it runs great after fixing the radiator even after the accident. That blew my mind.

Then recently after my water pump broke in the new Strut F--ked Buick, it had a bit of leakage and no water flow whatsoever and I ran it for a month in the summer like that and it would basically be superheated steam as my coolant system but with the heater on the temps would be under 250. Now I got lucky my supercharger belt ate dirt probably because I wouldn't have thought of removing it to eliminate KR but still I was mind blown again at how durable my engine was.

Now I'm kinda poor so it takes me a while to get stuff fixed.. but if I had a Honda then I know my car would have needed a lot more tow services and my life would be much harder.

But I truly believe that as long as these motors are maintained then they could last damn near forever.

My intention is not to hijack this thread.
Would have thought some of you younger guys by now would understand how offensive using the slang words "retarded" or "gay" as a negative slang term is offensive.

Get with it, when you use these terms as a negative, it indicates your lack of understanding for people different then yourself.

abaucom wrote:

My intention is not to hijack this thread.
Would have thought some of you younger guys by now would understand how offensive using the slang words "retarded" or "gay" as a negative slang term is offensive.

Get with it, when you use these terms as a negative, it indicates your lack of understanding for people different then yourself.

Not to hijack the thread either, but going off of everyone in school we all know and understand how offensive they can be, but not everyone really cares. There are still good people but you just have to look.

Back on topic, I've had an idler pulley seize causing the belt that drives the water pump to fall off. I was able to drive about 2 miles before I noticed the temp gauge slowly rising, and then another 2 miles back to a park n ride where my parents met me to give me the Jeep to take to school. Later that evening we swapped the pulley in the parking lot and limped it home with a barely useable belt. I think I reached about 260* when I stopped and I still have no signs of damage ~20k miles later.

abaucom wrote:

My intention is not to hijack this thread.
Would have thought some of you younger guys by now would understand how offensive using the slang words "retarded" or "gay" as a negative slang term is offensive.

Get with it, when you use these terms as a negative, it indicates your lack of understanding for people different then yourself.

Not to hijack my own thread but I was in special ed. Pretty sure I understand more than most people about sensitivities.

Results
re·tard·ed
/riˈtärdid/
adjective
adjective: retarded

less advanced in mental, physical, or social development than is usual for one's age.

•informal/offensive
very foolish or stupid.
"in retrospect, it was a totally retarded idea"

In reality, the word itself is not offensive unless you're looking to make it so....
So, corey not maintaining his car could most certainly be described as retarded, using the informal/offensive form of the word    Plus, he referred to himself or his actions as being retarded, not anybody else. He's obviously ok with it....

These engines are pretty much bulletproof, yes. As long as there's oil in it, and the coolant temp doesn't reach it's limit, I've seen these 3800's run forever. Leaking, ticking, knocking, misfiring....they just keep on going (in stock form of course).

I once was heading to work in my old 92 buick lesabre, and passed someone. The plastic coolant fitting in the LIM exploded emptying ALL the coolant in/at the engine. It must have been a pretty spectacular pass for the one lone car on the empty country road. I didn't look in the mirror or notice the thick wall of white smoke jet trail running out behind me until I stopped at a stop sign a few kilos up the road; when I stopped and all the smoke kept going past me. Me being a dumb teenager still drove 15 min to work with the engine overheat light on. Thought if I drove fast the air would cool it.

Got to work no prob. Had dad come in during the day and have a look. He changed the bung in the parking lot and filled it back up with coolant. I drove that car for years after to no ill effect.

Agreed, but they do need OIL    

My brother's Lesabre dropped its oil, he pulled immediately over and shut off the engine. But that was the end of that engine. He guessed it ran for about 30 seconds after the oil light came on before he shut it off. That was apparently about 30 seconds too long   

OTOH, he had a late 80s Toyota truck that he ran completely dry, and it is still running to this day.

Heh

al_roethlisberger wrote:

Agreed, but they do need OIL    

My brother's Lesabre dropped its oil, he pulled immediately over and shut off the engine.  But that was the end of that engine.  He guessed it ran for about 30 seconds after the oil light came on before he shut it off.   That was apparently about 30 seconds too long   

OTOH, he had a late 80s Toyota truck that he ran completely dry, and it is still running to this day.

Heh

No combustion engine can survive without lubrication. Our current metallurgy will not allow it.

But I will say one time I went 11,000 miles without an oil change and the oil didn't even look too bad at all. I was mind blown.

^That triple post

matt270avian wrote:

^That triple post

My bad. It's probably the cracked version of Firefox on my note 3 lol

c0reyl wrote:

al_roethlisberger wrote:

Agreed, but they do need OIL    

My brother's Lesabre dropped its oil, he pulled immediately over and shut off the engine.  But that was the end of that engine.  He guessed it ran for about 30 seconds after the oil light came on before he shut it off.   That was apparently about 30 seconds too long   

OTOH, he had a late 80s Toyota truck that he ran completely dry, and it is still running to this day.

Heh

No combustion engine can survive without lubrication. Our current metallurgy will not allow it.

But I will say one time I went 11,000 miles without an oil change and the oil didn't even look too bad at all. I was mind blown.

I've seen it pretty much happen. A friend of mine had an old motor with a cracked block and he wanted to try to blow it up. Ran it for 20 minutes full of sand and sugar with no hiccups. He eventually gave up.

Triple post fixed!

On the word "retarded" - I agree it's best to refrain unless you're talking KR or timing. It's more offensive to city folks (a bigger mix) than in small town areas (more similar views). And here's the thing: even if you live in the country, when you get on the web it's like you just arrived to the biggest city on Earth. It's easy to offend in mixed company, so recommend not using the "R-word" as it's called in these parts.

Running an engine at 280°F. I can understand not having money to fix, but usually our radiators give some warning before the crack gets that bad. Maybe you put it off a little too long? Well it's all in past now, bu next time change that oil at least by 5k!

c0reyl wrote:

No combustion engine can survive without lubrication. Our current metallurgy will not allow it.

But I will say one time I went 11,000 miles without an oil change and the oil didn't even look too bad at all. I was mind blown.

My first Riv lasted 253K before it rusted out, and the guy that bought it (for the engine) remarked how great it sounded for its age. He put that engine into his own Riv, which had about 60K on the body before his girlfriend wrecked it. I changed the oil religiously for its entire life and it never gave me a problem! It's still alive in the new owner's Riv too (we keep in touch periodically)!

That being said, I bought my current Riv at 67K and it threw a rod a month later... here's hoping the new engine is more "bulletproof" than the last. My checking acount sure isn't!! I'm perplexed because the oil level was fine, so I guess the previous owner beat the snot out of it. The new engine has sensors all over it that will void the warranty if they record temps over 260 degrees though, so I won't be experimenting with your approach Corey, haha.

Interestingly, my mechanic said he sees supercharged 3800s throw rods "all the time." Says they can't handle the internal pressures the supercharger puts in them. I don't know if I agree though. I floored the gas in my first Riv plenty without rocketing engine components into orbit.

FWIW I've beat the everloving crap out of mine. It sees WOT almost daily and never misses a beat. At the autocross my power steering pump and transmission started to whine but after letting it cool down and breathe the whines went away and it's been fine ever since. The only issue I have now is a very slow coolant leak believed to come from the elbow. No coolant was in the oil when we changed it the other week so the headgasket is pretty much ruled out and there's gunky spots right under the elbow.

gunmetalRED wrote:

I'm perplexed because the oil level was fine, so I guess the previous owner beat the snot out of it...
...Interestingly, my mechanic said he sees supercharged 3800s throw rods "all the time." Says they can't handle the internal pressures the supercharger puts in them. I don't know if I agree though. I floored the gas in my first Riv plenty without rocketing engine components into orbit."

You can beat the snot out of these engines forever and, as long as they're well maintained, they'll take the abuse. Mine was beat on (daily driven, drag raced, auto-crossed, track-day'd) from 24.5k and 246k miles when it finally chipped piston #1. And that wasn't the fault of the piston or the engine. A clogged injector was the cause; I was at fault for not noticing my gauges. The engine builder remarked that besides cyl #1 in my engine, the rest of it was near perfect at 246k miles. He gave me money back since he didn't need to do a full rebuild, nor any bore machining.

Your mechanic may have his experience, but his reasoning is incorrect. The rods in our engines are plenty strong - they've been tested to many times their rated output. Any engine will throw a rod if not oiled correctly. Letting the oil level get too low, not changing the oil, or letting a bad LIM gasket ($35) do too long will eventually cause rod bearing failure. Another reason this can happen is from spark knock, which occurs when fuel injectors clog, 87 octane gas is used, or when running your coolant to 250+F deg.

Your 67k mile engine could have failed for any of the above reasons, but the fact it failed only a month after suggests bad oil maintenance. Anyone can say they changed the oil, but there's no way to prove it. They could have run it for 10k miles with low oil, then filled it up right before they sold it - oldest trick in the book. If you keep these engines well-oiled, well-cooled, and with enough fuel, you can abuse them on a daily basis and you should never have a problem. There's a reason there are so many G-body and W-body cars still on the road!

My step dd used to work on these engines and he's seen them at 300k miles well maintained and said most of the internals looked brand new still. 200 miles with no water at all? driving a whole month daily with mostly super heated steam every 50 miles because the water pump broke and still runs like I got it? pretty sure that's on a level of destruction durby engines?

I just had to share on this topic:

So, I sold my first Riviera to a guy, about 18 months ago, with 253K miles on it. My frame had rotted, and he had a Riv body with 60K on it, so he bought mine for the engine and transmission to drop into his body.

He just emailed me to ask what oils I used so he can tell the NEW owners of the engine/transmission, as the car body was wrecked but the engine/transmission are OK and running strong.

I'm so geeked the engine is moving on to its third body now, haha. Turns out I should have just bought my old engine back when my newer one detonated!

Yup yup! My OE engine is still running in a GTP the guy had chipped a piston on his original motor.

The one in my car now came from a rolled over 2000 GTP. It had been apart at some point to get the cam put in, total milage unknown, but it's been in my car for over 100K and seen lots of abuse, and still seems to be fine!