Do you think i damaged my new engine swap?

Maintenance/Repairs
1

I’m currently in the middle of an engine swap from my old engine which threw a rod, i’ve done this swap before with the old 2v to a 2009 crown vic 2v which just recently threw a rod.

I’ve always done maintenance on my vehicles so i know it’s very very important.

I’m swapping to a 93 lincoln mark viii 32V engine in my 1997 mustang GT, almost done with everything, just about to install into the vehicle and wanted to compression test while it was cold to ensure it was holding compression. (Engine has been sitting in a warehouse since 2006! w around 100k on it) dropped oil pan previously and everything looked great, no rust and cylinder walls looked clean.

I started compression test outside engine and cranked on starter for maybe 4 or 5 seconds before realizing i forgot to put oil in the engine (Big oops)

After putting in the oil it compression tested great, held between 160 - 180 on each cylinder

I’m just extremely worried that maybe i damaged something by cranking on it first without oil?? I put in a capful marvel mystery oil in each cylinder prior to the compression test and prior to putting oil in so it has SOME oil lubricating the pistons.

Do you think i did any damage??

2

Remove the oil pan again and inspect the bearings.

Tester

3

I’m assuming the engine had oil in it when it was in storage? How much time elapsed between when the engine had no oil and you turned it over?

4

Yes had oil prior in storage. also about a week and a half, i got covid in between.

5

I am not a pro. but my thoughts are that you did not run the engine at 700 rpm for 5 seconds. you just turned it over using the starter. I think you will be ok.

6 Likes
6

I’m going to guess you put some wear on the engine (primarily the bottom end bearings). But I doubt it’s going to be enough wear that you will notice when operating it. I doubt you ruined the engine or did enough damage for it to knock, have low compression, or anything crazy. Let’s hope I’m right!

4 Likes
7

Oil clings in the small gap between the rod bearings and crankshaft for a very long time. 16 years? Well, maybe. For 5 seconds of cranking, I wouldn’t worry about it. You won’t have oil pressure for 5 seconds when you crank the engine to start it, I would like to pre-lube the engine first but without an oil pump driveshaft that will not be easy.

4 Likes
8

I hope not, i was thinking only because there was oil prior inside the engine, enough to at least coat the rods during transport.

9

I would have inspected the bearings just for that fact before installing the engine.

Tester

1 Like
10

ah ok, i’m not too familiarized with doing so. Is it difficult?

11

With the proper tools, no.

Tester

12

I forgot to add aswell when i removed the oil pan and oil pickup tube there were no metal shavings in either of them. The pickup tube was extremely clean on the mesh filter. The oil i poured out of the engine from 2006 was also quite clean.

13

Doesn’t look hard to do

14

Tester

15

With the engine out of the car it won’t be difficult to remove the crank and rod bearing caps and add an assembly grease like Lubriplate.

3 Likes
16

Cranking for a few seconds should not hurt anything although I have one question. You refer to 160 to 180 AFTER adding oil.
Does that mean adding 6 quarts to the oil pan or does it mean a squirt of oil into each cylinder before the compression is tested?

17

You didn’t do it any good, but I doubt you did any real damage. Checking the bearings would be easy enough if you are really worried. If it were mine and it really only was turned over without oil, I think I’d be tempted to just go with it.

18

It probably takes much more than 5 seconds for oil to reach most of the engine at starter cranking speed when it has been sitting for over a decade. Some people would crank it for 30 seconds several times if needed to pump the oil though the engine before letting it fire up. So you just did 5 seconds more damage to whatever damage you have to do anyway to get it going, assuming you were going to crank it to get the oil there.

19

If you have anything under 1 or 2 minutes of total cranking time you will be fine. You can check the bearings if it makes you feeel better, but I seriously doubt you will find a problem. If you spent more time than that doing a compression check, then you need to learn how to do a compression check. JK… you should be fine.
Joe