When I got home, I did an oil modification, tore into the vehicles filter, and sent out off a sample of the old oil to Blackstone Labs for analysis. The oil filter should have caught many of the iron from the oil– even from the oil that leaked. He and I had a talk about some of the possible failure modes of oil hunger, starting with bearing damage.BearingsPhoto: David TracyThe initially one we went over is bearing wear, which is usually what you fret about the majority of when you run out of oil.

He discussed to me over the phone that the car was leaking oil a lot, and that– after putting over five gallons– he d run out of makeup oil to keep up with the leakage. The oil filter must have recorded most of the iron from the oil– even from the oil that dripped. He and I had a talk about some of the possible failure modes of oil starvation, starting with bearing damage.BearingsPhoto: David TracyThe initially one we discussed is bearing wear, which is generally what you worry about many when you run out of oil. Blackstone plainly doesnt see a whole lot of those elements in my oil, so thats a good first sign.The second check is oil pressure. As a piston moves up and down a cylinder bore, its piston rings (2 compression rings and an oil control ring) glide on a thin layer of oil.