Blew oil line on Highway

[mfiazzo]

78 911SC

Well I was driving down the highway yesterday and my engine started to bog down, noticed my oil pressure drop way down. did what I could to get the car off the highway.

Sure enough, the oil line that goes from the top of the oil valve to the crossover pipe blew apart right at the crimped fitting. I had a tow truck come and tow me home.

I went to order a new oil line from our host. i noticed the reviews on those oil lines is not very good. What other options do I have to procure a better oil line?

Also what are the chances I did severe damage to my engine?

Thank you in advance for reading and responding.

[yelcab1]

I don't like the engine bogging down bit before you shut it down. I would replace the hose, fill it up with fresh oil, run it until it is hot, drain the oil and filter, see if you have any metal flakes. Go from there. Good luck.

[RedCoupe]

Yeah, if it runs okay I would use oil analysis for the next few changes.

[chrismorse]

If the engine was bogging down because of seizure due to oil starvation, I would take what ever you get out of the engine and look at it. If it is silvery, you are probably in for an expensive repair. Still worth it to get it tested and the next oil change as well.
You might luck out with an oil change.
Fingers crossed.
Chris

[jpnovak]

There are several places that can crimp a new hose into your existing line. We have one in the DFW are of TX. Fast turn around.

Be careful getting new hose crimped that the correct crimper is used. Most hydraulic shops can crimp a hose, BUT, the crimper is too wide and can cut the hose under the crimp collar. you won't notice until its too late.

[boyt911sc]

Originally Posted by mfiazzo

78 911SC

Well I was driving down the highway yesterday and my engine started to bog down, noticed my oil pressure drop way down. did what I could to get the car off the highway.

Sure enough, the oil line that goes from the top of the oil valve to the crossover pipe blew apart right at the crimped fitting. I had a tow truck come and tow me home.

I went to order a new oil line from our host. i noticed the reviews on those oil lines is not very good. What other options do I have to procure a better oil line?

Also what are the chances I did severe damage to my engine?

Thank you in advance for reading and responding.

Mike,

Have you checked how much oil was left in the engine and oil tank? Did you save the residual oil for analysis? At this point, I would add oil up to the tip of the dip stick and test run the motor. Keep you finger crossed and hope for the best. Good luck.

Tony

[Bill Douglas]

Fingers crosses in regard to the engine health.

Not air cooled 911 engines. But this sort of thing happens to air cooled motor bikes often enough, and they seem to be fine after the event.

[BoxsterGT]

I am curious as to the crimp on your failed hose.

Can you post a photo of this?

The original Porsche Oil Line fittings have a bump to retain the hose under pressure...



and when crimped properly they do not "blow apart".

The rubber hose will get hard with age and may weep or leak, but they do not come off the fitting unless they have a defective crimp.

Len.Cummings at verizon.net

[sugarwood]

Should he do a UOA with the current oil ?

[juanbenae]

i had one let go in my driveway while the car was warming up. with carbs in place my warm up routine always includes opening the deck to look fuel lines and such over before motoring away. as I backed it out of the garage, got out, pulled the deck release and walked around the back of the car and boom! i heard the line blow just as i arrived at the rear of the car and could not believe the volume and rate of oil coming out of the thing.

the puddle was like a 5' round pancake & growing after like 1.5 seconds. I got the motor off before it was starved fortunatly, and even had the presence of mind to look at the thankfully dark OP lamp as I was shutting it off. what a mess, needed like 10 gallons of dry sweep before the driveway was sound and I won't even get started on the oil on the car.

what im getting at is I was losing over a qt, of oil a second at idle with cold oil! with was I saw you could empty one in less than 15 seconds. how could one catch that from the driver seat? good luck and there has been great advise here. reach out to blackstone oil analysis and they will send you a few of the prepaid oil sample kits free to start getting to the bottom of things.

[Rawknees'Turbo]

^^^

Nice to read about your caveman pre-flight ritual, Tobes (not nice to read about your driveway lubrication incident, however)!

Regarding the OP, the fact that he said the engine started to "bog down" unfortunately means that, at the very least, the pistons and cylinders are likely terribly scored.

[Ctopher]

Originally Posted by sugarwood

Should he do a UOA with the current oil ?

I say it’s too late to do an oil sample. What is he going to compare too? Oil samples are great if you have multiple over the life of the car. Having one after something happened isn’t enough of a sample rate to tell you much. If the metal content is high, was it high before? How long has it been high? Now if you’ve sampled over the life you’ve had the car, then that would better help you determine something worse is going on. Just my 1.5 cents worth of advice.


CTopher

P.S. I do oil samples on all of my cars, have for years with some more consistent than others. It’s amazing to see the metal content spike after a fender bender along with the silicon content. But doing it for the first time wouldn’t have really shown much. Here are my samples of my daily driver over the life of the car.
Index of /OilSamples/

[pmax]

Agree the bogging down is not a good sign.

But ... good thing the oil slick didn't cause any accidents for those behind you. Has it been cleaned up ?

[chrismorse]

Originally Posted by Ctopher

I say it’s too late to do an oil sample. What is he going to compare too? Oil samples are great if you have multiple over the life of the car. Having one after something happened isn’t enough of a sample rate to tell you much. If the metal content is high, was it high before? How long has it been high? Now if you’ve sampled over the life you’ve had the car, then that would better help you determine something worse is going on. Just my 1.5 cents worth of advice.


CTopher

P.S. I do oil samples on all of my cars, have for years with some more consistent than others. It’s amazing to see the metal content spike after a fender bender along with the silicon content. But doing it for the first time wouldn’t have really shown much. Here are my samples of my daily driver over the life of the car.
Index of /OilSamples/

The cost of an oil analysis is cheap. If it shows tragic metal content, then maybe it is better to pull it and see what can be salvaged, rather than running it more and possibly hoseing the crank and rods.
If on the other hand, the results are not seriously tragic, then maybe a oil change and subsequent testing is worth a try. BUT, iMHO, immediate, cheap oil analysis may be very helpfull.
Hope to hear from some of our serious engine/race car guys.
Best of luck,
chris

[Lyle O]

Originally Posted by chrismorse

The cost of an oil analysis is cheap. If it shows tragic metal content, then maybe it is better to pull it and see what can be salvaged, rather than running it more and possibly hoseing the crank and rods.
If on the other hand, the results are not seriously tragic, then maybe a oil change and subsequent testing is worth a try. BUT, iMHO, immediate, cheap oil analysis may be very helpfull.
Hope to hear from some of our serious engine/race car guys.
Best of luck,
chris

I agree here; do a Blackstone analysis. They always show averages for like motors, so you can, in fact, compare it to something. Also, they are pretty good at providing their opinion about what the deviations mean. If you provide a backstory to them upfront, their analysis could be even more useful.

As mentioned above, FWIW, in my younger days I used to ride/ race dirt bikes, mostly 2-strokes. For the trail riding bikes we had oil injection (no pre-mix of the gas necessary). A couple of times we forgot to fill the oil tank, and realized the error when the motor seized (one time at full throttle and high speed). Surprisingly, we just put more oil in after it cooled a bit, and kept going. Teardown showed some scoring for sure, but nothing like loose metal shavings, etc.

I suspect as long as something didn’t disintegrate in the process, you will still be drivable, though likely not to factory specs. Good luck and keep us posted.

[mfiazzo]

Thank you all for responding. First order of business is the get a new oil line. The one that was on there was ordered from Pelican about five years ago. That is when I put it on the car. Here is the part:

https://www.pelicanparts.com/More_Info/91110774312M127.htm?pn=911-107-743-12-M127&bt=Y&fs=0&SVSVSI=791

As soon as I get the oil line, I will drain the remaining oil out of the car to see how much is in there. I suspect not much.

I will keep everyone posted.

Is that the best oil line to get? I really can't find anyone else that has anything different.

[yelcab1]

For a three foot long metal and plastic hose to sell for $100 and make money, it is no doubt a German part manufactured in China. While the lower price is appreciated, it has come at a much lower quality level. The last lines I bought was too long and did not fit well. I had to cut the hose short and used two hose clamps to make it stay. That is probably why the hose did not blow up.

I feel bad for you with your predicament. Best of luck.

[Locker537]

Assuming I understand correct, the oil inlet line is what let go, not the outlet?

If so, I'd also cut apart the oil filter as well in order to inspect for any metal.

I do this as part of a normal oil change.

[BoxsterGT]

Really would like to see a photo of the hose end that let go.

Must have a crimp or fitting issue for being only (5) years old. The rubber should still be OK.

Len

[mfiazzo]

Hi Len,

I am traveling this week on business. I can send you a picture when I get back. But yes, It appears as though it was a bad crimp. The end that let go was the end that has the female fitting on it that screws to the crossover pipe. I can shove the rubber hose in where the crimp is.

I was debating getting a hunk of hose with two clamps to make a roadside repair, but I thought better of it and called a town truck.

Just really sucks this happened.