Stress testing of BeamNG cars: how long can engines run with the oil drained?

Today I had an idea on how to compare the durability of car engines - drain nearly all the oil out by pulling on the oil pan, and then keep redlining them to their deaths. All the tests were done with cars equipped with base variants of each engine family.

Since I had the idea before bed, I didn't have as much time as I would need to test every car in the game, but I got a few from covered.


The worst of the cars tested was the six-cylinder Moonhawk - being an economy car from an era where putting 100,000 miles on the clock was an achievement, it only managed to survive 1:55 of oilless revving until the engine stopped.

While the Burnside Special was a more substantial car back in the day, early 50s auto engineering and material science only got it slightly past the 2-minute mark: 2:07.

Miramar? An overhead cam and Japanese engineering failed to salvage the 1600's reputation, with the engine taking 2 minutes and 20 seconds to stop working.

However, the Piccolina's quality is more 50s VW than 50s Fiat: the tested 110 could take 3 minutes flat of being redlined.

Then we have two Bruckell motors (well, one in a Soliad Lansdale): the 2.2 I4 and the 309 ci V8. Both ended up giving up after 3:17, showing that some of the Malaise Era quality remained after the era itself ended.

Up next is the 2.5 turbodiesel of the Lansdale, which turned out to be less of a lemon than its VM Motori inspiration, surviving 3:43 of redlining.

Just a second below the 4 minute mark we find the Stambecco's 2.6. It's certainly not a bad performance when compared to Bruckell powertrains of the same era.

There was also a modern engine in the mix: the Bastion's V6, which sadly could not be compared with the V8, as the eight lacks an easy pulling point on the oil pan. The V6's 4:13 was nothing special; what was special was the temperature the remaining oil reached, which at the end exceeded 1000 °F or 500 °C, showing the level of modern automotive materiał engineering.

A pleasant surprise was the Civetta Bolide - one would expect a classic Italian supercar to be weak and not survive long without oil, but the 350 managed a 4:14 run at oil temperatures exceeding 400 °C.

Getting close to the 5-minute mark, we find the later Stambecco's diesel at 4:45 - just like VW D24s easily outlasted VM Motori 425s, so did their fictional variants.

The first engine past the 5 minute mark is the Wendover's 4.4 V8 - compared to the Malaise Era 309, its 5:12 was quite an achievement.

It still had nothing on its V6 cousin - possibly inspired by the Buick 3800's durability, the Lansdale-installed 3.3 ran for a whopping 6:37, even despite developing a rod knock halfway through the test. It's also true in the Beamverse that these engines will run bad longer than some will run at all.

And the winner is... the Civetta Scintilla! Thanks to modern supercar materials, its 5-liter V10 kept going even with the remaining oil passing the 1200 °C mark, and the engine getting close to aluminium's melting point. It only gave up after 7 minutes and 29 seconds of full throttle action.

Are there any engines you want to see me test next?

 

The vivace's engine