So I have a 2009 v6 and I made a rookie mistake changing oil. I accidentally cross-threaded the oil filter and when I started the car, all the oil drained and the car quit after about a minute or two. I never drove the car anywhere. When it died it seemed more like the computer killed it as shut it off pretty quietly, no clunking or anything. It wasn't able to restart after I put on a new filter and replaced the oil. The engine turns over but wont fire.

Wondering if anyone has any insights on how to tackle this and get back on the road. I spoke top a mechanic over the phone and the suggested to just replace the engine but I'm not sure if thats the best course of action. I'm not afraid to take the time and get my hands dirty but I'm pretty young and don't have a huge knowledge base for this situation. I'm speculating that its out of time and has lost compression but I guess i'm not sure where to start or if I just need a new engine.

Any help would be very much appreciated!
Cheers

 

Does the engine turn over easily or is there a lot of resistance? It sounds like the engine may have partially seized from the lack of oil. I suggest you pull the oil pan and see if there are tiny flakes of metal in it.
Motor died with no oil in it usually = dead motor.

 

If the motor died quietly by itself, that means the bearings most likely siezed up at least temporarily. When metal gets hot, it expands. Without the oil in the bearings to prevent metal-to-metal contact the motor would die as soon as the bearings came in contact with the crank (main and rod bearings.

That and/or the timing is now way off because the VVT solenoids lost (oil) prime so they couldn't adjust the timing properly once the motor went from closed loop to open loop upon warm up. .

 

His engine's the 4.0L V6 so there's no VCT system.

 

Oops, good catch Dino Dino, I missed that