400 yards up an old spur road off of a main logging road, came on this sequence in the snow.

First photo shows where a low clearance vehicle heading away from the camera position hit a rock on the hump between two tire track lanes. It moved the rock slightly to the left and must have bent something on the vehicle down because from that point on, something was dragging on the hump.



Second photo is about 40 feet farther, where the vehicle hit a second rock, in the lower right corner of the photo. It broke off a chunk of pan metal with the drain plug in it, which is lying on the snow by the red arrow. From that point onward there is a trail of oil. Apparently the vehicle stopped and leaked out most of its oil at the big splotch about 6 or 8 feet farther along, but no one got out of the vehicle to look under it, or at least I did not see any footprints.



Two pics of the pan metal with drain plug. The vehicle left an ever smaller trail of oil drips for the next 400 yards, to the main haul road. Never caught up with the vehicle so it was either towed or driven away before I came along.

That sounds like a bad day for somebody......

It had to have been towed.
I can't imagine it running more than a few minutes with zero oil pressure.

meth head in the woods, with his 88 Civic.. high and stupid....

You would be amazed, some can go a long time if not pushed

The sign looked to me like the vehicle was going pretty fast for a primitive road, and the big splotch of oil may have been an initial dump without the vehicle stopping.

As to driveabilty, if he he made it another 400 yards on the main haul road, he could coast for 3 or 4 miles. Then another 400 yards uphill would put him on pavement and downhill most of the way to a gas station. I wondered if he shut off the engine, coasted and let it cool, then drove it in short spurts to get to town. Don't know if that would work or not. How quickly does an engine burn out without more than a trace of oil?

I remember finding a rock like that on a very similar road. We followed a trail of oil drips for 1/2 mile until it hit pavement and we lost the trail. I wondered how far he got.

I saw a test where they were testing marvel oil in a chevy 6 cylinder.. they run it with the oil for about five minutes , than drained the oil out and left the drain plug out they than run it for 20 min more and never harmed the engine...

It takes some sort of epic stupid attack to make an oil pan out of cast aluminum. A sheet metal pan might bend, but it's not likely to get a chunk like that knocked out. Of course, a driver with a few brain cells to rub together wouldn't have high-centered the vehicle in the first place. Idiot drivers like doctors, lawyers, accountants and computer geeks kept me busy fixing their screwups for over 50 years- - - - -they paid for a hundred acres of Middle Tennessee, and my kids ate well and had a nice place to live- - - - -not sorry for them in the least!
Jerry

Yup, crack heads.

I did the belly mounted 30# propane tank VS rock once, it was quite exciting. They empty pretty fast.

Had a kid do the 22 LR VS My Pontiac's oil filter while driving down the road on a cold and dark Christmas eve with a Browning lever action 22 I'd just given him as a Christmas gift.

I vividly remember how fast the oil light popped on, I pulled off the road and park instantly. I was sure it was the oil pan but quite relieved to find it was just the filter. But it was late on Christmas eve and there wasn't anywhere to buy 5 quarts and a filter. We took a picture with the hood up and his foot propped up on the front bumper, his first kill with the new rifle. We walked and laughed.....

They'll do stupid things in order to save weight.. And I agree - it should NOT be aluminum..

On an off road rig anyway....

Damn the bad luck!

I saw some old Toyotas run for 30 minutes with the oil drained and replaced with sodium silicate back during the Cash for Clunkers BS. The mechanics had to get in them and red line them to get them to blow. It was pretty impressive!

I followed an oil trail to a Ford Ranger once. Followed the footprints for 7 miles until I found the guys and gave them a ride to town. It was over 90 degrees and they were real tired. They had 15 miles left to go, I'm not sure they would have made it.

38 Souper

I used to work counting birds every spring for an environmental contractor on Camp Bullis Military Training Area. Hill Country terrain; lots of steep rocky limestone hillsides and rough two tracks. That lady would drive her beat-up 80's Honda Civic most everywhere, bottoming it out numerous times. She said when she took it in to the dealer for oil changes they would photograph the underneath, prob'ly in case she filed warranty claims. Never did bust an oil pan though, but she was a good driver and knew how to pick her way along.

Not an oil trail, tho he was or had been well oiled...

On our way to Anchorage to catch a redeye somewhere. Snowing pretty good. Passed a man walking alongside the road, going home I suppose.

"Backtrailed" him a mile or so to the Indian bar. The closer to the bar we got, the more erratic his trail was.