NO OIL

[Jack16]

I recently purchased a 2016 Sierra XLT with E assist, with 8200 miles from Car Max. Within a day I noticed a whine from engine, They took it to the local chevy dealer who after some unusual diagnosis said it was the oil pump. They changed oil pump and when I picked it up it was fine. A few miles down a slow road I could smell coolant but all gauges were normal. I thought it must be the car in front of me. A few miles later the dash lit up with low oil warning. (gauges still ok) There was no oil in the pan. None since they just had it off. Replaced oil and have talked to dealer who believes at this time likely no damage. I do not hear anything strange. I am returning for a full check up. What do you think?

[Supreme Pizza]

Running an engine without any motor oil will result in catastrophic internal damage in a very short period of time. I would suspect that many of your engine parts have some level of damage to them that will result in an overall shorter life that normal. There are a few tests that you could do on the motor such as a compression test, or opening the oil filter, but most of the internal parts can not be checked without dissembling the motor. 

 

Now, that being said: 

 

There is a good chance that you will not have any problems with the truck, and you can keep driving it as normal. If it were mine, I would sell it if I were able to get close to what I paid for it. 

[Doug_Scott]

If they sent you on your way with no oil in the pan, you would have had the oil level low light right away, plus you would have had 0 psi showing on oil pressure gauge.  The whine may have been gone, but it more likely have been drowned out by the rods and crankshaft mains knocking.  Valve train would also be making a clatter.  The truck would have gotten quite hot from the bearings running dry as well.  Since you said you had oil pressure, they must have either not put enough oil in, or you had a leak some where, that managed to leak enough to signal low oil level. 

 

Provided you never lost oil pressure no damage will have occurred. I would be more concerned with why it took so long to give the low oil level warning.  Typically oil level increases with heat not decrease.  This really sounds like a leak.  They may have found and corrected the leak and not told you, but, if you were at any speeds over 30 miles an hour the entire bottom of the truck will be oil sprayed.

 

The most important thing was oil pressure.  If it stayed normal, you have no worry.  Keep in mind there is still the warrantee left.  Do make sure that this incident is properly recorded by the dealer to protect yourself if something happens while you are not close to your dealer. 

[Jack16]

Thanks for the replies. About what I was thinking. I had called the dealership and left a message on Friday night but no call back, Left another message Saturday morning for the Service manager to call and discuss my replacement engine. (That got their attention) My Truck is at the dealers now. They are going to look into faulty gauges that gave me no warning. I have asked for an oil change with filter to replace the oil I put in on Saturday night. Payment for the oil, Compression check and a sample of the oil which I will send to a specialty lab for analysis. Everything was entered into my service history. We will see... 

[txab]

Don't know if I'd trust them to obtain an oil sample for you.