Did i ruin my engine?

[firewoodcutter]

I just bought a john deere 4510 and have been working on changing all of the fluids and filters. Yesterday I was working on flushing and changing the coolant. I drained the radiator and block, filled the radiator and reservoir with distilled water and started it and let it idle awhile and the temp guage never came up. I then drained the water out of the radiator and open the block drain plug and nothing came out, I thought I just didn't get it warm enough for the thermostat to open. I went ahead and filled the radiator and reservoir with coolant and started it back up and let it run for awhile at odle, then I revved it up to 1500-2000 rims trying to get the coolant removed guage to rise. I probably had it running for 30-45 minutes and shut it down. I let it cool off and opened the drain plug and nothing came out again. I then open the radiator cap and added about 3/4 of a gallon of antifreeze. I later open the drain plug again and coolant flowed out then. Do you think I damaged the engine letting it run that long low being that low on coolant?

 

[K5lwq]

Only way to find out is run it. Hopefully not. The problem was there was no water to heat the thermostat up so it would open.

 

[ruffdog]

I just bought a john deere 4510 and have been working on changing all of the fluids and filters. Yesterday I was working on flushing and changing the coolant. I drained the radiator and block, filled the radiator and reservoir with distilled water and started it and let it idle awhile and the temp guage never came up. I then drained the water out of the radiator and open the block drain plug and nothing came out, I thought I just didn't get it warm enough for the thermostat to open. I went ahead and filled the radiator and reservoir with coolant and started it back up and let it run for awhile at odle, then I revved it up to 1500-2000 rims trying to get the coolant removed guage to rise. I probably had it running for 30-45 minutes and shut it down. I let it cool off and opened the drain plug and nothing came out again. I then open the radiator cap and added about 3/4 of a gallon of antifreeze. I later open the drain plug again and coolant flowed out then. Do you think I damaged the engine letting it run that long low being that low on coolant?

Ouch....agree that you may have been lucky....maybe. I have seen people do this, then, when the t-stat finally opens it will be a violent cool down. Sometimes they are lucky and sometimes not. Read this:

Air Venting

 

[firewoodcutter]

Ouch....agree that you may have been lucky....maybe. I have seen people do this, then, when the t-stat finally opens it will be a violent cool down. Sometimes they are lucky and sometimes not. Read this:

Air Venting

I hope I got lucky it runs and sounds fine after all that, but I'm afraid it got too hot.

 

[Harry in Ky]

Next time look for a place to bleed the engine. Looks like at least one plug on the thermostat housing near the temp sensor. Anything you can remove from the area just below the thermostat will let trapped air out and coolant flow into the engine. Never trust a thermostat to self bleed.

 

[etpm]

Sometimes we just get plain lucky. Since you can't hurt it much more by running it a bit then I think you should give it a test run. If it still starts easily this is a good sign. So run the thing under load. Do some work with it. If no water appears in the oil and no oil appears in the water, and if it doesn't use either oil or water, then continue to use the machine and revel in your good luck.
I have a Toyota truck with a V6 engine that is notorious for ruining the engine if it overheats. Driving home one day the water pump failed catastrophically and the engine overheated. I took it to the local import repair shop and was told that the engine was toast. Then they looked in the cylinder that causes the problem and there was no evidence of a blown head gasket and a warped block. 3 Mechanics and the owner were astounded and they all took turns looking in the engine. So I had the water pump replaced and now, 4 or 5 years later, there is still no signs of a blown head gasket or a warped block. I got lucky and maybe you did too.
Eric

 

[workinonit]

Before you run it you need to make sure you get everything full of coolant. You obviously didn't do that before. Just filling the radiator on some engines isn't enough to get coolant in the engine. I know with the Chevy truck I used to have there was a radiator fill funnel that you had to use and it took forever to fill the engine and rad. Was the coolant in the radiator bad? Do you have the procedure on how to fill the cooling syatem?

 

[Thomas]

As others wrote...run it you got nothing to lose.