MG Car Repair: 78 MG, oil pressure gauge, starter fluid

Question
I was driving my midget on the highway and lost about 1/2 the oil.  Then the oil pressure light came on and the engine shut off.  I have put oil in the car and there is no leak. I have also tried to start the car and have been able to get the engine to turn but it will not start.  Any suggestions as to what may have happened and how to fix it?

Answer
Hi Peter,
If your car was brought in to me in a dealership I would first check the oil level and then try to start the engine and watch the oil pressure gauge. Spinning the engine with the starter motor even if the engine does not start the oil pressure should climb to 25 to 35 PSI. If it does not do that it is of no use trying to get the engine to start because most likely the bearings have been destroyed by running the engine with no oil.
The next step I would do is to connect my own oil pressure gauge to the engine and try the spin test again. If still no oil pressure then is it a waste of time trying to find out why the engine does not start.

If you do have 25PSI or above on the gauge then you need to proceed to run a compression test. (throttle open) and you should see 125PSI to 180PSI and little difference between cylinders.
If that too is ok you can then put a timing light on a plug wire and spin the engine to see if there is ignition. If so spray some starter fluid into the intake when someone tries to start the engine. This will tell you if it is a fuel problem.

One of these tests will show what the problem is.

When driving on the highway and the coolant gauge shows that the engine is running hot, you have only a few minutes to get the engine shut down before major damage is done. When you see the oil light come on when running you only have seconds before major engine damage is done.
Howard