tell ya a story my wife had a 88 cavalier. i took it to the farm to change oil in it one weekend as he had a pit. i drained the oil changed filter and was bs-ing with my dad reached in started the car and we kept talking the car must have run for about 3 minutes when i suddenly thought gee the valves are making a lot of noise.
i hadnt put any oil in the engine. i filled it up after that. the last time i saw the car it had 360000 kms on it it had about 80,000 on it when it happended. i dont think too much damage should be done if you didnt drive the car away and load up the bearings.