all engines use oil?

[chas3]

so, i was listening to goss' garage this weekend. he said that all engines burn oil. ok, this statement doesn't bother me. he also said, if the oil level remains the same, its because contaminants (fuel dilution, water) are replacing the lost volume.

i can't think of a better explanation why oil level doesn't change. but that seems like quite a bit of water or fuel on a typical engine.

 

[Al]

Amsoil used to say that a mechanically sound engine used 1 to 2 oz. oil every 1000 miles. I am sure that fuel and water may displace volume. But I also think that some engines use so little oil that oil level change is difficult to see.

 

[GoldenRod]

Pat Goss is still living in the erra of the 1957 Chevy Bellair.

 

[Pablo]

All engines use oil, some just use microscopic/barely detectable quantities as Al says.

Pat Goss is correct on the first part. The other part is a bit of a stretch.....

 

[Steve S]

All engines use oil ,some more some less . I worked at a forklift dealership for 17 years. The dealership sold and serviced Nissan,Linde Baker"V.W. engines" Clark "Mitsubishi G.M.,Perkins engines. Daewoo"G.M and don't remember exactly thr other one " Anyway the company had around one hundred of the exact same Clark with Mitsubishi engines some would use a quart in 150 hours and some the oil level would not appear to change. The engine hours were pretty close . Some of the customers forklifts with same engines had over 18,000 hours and still were running good and were used indoors "lpg " before I stopped working there.


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[GoldenRod]

"All engines use oil ,some more some less . I worked at a forklift dealership for 17 years. The dealership sold and serviced Nissan,Linde Baker"V.W. engines" Clark "Mitsubishi G.M.,Perkins engines. Daewoo"G.M and don't remember exactly thr other one"


Was it Allis Chalmers?

 

[Alan]

Al,Pat Goss is a VERY sharp mechanic and seems very up to date with todays cars electronics.I like his show and try to listen often.

BTW,
I too also heard this explanation by him on why sometimes oil level drops after a long trip(burned off fuel and condensation giving the true reading).Considering all Otto cycle 4 stroke engines consume oil by nature I think it's a mix of both.

 

[chas3]

after looking some used oil analysis, fuel dilution is typically much less than 1%? at 1%, this is about 1.6oz on a 5qt fill (try to spot that on a dipstick). i cant believe there is much water in engine oil. even on very short trips the oil gets warm enough to drive off moisture.

my theory on oil level drops after long trips (particularly highway miles) would be higher vacuum on the intake manifold. city driving is practically all idle.

 

[Virtuoso]

quote:

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Originally posted by chas3:
my theory on oil level drops after long trips (particularly highway miles) would be higher vacuum on the intake manifold. city driving is practically all idle.

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Vaccum is highest during idle and engine braking; lower during cruise; IIRC. Been awhile since I've had a car with a manifold/pressure guage though.

 

[thooks]

They might all use oil, but during the last OCI of 2,000 miles on my 11 year old Honda Accord with 140k miles on it, I noticed NO drop on the dipstick from start to end. No oil was added.

 

[Ray H]

Aunt Minnie's half-block run to the corner grocery for "Sweetums"' favorite cat food and "cooking" sherry every other day and back is a fuel dilution/moisture contamination nightmare. Then, when Uncle Henry finally takes the five year old Crown Vic (16,000 accumulated miles) out on the freeway forty miles every other month to visit the grandkids in the next county, fwoop! - the oil level ends up low on the dipstick for some mysterious reason. ("Dang Fords, by cracky, they all burn oil - always did, always will - ever durned one of 'em!")

 

[robbobster]

The dipstick is a poor way to judge small differences in oil volume/quantity.

I've got two oil catch cans wiith small reserviors. They fill-up periodically, but my dipstick hardly moves between OCIs.