Can burning some oil be a GOOD thing?

[Ken2]

Those might be the words that dealer's guy told your dad, but the meaning was, "Ford isn't paying to repair that engine...get used to buying oil." A quart per 1000 miles might be normal (and probably wasn't); it certainly wasn't right.

Ken

[ December 13, 2002, 12:53 PM: Message edited by: Ken2 ]

 

[Chris]

Great,now I imagine him to look like Homer Simpson eating a donut! Duh!

 

[Pablo]

Imagine this: SOME car makers say 1qt/750 miles is OK!!!

So what's that at 25mpg?? 1:125 or so......I venture to say this does have an effect on octane rating.

I used to hang out at turbobricks.org (Volvo turbo nutz) - a long while back someone had a chart/graph/table on a study how amounts of oil in gasoline being burned reduce MON. Real stuff for turbos because of the higher cc pressures and the real chance of oil from the turbo bearings.....

 

[MNgopher]

Fords line is still that 1 qt per 1000 miles is considered normal and acceptable. Neither of my Fords come anywhere near this - in fact one doesn't use any thatr I can percieve, and it has 155,000 miles on it!

GM has been having problems with oil consumption on the big block 8.1L V8 - some folks have been reporting oil usage of nearly a quart every 500 mi!

Lots of surprised owners checking the oil every few tanks of gas and not finding oil on the dipstick. Ouch!

 

[Giles]

quote:

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Originally posted by MNgopher:
Fords line is still that 1 qt per 1000 miles is considered normal and acceptable.

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I suspect this is more to draw a very low standard which will keep the warrantee claims to a minimum. The way I have checked my oil in the past on my vehicles, If I was burning 1qt/1000 miles, I would have run the engine dry!

 

[Drew99GT]

My car doesn't burn or leak a drop of oil between changes, could that in a sense be a bad thing? I've heard a few people say it could be from contamination. I suspect I have the infamous leaking intake manifold gasket on my 99 3.4L V6 Grand Am. It does seep a bit externally, but I rarely have to add coolent at the recovery tank (knock on wood

). I don't think much, if any coolent has leaked internally into the engine, thus mixing with the oil. So what's the expert opinion on not burning or losing any oil whatsoever?

 

[pedaltothemetal]

Anybody with a big v8 should burn twice as much oil as a 4cylinder. Twice or 3 times the surface cylinder walls in contact with the combustion gas.

 

[Neonmike22]

quote:

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Originally posted by pedaltothemetal:
Anybody with a big v8 should burn twice as much oil as a 4cylinder. Twice or 3 times the surface cylinder walls in contact with the combustion gas.

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On the other side of that though the 4cyl might see twice or three times the RPMs on a regular basis.

 

[Patman]

When I owned my 98 Formula, with a 5.7 V8, it didn't use any oil in between changes, which is amazing not only because LS1s are notorious oil burners, but also because on some intervals I had over 50 hard 1/4 mile runs on the car!

 

[Greg]

if you ever ever ever ever have to add coolant then you should suspect a problem.

[ December 15, 2002, 12:16 PM: Message edited by: Greg ]

 

[Patman]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Drew99GT:
My car doesn't burn or leak a drop of oil between changes, could that in a sense be a bad thing? I've heard a few people say it could be from contamination. I suspect I have the infamous leaking intake manifold gasket on my 99 3.4L V6 Grand Am. It does seep a bit externally, but I rarely have to add coolent at the recovery tank (knock on wood

). I don't think much, if any coolent has leaked internally into the engine, thus mixing with the oil. So what's the expert opinion on not burning or losing any oil whatsoever?

---

I don't see that as a problem, it just shows a tight engine. My wife's 2000 Civic just went through a 5000 mile interval where I didn't need to add any oil whatsoever. I put in 4L to start, which put it just a little bit above the full line on the dipstick, and it stayed at that level for the entire interval. So her engine probably only used about 50ml of oil this interval.

 

[Jay]

Whether an engine is designed to burn oil or not, I think it creates an extremely negative image of the engine and engine maker in the eyes of the customer if the engine uses oil. After all, the symptom that a worn-out engine displays is increased oil consumption. A smart car company pays close attention to that detail.