Ferrari 812 Superfast Oil Consumption

[aquariuscsm]

Just to show what we are talking about:

Sweet ride Ali!!

 

[Jetronic]

and a nice colour too!

 

[jeff78]

Are we sure the car in question is a genuine Ferrari, and not one of them Fleabay knockoffs??

 

[Silver]

14 QUARTS? Seriously it seems they intended it to drink oil like gas. I wonder. But still, let's say it was a V6 and presumed it would use "half the amount of oil". That's still some extreme burning going on. Wow. What IS the reason for this? I wonder if there's any carbon deposits anywhere in the engine, but with so few miles even if it is depositing oil somewhere, carbon may not have formed yet.

 

[Jetronic]

it would be a 400 hp NA v6....

 

[Zee09]

Wonder how long the catalytic converters are going to last?

I doubt their owners care.
You know

 

[AEHaas]

I love the shape of the pistons. Almost no skirt at all and the top is totally shaped as the valves:

 

[2EHA]

14 QUARTS? Seriously it seems they intended it to drink oil like gas.

these kind of cars tend to have huge oil pans and ice cold oil temps. some owners do infact track them, especially once they depreciate.

my buddy in high school always had some interesting cars and then he showed up in a really beat up testarossa for prom. back then if it wasn’t in perfect shape you were lucky to get 25 grand. that car took 16 quarts of oil but i’m pretty sure it didn’t burn one up every 250 miles. don’t know what happened to the car...or him actually

 

[Sonofsonof]

I love the shape of the pistons. Almost no skirt at all and the top is totally shaped as the valves:

I'm no expert but the almost total lack of piston skirt literally screams to me of massive levels of hot blow-by getting through the ring pack. No doubt they have hacked away at the skirt to reduce piston/bore sliding friction. I'd bet a penny to a pinch of salt that the top ring is both thin & low tension for the same reason. This too will I suspect exacerbate blow-by.

On its own, lots of hot blow-by is no biggie but if it's stripping out the front-end of the lightest base oil that you have in you 5W40, then it's going to get zapped through your PCV system, into the air intake & burnt. I keep saying this over & over... you cannot rely on a complex physical baffle system to prevent this. Yes it will knock out almost all of the oil mist droplets but it does naff all to remove oil that's in the vapour phase. To anyone that thinks vaporising oil is a physical impossibly because it's too heavy, here's a fun fact... every base oil that's been refined in the last 100 years, once wholly existed as a vapour in a vacuum fractionation tower. That's how base oils get made.

Far be it from me to tell Ferrari how to design & lubricate their engines but it's not a bloody 2-stroke! The combustion chambers need proper sealing. Audi found this out the hard way with their infamous oil glugging TFSI 2.0 litre in the late Noughties.

I stand by my first comment which is get an ultra-low volatility 20W-xx oil in this engine as it might mitigate the oil loss problem.

 

[OilReport99]

Beautiful ride for sure. If Ferrari says it’s Okay to “burn” oil, I would keep topping off. That or Redline/HPL 20W-40/50.

 

[Averroes]

Sweet ride, I like it. I would wollop on that thing every **** day, of course I'd lease it not buy hahaha.

Only thing I can think of is switch oil brands and try the same/diff viscosity, or stick to same brand and switch viscosity. Not a scientific approach but all those methods are known to"reduce" consumption at times. If Ferrari says that's normal consumption then what else can you/us do? I hope you find the solution and that it is nothing too serious. Enjoy the car and be safe.

 

[aquariuscsm]

I'm surprised the Supertech crowd hasn't recommended Supertech 5W40 yet

 

[OilUzer]

I'm surprised the Supertech crowd hasn't recommended Supertech 5W40 yet

I read on the internet that the car autopilot doesn't allow you to drive to Wal-Mart.

 

[Graham Piccinini]

You may laugh but what you need is a tight 20W50. A tight 20W40, which I once could have thrown together in the lab, would be better but sadly you can't buy these commercially. Ideally, what you really need is a PAO/Ester based 20W50 (or 20W40) but no one has had the good sense to make one available, even to rich folks that can afford a Ferrari. Your supercar won't generate as much power or go as fast but it might just stop you buggering up your engine.

HKS will make any grade one's heart desires.

 

[Flyingdutchman]

These cars have been out for 3 years and it seems many are reporting up to 3 quarts of oil usage per 1,000 miles. This is “normal” according to the owners manual. The engine is an 800 HP V12 running up to 9,000 RPM. No turbo, naturally aspirated. It uses a 5W-40 and the manual states that one should not run high RPM until the engine oil gets above 160F.

I had one of the original Ford Expedition SUVs from new to 45,000 miles until I traded it in. It was the only vehicle I ever owned that consumed oil. From day one until the day I parted with that truck it used the same amount of oil. It was around a quart per 1,000 miles. I thought at first the consumption would go down after the engine was fully broken in but it never changed.

I have used grades of 20 to 60 in single engines that never consumed any oil. So I do not think it is an issue of grades.

The current 812SF has 1,300 miles and used 2 quarts in the last 500 miles. The oil in the oil tank (dry sump) is clean, odorless, and there is no smell of the exhaust and no smoke. No leaks underneath. The oil capacity is 14qts. Where is the oil going?? Thoughts??

AEHaas

Sweet ride m8.

These high rpm high performance engines have f1 style short skirt pistons with very thin rings and very low ring tension to reduce drag/free up power.

This however results in oil consumption.
My bmw n52 also does this.

V8 v10 20k rpm f1 engines consumed multiple litres throughout a couple 100km race.

 

[Sonofsonof]

Perhaps I should have mentioned this last night, but high as this Ferrari's oil consumption is now, it could potentially get much, much worse in the future. I think what you're currently seeing is 'over the top' oil loss. If this results in the gumming up of just one oil control ring, you could set yourself up for 'up from underneath' oil loss which is no fun at all.

Rather than repeat myself, have a squint at the following recent thread...

2015 Honda CR-V AWD excessive oil cunsumption

58,880 miles Out of warranty 1st owner Mostly city driving Regularly changing oil: first 2 changes - Honda synthetic blend 0W-20 at a dealership, afterwards only Mobil1 0W-20 + Mobil1 filter. Following MM, which is approximately every 6,500 miles. It burns 1qt/1000 miles which is absolutely...

bobistheoilguy.com

 

[alcyon]

I'm surprised the Supertech crowd hasn't recommended Supertech 5W40 yet

Supertech the world !

 

[ZedzAmg]

If I had a nickel for every time somebody said to me "Ali, for Gods sake at least go the speed limit"

Go watch Ford vs ferrari. You can't drive a ferrari like a Toyota.

 

[DGXR]

Sweet ride m8.

These high rpm high performance engines have f1 style short skirt pistons with very thin rings and very low ring tension to reduce drag/free up power.

This however results in oil consumption.
My bmw n52 also does this.

V8 v10 20k rpm f1 engines consumed multiple litres throughout a couple 100km race.

F1 engines are designed to burn oil which gives them a performance advantage. Because of this, the engines are overfilled at the start so they do not run low by the end of the race. See this link.

 

[Big O Dave]

These cars have been out for 3 years and it seems many are reporting up to 3 quarts of oil usage per 1,000 miles. This is “normal” according to the owners manual. The engine is an 800 HP V12 running up to 9,000 RPM. No turbo, naturally aspirated. It uses a 5W-40 and the manual states that one should not run high RPM until the engine oil gets above 160F.

I had one of the original Ford Expedition SUVs from new to 45,000 miles until I traded it in. It was the only vehicle I ever owned that consumed oil. From day one until the day I parted with that truck it used the same amount of oil. It was around a quart per 1,000 miles. I thought at first the consumption would go down after the engine was fully broken in but it never changed.

I have used grades of 20 to 60 in single engines that never consumed any oil. So I do not think it is an issue of grades.

The current 812SF has 1,300 miles and used 2 quarts in the last 500 miles. The oil in the oil tank (dry sump) is clean, odorless, and there is no smell of the exhaust and no smoke. No leaks underneath. The oil capacity is 14qts. Where is the oil going?? Thoughts??

AEHaas

I would just worry about that kind of oil consumption killing the Uber-expensive catalytic converters…