GM 3400

[Blue99]

The consumption could be due to a dirty ring pack or stuck piston rings. This is a result of the short trips & not warming up the oil to drive out moisture & fuel dilution and the oil oxidizes very quickly.

Has the air filter & PCV valve maintenance been performed on schedule? These two items have a significant affect on the crankcase oil.

One option is to check with the dealership, and see what cleaning process is available. Obviously, Auto Rx is very popular here at BITOG, some members also report improvements with the older style solvents, such as MMO & Rislone.

Running some short OCI intervals with a higher TBN oil,(8 or higher), such as Valvo Maxlife or an HDEO, would help, but this depends on the amount of varnish and deposits.

IMHO - Trying to help the in-laws can be a very slippery slope!

 

[2KBMW]

Briguy. It seems that your father in law
dosn't care about checking the oil so why
bother trying to get him to switch to
synthetic? If this happened before, why
don't they keep tabs on the situation?
Anyway, your inlaws car has engine problems.
This is not normal for an engine to use
a quart of oil every 1200 miles. Tell your
father in law to check every 1000 miles
and add a quart of oil. No use trying to
explain about thicker oil, synthetic etc.
i don't think he cares.

 

[T-Keith]

Somethings is very wrong if your using 2 quarts in 2500 miles. Either it wasn't filled properly, it has a leak or the driving conditions are beyond extreme.

-T

 

[Cutehumor]

on Pontiac GM 2.2 L. when I first met my fiance, she was losing one qt/1300 miles. it was a really bad leaking valve cover gasket. I replaced the gasket and now, it's 1 qt/3k miles

 

[Drew99GT]

Leaking intake manifold gasket could cause a loss of oil. Better check it anyway for coolent leaks

 

[haley10]

Great advice, guys. Plus if her garage is not the GM dealer, we have no way of knowing what oil is being put in the car or if it was properly filled to begin with. You should see minimal consumption at this interval with and dino that meet SJ, SL, SM specs.

With a Napa Silver filter though, I would be inclined to think that they used a good oil, unless they never actually change it either.

 

[The_Jeff]

It sounds like she uses more of a gas-station general mechanic type operation... The kind that calls and orders an oil filter just-in-time from the corner parts store. High volume quick lubes and dealers generally (JMO) have store and OE brands respectively.

Most of these shops also order the store brand oil by cases of quarts. Napa= valvoline.

Just be glad her car has a low oil level light that comes on before the no-pressure, out-of-oil, you've-blown-your-motor light.

Regardless, if someone keeps it full of oil, this motor will keep on keepin' on until intake manifold gasket time.

 

[Al]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Drew99GT:
Leaking intake manifold gasket could cause a loss of oil. Better check it anyway for coolent leaks

---

Exactly..this engine is 100% guaranteed to leak before 100K miles. Better than 50% odds before 50K miles.

 

[BRIGUY]

The oil change was done by a friend of the family who owns a local repair shop. He stocks Napa filters and used bottled oil. I'm sure he did a good job. He is very insistant on his customers not exceeding 3k on OCI.

My father in law is just old school, and they have had very good luck with cars. His company trucks have always gone 150k with little or nothing done to them but tires, oil, gas, brakes. Mom in law gets a new one every 7-10 years same deal.

It's funny but my wifes car sees the same the same type of use. 2 miles to work, home for lunch, back home in evening, then to the gym and shopping etc. 5 to 6 trips less than 3 miles each per day. Awful on oil in my opinion. the M1 my wifes focus tests good after 9 months and 5k of this. zero consumption. Inside the valve cover looks like new. (wifes engine does have a oil pan heater that I plug in if the ambient is below 25 or so, and she uses the car starter)I know for a fact my wifes car idles much more than the inlaws.

I am beginning to think that for short trip driving with some of these new engines (Chrysler 2.7 and VW for example) conventional oil is not going to cut it any more.

 

[olympic]

I have 3 vehichles with the 3400 and none of them burn more than 1q in 12,000 miles. One of them has well over 200k on it!

Check it again in 1500 miles or so and see what happens just to rule out human error.

 

[BRIGUY]

News flash,

just talked to my father in law. This is only the 2nd time this has happened. the root cause I believe is that they forgot to change the oil for over a year (last year) and it burned off about 2 qt in the process. I guess I need to start some research on engine RX or similar products. Any sugestions.

 

[BRIGUY]

Hi Guys,
My mother in law called today. (She has a 99 Pontiac Grand Am GT With a 3.4 34K miles) The low oil light was on. So I went over and had to add almost 2 Qt's to get the level back to normal. I looked and she had her oil changed 2,400 miles ago. Dino and napa silver filter. This is not the first time this has happened. The dipstick and inside of the valve cover did not look good for motor with only 34K. No heavy sludge but dark staining and thin deposits. This car us used for almost all in town short trip driving.
Look you don't need to preach to me, I use M1 and redline in all my vehicles and send my drain oil to blackstone. My father in law is a hard sell to synthetic (I have tried)

Any way is this normal For one of these engines to consume oil like this in the winter?

Is it possibly the bulk Dino used by her garage?

Is it the stop and go service that is rough on the engine.

I am a synthetic guy all the way and have started extending drains to over 7K on my vehicles, with amazing results and little or no consumption. Shouldn't any dino be good for 6 months or 3K What gives?

What oils do the GM 3.4 engines like? I am also afraid of recommending synthetic now with out short intervals at first due to syn's cleaning properties.