Well the minivan is an oil burner

[NewtonPulsifer]

Those Chrysler 3.8 motors are kind of notorious for it. I know two different people who lemon lawed vehicles over those motors chugging oil. I don’t know anybody who has lemon lawed a Honda motor of that era. Come to think of it I haven’t even heard of anybody lemon lawing a Honda over a motor ever.

I’m not saying they’re terrible...but they’re not great motors.

P.S. I don’t have a bias - Pentastar is awesome.

PPS The Isuzu motors Honda re-sold weren’t great either on second thought

 

[ripcord]

First, do a compression check, (dry then wet) to validate mechanical condition. Check plugs and look for one or more that is oil fouled. If yes, this could indicate a worn valve guide or bad valve guide seal. Another thing to check is the condition of the PCV valve seal in the valve cover. If this is cracked, then the PCV valve won't function correctly and might suck oil into the intake.

Other things you can try are piston soaks (Berryman's B12, etc) or other snake oil treatments to try to unstick carbon-ed up rings (Marvel Mystery Oil, Rislone, Seafoam, etc) and they might help, but probably will not cure the issue.

The bad news is that nothing short of tearing it down and rebuilding is likely to completely fix the issue. I don't know what years were affected, but I've read of cases where some of the Mexican built engines had rings installed upside down!

 

[NewtonPulsifer]

The Grand Caravan went to an unlimited miles and years powertrain warranty in 2006+ because these motors had such a bad rep by then. Adjust expectations accordingly...

 

[350Rocket]

The Grand Caravan went to an unlimited miles and years powertrain warranty in 2006+ because these motors had such a bad rep by then. Adjust expectations accordingly...

I never heard of that warranty. Maybe it wasn't available here in Canada. Either way, those engines had a good rap in the garage I worked at. Same with the 3.3. I never heard much had about them other than they used some oil sometimes. And it was always the people who did extended oil changes that had oil usage in our experience.

 

[Jarlaxle]

The Grand Caravan went to an unlimited miles and years powertrain warranty in 2006+ because these motors had such a bad rep by then. Adjust expectations accordingly...

EVERYTHING went to lifetime powertrain warranty in 2006. My Magnum had it (actually, mine had a lifetime BtB warranty!), I know a guy whose wife's Charger is still under warranty with 380,000+ miles.

 

[ram_man]

OP asked above, "Should I change the pcv ?"

If it has one, yes. In any potential "neglected oil scenario" sludgy deposits may have built up.
The PCV may rattle but it may not be opening/closing fully. Also the spring inside ages.

Changing a PCV is common maintenance which likely wasn't performed anyway.

Did the vehicle come with any records?

Some records yes. The pcv valve was done I know that by looking at it but It’s not in the records but it’s not a Mopar pcv. It was also very clean. I did order a Mopar one last night though. The oil was changed religiously every 3,000 miles I have almost every oil change record.

 

[THORROMIG]

Those 3.8L motors were good motors back in the day and known to survive for many many miles. Recommend changing the PCV with OEM and going up to a 5W30 High Mileage motor oil. Personally, I would add or supplement a bottle of the Rislone High Mileage engine treatment for a full OCI paired with a decent oil filter. Dont fret the haters and keep motoring with that 3.8L and good luck.

 

[dishdude]

Those Chrysler 3.8 motors are kind of notorious for it. I know two different people who lemon lawed vehicles over those motors chugging oil. I don’t know anybody who has lemon lawed a Honda motor of that era. Come to think of it I haven’t even heard of anybody lemon lawing a Honda over a motor ever.

I’m not saying they’re terrible...but they’re not great motors.

P.S. I don’t have a bias - Pentastar is awesome.

PPS The Isuzu motors Honda re-sold weren’t great either on second thought

I'm not sure why we're talking about Hondas, but there is no shortage of oil burning Honda 3.5s.

 

[JHZR2]

Does MO have smog testing? If not, Im not sure if Id be that concerned, at least until you get a CEL.

You bought a 100k mile van that was on its second owner. I dont know the history, it might have been a rental before that. If so, it might have only had one oil change at 10k or so, maybe not even a second until it was sold! Who knows... The good news is that you have lots of records from the past owner, and you know that these engines are intrinsically oil burners.

My 91 BMW became an oil consumer as it went past 150k or so. It was a higher RPM engine though, and I could never place where the oil went. It didnt leak it, it had to have burned it, but it didnt smoke, and passed dyno smog tests. I think it had to be related to lots of highway mileage in a car geared with a 4.10 rear, so it wa always cruising at high RPM. That was, I guess, in its favor.

If the van smokes bad, thats one thing. If it smells bad, thats another. If it needs to pass a hard smog test, thats yet another. If none of those are the case, Id consider the fact that you got a good deal on what looks like a nice van, pick a good oil that is likely to cause minimal issues on the cat (lowest SAPS), and then run it. Chalk up the quart of oil to the money you saved buying a used car of that vintage. If you run a conventional low SAPS oil, what is it going to cost you? $20 over 5000 miles? Since this is an older engine, and WM SuperTech is well regarded as being "good enough", then its what, $13 every 5000 miles to feed it oil? Not bad in the end, especially when some folks believe that running some TCW-3 or similar oil at a low dose is good for these older engines. I would think about running a good PEA cleaner each oil change, in case deposits are forming, but again, whats that if you shop around? $5 every 3000-5000 miles? Not a huge deal considering that you got a good deal on a nice van. I would be sure that if you decided to go with a high mileage oil (not sure its really needed), that you ensure that you dont get one with boosted ZDDP, as that will help kill your cats, and thats not a great idea regardless of SMOG testing...

I would still run the compression test, and consider doing a soak, be it with MMO, Kreen, seafoam, etc. It may or may not help, but baselining the engine's health, and potentially getting insight into if a cylinder or cylinders are potential issues would be helpful including for your peace of mind. Have you pulled the plugs yet?

Good luck!

 

[Astro14]

Wait, didn’t you buy this thing last week?

From where did you buy it? Isn’t there some kind of 30 day warranty on a used vehicle in your area?

 

[JHZR2]

^ It was a family sale due to the old lady who owned it having passed away.

It has all the records since 17k miles apparently, so it probably was sold as-is. One would have to wonder if the sellers even knew of the situation...

 

[supton]

I wonder if it's just the way it is. A quart per 1k is annoying, but unless if he's doing 30k/year in the thing, I wonder if it's low in the scheme of things.

My father had a van that towards the end was chugging oil at a rate of a quart per 100 miles--when it finally dipped below that, the engine got replaced. But at 100 miles per quart the thing never smoked. Two (?) cylinders out of 6 were bad, we knew that from plug fouling, but it never smoked. It did decide to open up the cat one day, in dramatic fashion, but no emissions testing, so it got patched and life went on.

 

[OVERKILL]

^ It was a family sale due to the old lady who owned it having passed away.

It has all the records since 17k miles apparently, so it probably was sold as-is. One would have to wonder if the sellers even knew of the situation...

Old lady driving profile isn't great, as there's never much in the way of load. I will reiterate my recommendation for a run or 2 of Valvoline Premium Blue Restore, which may free up stuck oil control rings that could be contributors to the consumption.

 

[eljefino]

Grab a sample of the oil you drained, mostly to see what viscosity it was, for a baseline. In case someone put STP or something in it.

 

[aquariuscsm]

Makes me wonder if that's really the reason they unloaded it.

 

[Cujet]

10W-30 or 10W-40 HM synthetic oil will help.

 

[addyguy]

Doesn’t this engine have a problem with piston rings that were installed upside-down or something?

No oil is really going to fix that...don’t people just have live with it unless they rebuild the engine?

 

[ripcord]

Who knows how many cars that was true about, but the internet myth making about the upside down rings was that they were in some engines produced in Mexico.

 

[leroyd92]

Had a customer with the same issue. Switched to cheap diesel oil and after 18 months it randomly stopped consuming oil. Switched to a 10w30 and still didn't burn oil.

 

[Supersonic]

Do the easy stuff first, new PCV and try 10w30 or 10w40 till late fall, than another change to 5w30 for winter. Having not know what was put in for last oil change could be a factor as in a 0w20 being used. Check valve covers for leaks.