Oil Consumption Experience?

[GrazniM]

I tried some searches on what folks see with oil consumption, but havn't had much luck finding relevant info. For those of you that change your own oil and take note of what comes out, I was wondering how much much their MM's consumed between oil changes.

As for me, I've been seeing around .5 to .7 quart consumption on a 3000 mile change of 5w-20 Mobil 1 syn. I've got 36K on the clock. Normal? Don't know, I've had rides that don't seem to consume any.

[Black Dynamite]

Mine has 52k on it and I use 1/4 to 1/2 qt between oil changes. I've spent a lot of time reading threads on here and from what I gather the DOHC setup causes the PCV to let a little oil through. I'm sure some of the real gear heads on here can offer a better explanation of what happens. Apparently normal but I was a little surprised when I first had the car as well.

P.S. you can buy a PCV valve pre-filter to catch that oil.

Hope this helps. :D

[Marauderjack]

168K miles and it has never used any oil (5K mile oil changes)!!!:bows:

First car I've owned that doesn't consume some between changes??:eek:

BTW, the last 85K miles have been with a ProCharger on her!!!:beer:

Marauderjack:burnout::burnout:

[ckadiddle]

In three years I have not noticed any oil consumption between changes. Still under 50000 miles though.

[GrazniM]

The PVC thought seems easy enough to test - just to satisfy curiosity. I'm not certain, but I was thinking I may consume more when I am more consistantly stop-and-go around town, rather than on the highway. (Would make sense being that it's really tough to resist nailing it at the stop lights :D)

[RF Overlord]

The Blackbird with 53,000 miles, the last 20,000 with the Trilogy, burns less than ½ quart in 5,000 miles. Phoebe with just over 100,000 miles (N/A) burns about a quart or a little more in that same interval.

Ford says anything better than 1,000 miles per quart is acceptable.

[rkk]

As for me, I've been seeing around .5 to .7 quart consumption on a 3000 mile change of 5w-20 Mobil 1 syn.

I hear ya, that's precisely what I get, although I use 5w-30 Mobil 1 extended performance full synthetic. Almost at the 50K mark.

BTW, in case you're wondering, I switched from 5w-20 to 5w-30 because I heard in warmer climates that 5w-20 is too thin. Florida is hot.

[RF Overlord]

because I heard in warmer climates that 5w-20 is too thin. You heard wrong. Motorcraft 5W-20 performs just as well in Florida as it does in Saskatoon...but that's OK because 5W-30 is fine for this motor, too.

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

At 31k N/A, with 6,000 change intervals on Mobil 1, there is no consumption to speak of on my car. Not enough to notice moving from full on the stick at least. I run 5w-20 full synth year round. This is lots of stop and go driving and cold starts.

Your oil consumption is higher than some, but certainly "good enough" by american auto manufacturers' standards. I had a 3800 series II GM that was burning quite a bit of oil at low mileage, and the problem turned out to be intake gaskets degrading and sucking from the valley.

[J-MAN]

128,000 miles, 6000 between changes with AMSOIL 5-30 and a K&N filter. No detectable consumption.

[ROB502]

Mine has used .5 quart between oil changes every 3K-5K miles since new. The dealer told me "It's a Ford sir thats normal and not excessive till two quarts every 3K miles". :rolleyes:

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

2 quarts at 3k miles would be burning so much oil it would kill your catalytic converter.

[larryo340]

2 quarts at 3k miles would be burning so much oil it would kill your catalytic converter.

Before I changed the valve seals in my old '92 GM it was smoking bad and using a quart every 500 miles. The seals were replaced at 120K, and I sold car to a friend at 185K it didn't require adding oil between the 3K oil changes. It did not drop down on the dipstick.

That said, I never replaced the cats on that car. I'm not sure but I think that oil won't hurt them, but raw fuel would.

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

Burning oil definitely will kill a cat, look it up on google.

[Ozz]

All engines use a little oil. How can this be, you ask, since my level doesn't change between oil changes?
Oil becomes diluted with gasoline as it blows by the rings. If your getting as much out as you put in at oil change time then whatever little oil is being lost is being replaced by gasoline and combustion crud that slips by the rings.

On my last vehicle (Dodge Dakota truck w/ ancient 5.9) if I didn't get on the highway for awhile the level would stay full but the first time I drove on the highway for any extended period, the level would drop dramatically. I believe the oil was heated enough while on the highway to vaporize some of the gasoline that had diluted the oil. This never happened in 'around town' driving. The truck did not smoke at all - nothing at startup, nothing during acceleration / deceleration. None. I assume that it burnt just a little all the time and that unless I did a lot of highway driving, the oil was replaced with gas - which then vaporized at higher rpms.

[larryo340]

Burning oil definitely will kill a cat, look it up on google.
I don't need google, I have my real life experience with my car plus my customers vehicles during 19 years in dealer service dept. It may shorten it's life but not clog it, unless of course you pour oil into the exhaust manifold :rolleyes:

I found this on google:

CAUSES OF CATALYST FOULING
To clean the exhaust, the catalyst inside the converter must be exposed to the hot exhaust gases. Lead, phosphorous and silicone can contaminate the catalyst and prevent it from working its magic. Lead used to be the most common contaminant, but is no more since it was eliminated from gasoline. Phosphorus is still a threat, and comes from motor oil. So if an engine is burning oil (http://www.aa1car.com/library/oil_consumption.htm)because of worn valve guides or rings, phosphorus will shorten the life of the converter. Blue smoke in the exhaust and an emissions failure are pretty good clues that the converter has been fouled with phosphorus.

[GrazniM]

I had an old beater that I used as a station car and wouldn't change the oil very often - the few times I did, it always came out black and really thin - "watery" would be putting it better. What I found is that if you abuse an engine like that long enough it starts leaking oil from everywhere - not good if you've just had your driveway done....




All engines use a little oil. How can this be, you ask, since my level doesn't change between oil changes?
Oil becomes diluted with gasoline as it blows by the rings. If your getting as much out as you put in at oil change time then whatever little oil is being lost is being replaced by gasoline and combustion crud that slips by the rings.

On my last vehicle (Dodge Dakota truck w/ ancient 5.9) if I didn't get on the highway for awhile the level would stay full but the first time I drove on the highway for any extended period, the level would drop dramatically. I believe the oil was heated enough while on the highway to vaporize some of the gasoline that had diluted the oil. This never happened in 'around town' driving. The truck did not smoke at all - nothing at startup, nothing during acceleration / deceleration. None. I assume that it burnt just a little all the time and that unless I did a lot of highway driving, the oil was replaced with gas - which then vaporized at higher rpms.

[RF Overlord]

^^^what larryo340 said^^^

The current API SM oil formulation calls for reduced levels of phosphorus specifically to address this issue. The P in motor oil usually comes from ZDDP (zinc dialkyldithiophosphate) which is an anti-wear agent. It's being replaced by other AW ingredients such as Boron...

You'd have to be burning a barrel-full of today's oil to contaminate the cats...

[Ozz]

GrazniM,
I changed the oil in the Dodge every 3k and didn't abuse it so it was a little different situation than your beater. It never leaked either.

[GrazniM]

GrazniM,
I changed the oil in the Dodge every 3k and didn't abuse it so it was a little different situation than your beater. It never leaked either.


I reread my post - what I meant to add was that the oil would have a slight odor of gasoline, so I think that piece of junk was doing what you pointed out, replacing the oil with unburned gas.

The fuel probably didn't burn off with all the short-local driving, and the total volume of fluid wouldn't go down much.

[hdwrenchtx]

u mean we are supposed to check the oil level? ever?

:burnout:

[GrazniM]

Only the Marauders Oil.

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

u mean we are supposed to check the oil level? ever?

Shouldn't need to if you don't leak/use any