I'm looking for any experience the hive has with this issue. I've tried Lucas oil additive with some success, and found this researching additives https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-bU6SByP0Y.
I'm looking at the high mileage oils for the seal conditioners and wear additives, but boosting those IMHO would be a good idea.
Thoughts?
Oil additives are mostly snake oil that often end up diluting (or outright fighting) the existing, carefully engineered add pack in the oil more than anything. The actual "high mileage" oils will generally slow leaks with a bit more seal conditioner, not do much for burning. If you don't intend to attack the problem directly, feed it cheap 15w40 diesel oil, spin on a new filter every 4000 miles, and be done.
Do you have any idea why it's burning oil? How often does it see redline?
I want to prolong the life of the engine as long as possible. It's not rattling or running bad, just consuming a lot of oil. I live in Indiana, where we see negative and plus 100 degree temps, so heavy diesel oil wouldn't be an option in the winter. I've used 5W30 Mobil1 for the last 130k miles, w/changes every 3500 miles.
The regular M1 5w30 is pretty thin stuff in grade. I'd bump up to the High Mileage 10w30, or better yet the HM 10w40 (very low Pour Point despite the grade; I run it all year in NY, should be OK in Indiana). 5w40 HD synthetics may be an option as well.
Thanks 02Pilot. I'll try that for the next 2 oil changes.
Nice, I like the useful info here.
You're literally burning money pouring M1 in an engine burning a quart in 750 miles. A 4.3 chevy will not mind thicker oil at all, pouring a bottle of Lucas in it pretty much turns 5w30 into E36 M3ty 15w40 anyhow.
Heavier grade oils sometimes increase oil burning, if the oil rings are really weak. It may be harder to scrape off the cylinder walls, so it stays up there and gets burnt.
If you want to prolong life, all you have to do is keep enough oil in the sump. Eventually it will start burning enough to foul spark plugs, and then it just gets ugly. Until then, buy a case of the cheapest oil you can find, and keep pouring it through.
^^ I agree
I have used Restore a couple times with minimal success.
Never use thicker oil to crutch a failing engine. What you might save in oil pressure, you lose in main and rod bearings.
In reply to curtis73:
If you start losing bearings from running Xw40 in a old 4.3, I'll eat my shoes. Running straight STP oil treatment I could believe that happening, maybe.
The amount of mythos surrounding engine lubrication never ceases to amaze me.
That's pretty low mileage for a 4.3 to be using that much oil. Mine didn't burn a drop at 200k in my Safari van. It had M1 10w30 since day one.
In reply to Nick_Comstock:
That's why I asked about how often it sees redline. Anything will gunk the rings up and/or glaze bores if you baby it long enough, a thorough beating will usually fix the problem.
Also, check the PCV system.
check the pcv valve... might be bad, causing it to suck oil into the intake.. also check the crankcase vent, if it's plugged it might not be breathing right and sucking oil instead of fresh air.
if i had an engine that used that much oil, it would be getting the cheapest of the cheap dino oil that i could find.. hell, it would be lucky if it wasn't getting oil drained out of something else.. but it would definitely not be getting Mobil 1 synthetic..
A few of the cars we deal with at work are smokers, due to the nature of the engines and how little the cars run, the owners are sometimes hesitant to do a rebuild until it's worn right out.
We've got a car that smokes if we use straight 30wt in it.
The Lucas non-synthetic straight 50w (the blue stuff) is the closest thing to "mechanic in a can" I've ever seen. Stops the smoking pretty much right away, quiets the engine a bit and brings the oil comsumption right down.
I wouldn't try it on a good engine but when it's worn enough to use oil, the damage is already done.
FWIW, we've tried a simple test with a couple oils, just pouring them through a measured orifice and found that synthetics of the same weight flow a lot easier than dino oils. Don't use synthetic in an engine that is worn enough to use oil, it will probably just use it faster.
My own experience with worn engines that are having oil get past rings and down along valves is viscosity is the driving factor to how fast they go through the oil. Thin oil gets past it quicker and the loss rate is high. Thick oil doesn't get past as quickly so the loss rate is lower.
As for slobbering seals, I have observed the high-mileage oils do seem to reduce oil loss. Not by a lot, but by a bit. I have used a seal fixer in a can once that actually worked. Set up like a sandy goo in front of leaking seals, creating a reasonably good seal that reduced the oil loss significantly. I'm sure it blinded the oil filter almost instantly. No recollection what the product was, other than it came in a pop-top can and the instructions were to add it slowly to a running engine.
I also have to say that I would not be using a synthetic in something that's been slurping oil. It would be getting the cheapest oil I could find.
That being said I would do as novaderrik recommended.
Yeah, a diesel oil from a farm store or Wal-Mart, like 10-40 Delo 400 LE. I'd also want to know how it was losing the oil before I tried any sort of treatment. If it's stuck/gummed rings you would deal with that differently from bad seals.
novaderrik wrote: check the pcv valve... might be bad, causing it to suck oil into the intake.. also check the crankcase vent, if it's plugged it might not be breathing right and sucking oil instead of fresh air. if i had an engine that used that much oil, it would be getting the cheapest of the cheap dino oil that i could find.. hell, it would be lucky if it wasn't getting oil drained out of something else.. but it would definitely not be getting Mobil 1 synthetic..
+2
I'm suprised no one has suggested a kerosene or atf flush. With that mileage it could be gummed up oil rings. I had an old Valiant that was using a quart every 250 miles. 2 quarts of kerosene in the oil, ran it for 1/2 hour at idle, fresh oil and filter. The next time it needed oil was 1200 miles later.
Well, it is a minivan, and as such doesn't see redline often...well hardly at all. Maybe I should beat on it a bit. I do think I'm going to try 10w40 High Mileage oil next round. I'm probably due for plugs/rotor/cap/wires as it's been done only once in its life. At that time I'll have the pcv system and vents checked.
Thanks guys.
This might be worth a try: http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/tech-tips/engine-degunking-with-atf/97162/page1/
Mobil Super High Mileage 10w40 is a good and cheap one in that grade.
does it USE oil, or is it leaking out X seal?
difference between eating oil and leaking oil...
It doesn't leave puddles, so I assume it's burning it.
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