[Shotimes] Burning through oil like crazy

[cmichaelo@optonline.net]

Don,

Why would it necessarily leave huge puddles when the car is NOT running and/or when the engine is NOT warm? I don't think is unlikely that an engine can loose more oil through seals when it's running than when it's not running. Also, a seal like the front mail seal, the oil level doesn't even reach up high enough to leak out through the seal. (I know this, or think that I know this, since I just replaced the front mail seal, and when I pulled the seal out there was not a single drop of oil coming out.)

So I think it is possible to loose oil through, say, the front mail seal while the car is running. But if it's leaking out the front mail seal AND your car is standing still, then the oil should drop onto the cat pipe and you SHOULD be able to smell/see it. While driving, I don't think oil leaking through the fron main seal would necessarily hit the pipe since all the turbulence under the car would blow the dripping oil elsewhere.

Michael
94MTX,green,BOS+,Koni/Intrax,Baer,Corbeau
SHO items for sale: http://hometown.aol.com/cmichaelo/for_sale.html

----- Original Message -----
From: Donald Mallinson <dmall@mwonline.net>
Date: Friday, August 27, 2004 8:02 am
Subject: Re: [Shotimes] Burning through oil like crazy

> If the car was leaking that much, it would leave HUGE 
> puddles under the car at night and the entire underside 
> would be coated with oil.  If it was leaking that much and 
> hitting the cat converter, you would be killing mosquito's 
> within a 10 mile radius with your smoke plume.  Since you 
> don't mention any smoke, it is going through your engine and 
> the cat converters(for a while at least) are eating up the 
> smoke.
> 
> SHO V6's are famous for sometimes (not all the time) having 
> the valve guides and then the seals go bad.  The oil goes 
> right into the combustion chamber and out the tailpipe.
> 
> Try this test:
> 
> run the car down a highway at 50-60 mph for a few miles in 
> high gear.  Then drop down to third so you are at about 4000 
> rpm and floor it....watch your rear view mirror.  You 
> normally would see a small greyish puff, but in your case 
> you will see a somewhat large cloud of bluish smoke.
> 
> My son's '89 used a quart in 100 (maybe 75) miles, and if 
> you didn't watch close upon doing this test you could miss 
> the puff.  He ran it at Mid-Ohio and after the first puff 
> (cleans out the combustion chamber and cat converters) the 
> car never made any noticable smoke, the cats do a superb job 
> of masking oil burning.
> 
> Nope, it isn't leaking, THAT you would never miss!
> 
> Don Mallinson
> 
> Eric Keller wrote:
> > My '90 stock 3.0 mtx with 136000 miles is going
> > through oil like there's no tomorrow.  I _may_ have
> > put 50 miles on the last quart.  It doesn't smoke out
> > the tailpipe.  There has always been some external
> > leakage, but I've been replacing seals and I don't
> > really see where the oil is coming out.  In fact, I
> > used to get a certain amount of smoke at stoplights,
> > and now I can smell oil, but considerably lower
> > amounts.  Maybe it's just missing the cats.
> > 
> > I'm a little stumped as to what to do next.  Any
> > ideas?
> > Eric
> > 
> > 
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