[Shotimes] Burning through oil like crazy
Paul Nimz
pnimz@v8sho.com
Tue, 31 Aug 2004 12:20:21 -0500
I had an oil leak on my '97 at the oil cooler. It ran through a quart in
600 miles. The entire bottom and back of the car was covered in oil.
Paul Nimz
'97 TR
'93 EG mtx
----- Original Message -----
From: "Donald Mallinson" <dmall@mwonline.net>
To: <shotimes@autox.team.net>
Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 2004 9:00 AM
Subject: Re: [Shotimes] Burning through oil like crazy
> You answered your own question.
>
> IF a car is leaking badly it will leave lots of spots (puddles in other
> words, just not ones big enough to go swimming in) because the entire
> underside of the car will be wet. Also, if you let the car idle at all,
> the puddles/spots, get a lot bigger.
>
> The point is, if you are leaking enough oil outside the engine to make it
> use a quart in 500 or fewer miles, it WILL be noticable, you won't have to
> guess where the oil is going.
>
> My 89 uses (through leaks or otherwise) a quart in about 4000 miles, at 16
> years old and 190,000 miles, I am thrilled with this low useage. We can
> safely assume that most of that is normal use (past the rings and valve
> seals), and a tiny bit is from leakage. My car leaves noticable drips
> under the car every time it is parked, and yet, still uses less oil than
> most New cars that have no outside leaks yet.
>
> Yes you are right that oil in the pan won't run uphill (a bit obvious) and
> leak when the car is sitting still and not running. But oil that is
> already past the leak point will continue to run and all that oil on the
> pan, subframe, block, tranny and even the floorpan, WILL continue to drip
> for over a day!
>
> I once looked at a Civil Defense vehicle for sale (I have a weakness for
> Pontiacs of all types) that had a leak that would effect oil level in
> record time. There was a steady stream of oil from the rear main that
> would probably leak a quart in about 20-30 minutes at idle. But even a
> minor leak can coat the underside of a car in several days of use. But
> the amount of oil lost will be a lot less than an ounce.
>
> Don Mallinson
>
> cmichaelo@optonline.net wrote:
>> 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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