I keep having to add a quart of oil to my car once every two weeks and I don't know where its going. My car doesn't smoke when running, theres no sign of oil in the coolant, none of the plugs look oily, PCV valve is dry, and there aren't any signs of it leaking and puddling on the ground. I've got a O2 bung welded into my exhaust before the cat and its got a fine layer of black soot on it but it's not oily. I don't drive the car a whole lot maybe 75 miles a week tops. Any thoughts as to where its going or things I could check would be appreciated.

 

If you don't see any oil on the underside of the engine, you're burning it. It may smoke when running even if you don't notice from inside the car.

As far as the pcv valve being dry, you may want to test it because it should have some oil residue in it. See if it has suction at idle.

I guarantee you'll find something if you just leave the car running and watch it closely. Could be an oil sender leaking onto your exhaust and burning up so you don't notice it or any number of other things.

 

Was talking to a friend of mine and he made a suggestion. Over Xmas I put new heads on the car. I didn't touch the short block. He thought it was possible I could have blown a ring with the fresh heads. Is this true??


I've put a filter inline with the PCV valve to see if oil is going through there. There is a light coat of oil inside of the pcv and the tube.

 

I think if that was true, you would most likely notice the oil burning and other things like plugs getting oiled up quickly and a loss of performance. It is possible if you've got excessive compression or detonation I guess. I'd bet that it is just normal wear on valve seals or the rings though. If you can get someone else to start the car up and trail them to see if you get any smoke coming out it may shed some light on the situation.

For reference, my motor started burning oil after 130k miles and when I took it apart there was evidence that the previous owner did not take good care of oil changes. If you noticed excessive sludge and varnish when you took the heads off, this may be indicative of a similar amount of wear. If you checked the condition of the cylinders that would be useful to know as well as if there was evidence of blowby.

 

Thanks for the replies. Apparantly you and I are the oly ones to have oil leaks. I don't think it's normal wear on the valve seals since the heads I put on this xmas were brand new. The cylinders looked fine when I was doing the swap as far as still being shiny and not having any scratches I could feel. No sludge or anything in the motor either. The previous owner took good care of it and I do oil changes every 3000 miles.