Ok, my car recently made a 1200 mile trip in 2 days and it went through 5 quarts of oil in that time frame. I've continued to put new oil in, but it keeps disappearing. LITERALLY.... I haven't been able to define one spot that it's leaking from that severely. There are a bunch of components wet from an oil leak under the car, but I can't trace where it's coming from... Looks like possibly the backside of the engine around the firewall?? I'm also having white smoke come out of the exhaust at startup AND while driving... Any ideas on what to do??

 

Sounds like you have major major issues with your engine.

Is it all dripping out? If you park the car running on the driveway for 30 minutes is there that much oil sitting on the ground? Or is it burning most of it?

Are you sure the smoke is white and not blue?

 

Well, I've come to accept that I have major issues with the engine (she just hit her 200,000 mile marker). And, no! There's never a drop of oil on the pavement that would make the problem a lot easier, i'd like to think... I don't think the smoke is blue... it's pretty white/greyish... but it reaks like gas??? People have told me to check the oil pan gasket, timing cover gasket, head gaskets.... But I want to be certain before I start just going at it. I would think it should be obvious where 5 quarts would go.....

 

It's not in the radiator is it? I'm not totally sure if that's possible, but there aren't many places all that oil can go.

Check your plugs. Sounds like you're burning it.

 

Plugs were mainly fine except number 8... the gap was closed and looked like carbon deposits on it?? is it even possible to burn that much oil in that amount of time? in retrospect, i did drive it from tn to florida... so... but the oil is STILL going somewhere....

 

Cooked rings will burn a ton of oil, but they will smoke like crazy esp under heavy throttle

Bad valve seals will also do it, but its rare during run as they like to leak over time. You see this from smoke at startup

The rich condition is either from #8 not firing at all or a different issue as the oil and fuel systems are never supposed to interact