Oil Consumption

[mattferguson14]

So, I've been emailing back and forth with the third owner of my VX (I am the 8th!). He put a rebuilt motor in the truck at around 60k. The ODO says 126k right now, so that means the rebuild has around 66k on it. Even though the miles are pretty low, my truck consumes a ton of oil.. I've run 2 tanks through it and have had to add an entire quart of oil! Is this normal? Any way to slow the consumption? Where is the oil actually going? Also, on another note, the 3rd owner sent me some pics of when he owned the truck and it was immaculate and had a ton of really cool mods (custom red and black Corbeau CLOTH seats that were really cool looking, LED lights all around, LED "horn" lights, white light up gauges, LED under hood lights, custom skid plates, leather bra, the list goes on and on...) and a pile of receipts and service records. He passed these records and all mods, as well as all of the OEM parts on to the next owner, who evidently stripped the truck back to stock and sold all of the aftermarket parts! Shame on you 4th owner! Whoever you are... :mad:

[MSHardeman]

Your oil consumption doesn't sound out of line....to me. The oil consumption is a hit or miss thing in our VX's as some burn a LOT of oil and others don't burn any. My original engine burned 3/4 of a quart of oil every 350 miles (give or take). It did that from the day I bought it with 35,000 miles on it all the way until the day I had to have the engine replaced at 140,000 miles. Just to be clear, I had to replace my engine due to a burnt valve in cylinder three, not because it ran out of oil.

The standing theory is that the original engines had inadequate and/or too few oil drain back holes in the ring lands. Since the oil can't drain back into the case, through the drain back holes, it gets burned up during combustion and blown out the tail pipe. Since it really isn't burning a lot of oil at once there usually isn't the tell tale white/blue smoke. Isuzu actually corrected this on the later versions of our engines by drilling more/larger drain back holes in the ring lands eliminating the oil burning issue. It sounds like the reman engine that you have didn't have the new piston's installed so it still has the oil burning issue.

As long as you keep an eye on your oil consumption you should be just fine. Most of us check our oil at every fill up and top it off as needed.

[JoFotoz]

Oil Consumption is normal... yours is not outrageous at all.

See here...


http://www.vehicross.info/forums/search.php?searchid=618110

jo

[mattferguson14]

Thanks guys, I feel better now. Is there a big difference between running straight 10W30 versus a full synthetic? If I'm having to add a quart every other week, the 10W30 is a lot more cost effective :D

[MSHardeman]

Since you're in Arizona I don't think that there will be a big difference between 10w30 or a full synthetic. Since you asked the question, and I had never figured it out, I did the math on my oil consumption over the years and it wasn't pretty. I switched to synthetic right when I bought the VX at 35,000 miles. I replaced the engine at about 140,000 miles and it drank 3/4 of a quart every 350 miles. So 140,000 minus 35,000 equals 105,000 miles, divided by 350 equals 300 times that I used 3/4 of a quart of oil. So 300 times .75 equals 225 quarts used at $7 (conservatively) per quart equals $1,575 spent on oil outside of oil changes. OUCH!

[mattferguson14]

Yeah, I think I'll stick with conventional. check this out though, this is from the Q&A section on Valvoline's SynPower website:


"I heard that synthetic oil is too thin for use in an older car and creates blow-by and burn-off. Is this true?"

"This is only true if the blow-by problem exists prior to using a synthetic engine oil. If you have a leaking or blow-by problem, synthetic oils can make the issue worse, but they do not cause it to happen."

Since these VXs have a blow-by problem, could it possibly cause more oil consumption switching to full synthetic?

Also, a friend of mine suggested switching to a straight 30 weight oil. He said it may slow the consumption. What are your thoughts on this? Any other suggestions on lowering consumption? What are your thoughts on Lucas oil stabilizer??

[tom4bren]

Matt,

My VX doesn't seem to burn much but my Amigo sure does.

I had a thread that showed a couple of things to try to decrease the oil consumption & I think it helped. I was putting a quart a week in & now I'm only adding one every other week.

Basically I just replaced the PCV with a canister that I purchased from ebay. I also modified a replacement oil fill cap with a breather/filter attached.

I'll try to remember to post a link to that thread - you'd probably find it an interesting read. It turned into a real pissing match.

Since the canister is less than $20 & the breather/filter less than $10, it's worth a shot.

Tom

[Mile High VX]

I think that this is the one you're looking for...it was quite the entertainment for awhile...:p

http://www.vehicross.info/forums/showthread.php?t=24634&highlight=breather

[circmand]

The standing theory is that the original engines had inadequate and/or too few oil drain back holes in the ring lands. Since the oil can't drain back into the case, through the drain back holes, it gets burned up during combustion and blown out the tail pipe.


Wouldn't using the thinest oil with less viscosity flow through the holes quicker and thus reduce oil consumption?

[MSHardeman]

You would think that that would be the case, but sometimes the oil drain back holes get gummed up so it doesn't matter what viscosity you use because no oil can drain back anyway. Also, there aren't enough drain back holes so as the piston moves down in it's stroke, and the piston rings scrape the oil off of the cylinder walls, there just isn't enough area for the volume of oil to escape so some is left on the piston walls which gets burned up during combustion. I also heard somewhere that our piston rings aren't the best things out there so there is some slop in them that allows some oil to get by. We're just hosed.:(

[circmand]

say an additive that you can put in to reduce the build up and clean or breakdown the gunk?

[MSHardeman]

I'll let others chime in here if they have had some success, but I haven't really seen anything that anyone has tried work very well. Some have reduced their oil consumption, but as far as I know no one has completely stopped it on one of the original engines. Jerry Lemond suggested running Rotella oil? Can someone verify that? I think it's a diesel engine oil and it is supposed to have more solvents in it to help keep things clean.