Disappearing oil?

You wouldn’t believe the hard time I have explaining to people that just because you have synthetic oil in your car doesn’t mean you can run 15-20k miles on an oil change. Engines consume oil. Just a fact. What ever happened to the days of pulling the dipstick out and checking it every now and then. Out of 10 cars that come into my shop for oil changes, 7 of them have no oil touching the dipstick. Valvoline is our oil supplier and they are not covering anything above 3k miles for oil changes. So our reminder stickers are set at 3k intervals no matter what oil you run.

 

Ahhh.....but they do.

 

If I’m remembering correctly most German vehicles want Mobil 1 full synthetic 5w-40 in them.

 

I believe and have seen it as well. Shoot. Easy enough to find on any YouTube searches. The push for extended drain intervals with the push for thinner weight oils taxes them even more. Aside from checking the oil level, the potential to break down the oil and cause it to thicken up into a sludge ,which cakes everything, increases significantly.

 

I had an old dodge caravan come in and the old fart swore by penzoil and that is all he ever wanted and ran in that pile of crap. I replaced the oil pan gasket and of course I find the balancer shaft chain sitting in the bottom of the pan along with about 3/4 inches of sludge.

 

They are using 20 weights in a lot of their engines. The ones using 20 weight are engineered for it. Pretty much on the fringe end of with tolerances strengths( another tolerance) can handle. Some engines cannot take the increase in weight to a 30. Stresses the components too much. With negative consequences. In those cases, manufactures have warned owners that straying from their OCI, with and done with their oil or at their facilities, will cause the warranty to be dropped.

An engine designed on for 20 weight oil, is directly impacted by that. From both the oil and the manufacturing. They are inherently connected.

Luckily for the Toyota 2TR owners, that short block is the robust 2rz/3rz short block. Just using "energy saving" 20 weight.

 

True, oil consumption (burning) is normal in all engines. The question is, how much? The cylinder walls have a very thin coat of oil, then add the combustion event... a very small amount will burn in normal operation but usually it's not enough to be a problem between oil changes. Plus, sometimes gas slowly gets into the oil, or there are other reasons why the oil level does not indicate the real amount of consumption. Some manufacturers state a "normal" amount of consumption, which varies greatly across manufacturers and models. I never had a healthy engine that consumed any significant amount of oil, only a couple very high mileage engines that obviously burned oil and needed topping off every ~1000 miles.

My boss' GMC Sierra burns oil like crazy (designed with lower piston ring tension to "reduce internal friction"), GM says the rate of consumption is normal but he is not happy about it.

I agree with these... possibly a PCV issue

 

As for some of these comments, I don't expect the oil even if it's synth to last what anyone says, I check the dipstick often, and always replace at 5k. I will go with 5-20 though as my manual suggests 0-20 or 5-20, I was just using 0-20 because it shows what's best ( supposedly) to outside temp.

I checked the PCV valve and it looks good (clean), and works good. I will do compression test because it's easy enough and doesn't cost much for the tool. Then change oil to 5-20 and add marvel mystery and give it 500 miles and go from there, that is if compression is ok.

 

I went 10k last oci, going 12.5k with the next one but do get oil analysis done

What's the marvel mystery supposed to do?

 

someone recommended marvel mystery oil or seafoam to clean out the carbon buildup. After research it seems the mmo does a better job, especially if you use it on a somewhat regular basis.

 

Read this forum:

https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/forum_summary

A good resource

 

I did a compression test today: dry / wet
cyl 4 140 / 140
3 125 / 125
2 130 / 130
1 122 / 145

I started with cyl 4 and it seems I didn't put enough oil until my 4th try on cyl 1. Other than 4 being higher than the rest they don't seem too bad. I took a pic of 1 spark plug because they all looked the same, decent condition, no oil. I also changed the oil ( it was close enough anyway) and used 5-20 high mileage. Next gas fill up I will add techron fuel additive. I will see how this goes for a few thousand miles before I comment again unless someone sees a problem with these results. I did a thorough cleaning and didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Manual says 1 qt loss every 1k. Maybe it was simply from changing from 5-20 to 0-20 synth?
Thanks again!

 

Seems kinda low to me. Maybe all the rings are getting worn out