How can I minimize oil burning

[crc13]

I have 1000 miles on my oil change, and I can see it is down to the minimum line. It is a 94 v6 with 215k on it. How can I fix this burning problem? Or is it just on its way out? Thanks.

[carsrus]

Run 10w40 high mileage conventional oil, year long. What kind of oil are you using now? 10w30?

If it doesnt smoke a cloud when you turn it on or after you rev up at a stop light, this should help it.

Oh and give it a couple oil changes for the full effect to kick in. It takes the oil a bit of time to swell the seals a bit, especially on an older engine. Also cheak to see if you dont have a real slow leak, since that can be mistaken as burning since you never see oil puddles on the ground.

[crc13]

I am using castrol high mileage 10w 30. It smokes in the morning when I start it up, but then it is fine.

[carsrus]

Up it to 10w40 then. You probably have worn valve guide stems, but on an engine that old youd have to at least do a top end rebuild to replace those. Not really worth the effort since adding a quart between changes isnt to hard lol.

Good power in the engine? Not to sluggish or anything? If its good just up to the 10w40 and watch your oil level every once in a while.

[Stillrunning]

Originally Posted by crc13

Or is it just on its way out?

Take a compression test.

[crc13]

Seems to be good, it runs really smooth.

[PhatRoyale]

+1 on running a thicker grade of oil.

[fenixus]

Originally Posted by crc13

I am using castrol high mileage 10w 30. It smokes in the morning when I start it up, but then it is fine.

Originally Posted by carsrus

Up it to 10w40 then. You probably have worn valve guide stems, but on an engine that old youd have to at least do a top end rebuild to replace those. Not really worth the effort since adding a quart between changes isnt to hard lol.

Good power in the engine? Not to sluggish or anything? If its good just up to the 10w40 and watch your oil level every once in a while.

i'm gonna tell you my trick and some of members will agree on that and some will say no way.
all depends on mileage and condition of your gaskets around engine, up to you if you wanna try that. beware, you may need to replace some leaky gaskets after a few months though.

try switching to fully synthetic oil, like Mobil1 or Valvoline with some good OEM/Denso/WIX/Purolator PureOne/M1 oil filters for a year. that's what i did, and magically the white/blueish puff of smoke in morning disappeared, no need for the valve stem seals job. not sure if it helps you, as you engine drinks oil (mine didn't), but it would be worth a try I think.

[Jason.MZW20]

Sure it's not leaking out? The lateral main bearing bolts have oil seals that need to be replaced, so oil can leak there. Both oil pans will leak over time as the RTV shrinks from age. The front and rear main oil seals, camshaft seals, etc. etc.

Now, if it is burning oil, piston ring problems usually show on deceleration, when a low pressure area is created above the piston, which then pulls oil past the piston rings and into the combustion chamber. So, you'd have to avoid rapid engine deceleration, which is pretty much impossible in everyday traffic. During acceleration or steady cruising, the piston rings should seal pretty well, but there may be scratches in the cylinder wall where oil may seep past and burn as well, but the majority of oil burning with worn piston rings comes from decelerating.

If it's from worn valve stem seals, well there's really no way to curb oil burning other than running a thicker viscosity or by using those thick additives that curb oil burning temporarily (though I wouldn't use them in the winter for obvious reasons).

[peshwa]

First off be sure its really an oil burning and not a slow oil leak.
Try implementing an oil catch can to isolate the issue (blow by Vs burning oil).
Switch to Mobil 1 10W40 High Mileage + purolator pure one filter for relatively shorter ~3000K OCI.
Lastly ensure you always carry a quart of 10W30 High Mileage oil in your call at all times.
Al the best!

[73sport]

Make sure all the PCV lines and valve are clean. If plugged, the engine builds pressure internaly and will force it out somewhere. This includes, seals, gaskets, valve-stems ect. . . This might mean removing the valve covers to unplug restricted ports and cleaning or replacing PCV lines. Well, the front valve cover especially, the rear has the check valve. Just confirm both move a large volume of air freely.

No real easy way to test the valve cover other than blowing air into them and IF you do this, remove the oil fill cap so the air has a place to go otherwise you can blow out seals.

I don't know that I can jump on the band wagon and say "add thicker oil to decrease oil consumption". Does anyone have any data that supports this? Critical clearances are still critical clearances and they need oil. Higher viscosity oil is meant for warmer temperatures, Period! My point is that it may actually make the condition worse by increasing wear as the intended parts get less oil.

Reduce your oil change interval to a max of 2500 to 3000 miles!. When driving in town, take the o/d button off so the engine doesn't work as hard by lugging about. You need to increase oil circulation not decrease it. This will help.

Please tell us about your driving style and "how long you've had the car and drivin it this way". What are your OCI's?

[Jason.MZW20]

A thicker oil will only reduce oil consumption on cold starts when the tolerances are a little bigger. It also helps internal oil seepage past the valve stem seals overnight. After that, it's all the same. Thicker oils have more room to thin out over time as well, which will also curb some of the oil burning.

My dad's 91 MR2 (after about 180k on the original engine), would burn about 1 quart every 500-700 miles (worse with 10W-30/40, so it HAD to use 20W-50). It also had low compression and would have difficulty starting, but once started, it ran like a champ when warm.

Most of the oil ended up on the rear bumper as oil sheen or mixed with black soot. That's how bad it was. Lasted to about 192k when the motor finally developed rod knock. I didn't expect it to last that long, but I was hoping for 200k. Overly advanced timing was partly to blame, but it was the only way I could get any reasonable performance out of a 3/4-dead motor.

[rty]

Originally Posted by fenixus

i'm gonna tell you my trick and some of members will agree on that and some will say no way.
all depends on mileage and condition of your gaskets around engine, up to you if you wanna try that. beware, you may need to replace some leaky gaskets after a few months though.

try switching to fully synthetic oil, like Mobil1 or Valvoline with some good OEM/Denso/WIX/Purolator PureOne/M1 oil filters for a year. that's what i did, and magically the white/blueish puff of smoke in morning disappeared, no need for the valve stem seals job. not sure if it helps you, as you engine drinks oil (mine didn't), but it would be worth a try I think.

Wouldn't switching to a full synthetic just make it burn more oil since it's supposedly thinner?

[fenixus]

Originally Posted by rty

Wouldn't switching to a full synthetic just make it burn more oil since it's supposedly thinner?

hell knows if it's even burning oil on his car ... I am not convinced. as far as i remember (might have missed something) there is no blue smoke from the exhaust pipe ever?

I would always try synthetic with OCI cut into half, even for the cost of causing more oil leaks to already leaking gaskets, it can clean engine insides and dismiss lots of minor issues (carbon deposits, sludge, dirt on cylinder walls, etc.) thanks to its strong cleaning package ... unless it's already too late for anything and all we talking about is making the engine run a little longer until it eventually dies anyways.

[LittleWhiteBubble]

If it only smokes on startup and you don't see smoke on acceleration then there's most likely a leak. The high mileage stuff does take a while to kick in like carsrus already mentioned (several changes usually) but it does help. I had a ranger with a very slight oil pan leak, and after about a years worth of regular 3k oil changes on high mileage 10w30 it was still damp but no longer leaking. I used to work at a jiffy lube (not my finest job) but we had a lot of repeat customers at my store and we document leaks for insurance purposes so people don't blame the leaks on us when they were already there. And I've seen cars that were switched to high mileage that had notably reduced leaks after several changes. Lucas oil stabilizer might help too, I've never used it but I've never heard bad things about it, and their power steering stop leak most definitely works.