My 82 SR5 is using a good amount of oil. Question is, how do I figure out where it's using from? How do I know if it's from the top end or bottom end?

 

Maybe it is your rings...............mine are going out on my 82 2wd and I burn a qt a week.

 

I understand that. My question is, how would I know if it's my rings or something else?

 

Just how much are you using??? Just how many miles??

Are you getting a lot of blue smoke?? getting any blow by at all.

If it is that bad you don`t just want to do head work even if the bottom end is fine.

Valve job and guides will have a bearing knocking in a few days to a few weeks

If it is bad enough time to do a rebuild.

 

I fill up every 200-250 miles and it takes about 1 quart to top it off each time. I only get blue smoke after I've driven it for about 10 miles or more and I kill the engine. After that, it's really tough to start and I can see blue smoke out of the tail pipe.

 

I'd say if it blows smoke on startup it's top end related, likely valve stem seals. If it's while driving, especially after slowing down and then taking off, you're probably looking at rings. That's what mine has been doing, and i saw gouges in the cylinder bore when i had the head off a couple weeks ago.

 

I was going through about the same amount of oil in my 83 before I broken down my engine for a rebuild. Mine was cause by a combination of very deteriorated valve seals, a broken piston ring land on the #2 cylinder and burnt/worn rings. I still had very good compression (175-185psi) on all cylinders, but obviously all the internal components weren't doing their job properly if I was blowing through that much oil. The machine shop said the the wear on the cylinders was only about 0.006" - not really that bad for a 30 year old engine with 138,000 miles on it. I rebuilt the head and I'm having the block bored out to 0.020" and should be getting it back from the machine shop on Friday. Hopefully putting it back together this weekend.

 

Sounds like ya'll got it all figured out.