dgomes

I am slowly losing my engine fluids..

My oil is usually down a quart by around 3-4000 km. Not sure where it is going as I don't have any blue smoke and there are no spots on my driveway. I usually top it up for another 1000km and them do the oil change at 5000km. It is -"freeze your knackers off" here and I don't have a garage to work in so crawling around underneath the truck out in the snow and wind is not much fun right now. I have been thinking about getting a compression tester and seeing if I have piston ring or valve problems. Ring or valve problems will result in burning oil, right? What kind of PSI am I looking for with the compression test? I have read some of the other posts and know that if I put a little oil in the cylinder and the pressure increases i likely have a ring problem, if there is no increase and still low pressure, likely a valve problem, right?

I am also losing coolant. About a litre a week is disappearing, again there are no drips in my driveway and no visible leaks that I can find on the engine. My oil is not foamy brown and there is no oil in my coolant. My thermostat is less that a year old and I have replaced the rad cap today. Maybe I should go to Toyota and get one of those dual valve thermostats. I do get some white smoke/moisture from the exhaust but I am not sure if that is just because it is so cold here right now. We have been having nasty winter here in southern Ontario for a solid 8 weeks now. I do have some heat in the truck, but it is not near as warm as it should be. Maybe this is a sign of something or maybe I just need to get all the holes in the rear wheel wells welded up.. lol

I also noticed something else, I pulled the oil dipstick while the engine was running to check for milky foam and noticed that my idle reduced when the dipstick was out and immediately returned to normal when I put the stick back in. Is this normal or a sign of something else?

Trailmaster450

well not to sure on the other stuff but its suppost to drop idle when the dipstick is out..its almost like a vacume leak in a way..look at the dipstick theres a rubber seal on it and thats what keepps the seal to the motor

dcg9381

I wouldn't worry about the idle issue when pulling the dipstick too much.

Cold, eh? Here in TX it's frigging hot.. I'm ready to swap.

I'd suggest a leak down test.. It sounds like you have the fabled head gasket issue, you're getting a small amount of water into the cylinder. Not enough for you to notice, but ever see white smoke at start up? Leak down will also give you condition of the rings, acceptable leak down should be less than 8-9%. It's a slightly more expensive tool and requires a compressor...

Pressurize each cylinder, listen for bubbles in the radiator.

DaveInDenver

My guess is there's a HG issue, too. There are a couple of reasons you'd over pressurize the crankcase. The rubber on the dipstick is not a pressure seal, it just keeps dust out and oil from splashing out. First is PCV valve is stuck, second is a HG issue and finally blow-by past the rings. If you were losing or burning oil I would say the PCV or rings are the problem (PCV is very common), but with the coolant loss I'd have to think head gasket.