need help related to an oil mystery of mine!
12-24-2011, 09:47 AM
#1
Registered User
Thread Starter
need help related to an oil mystery of mine!
Hope everyones having a great christmas eve so far, So 2 weeks ago I replaced my oil pan gasket which was the last place I had an oil leak. In the last few months I've replaced both my valve cover gaskets, and the oil sender gasket. When I did my oil pan gasket i put 5 quarts of royal purple 10W 30 and installed a fram tough guard filter. Well I checked my dip stick last night and there wasn't a drip on the stick. Couldn't find a single drop of oil anywhere on the engine or residual residue from an oil leak that would have dried. So I went and pulled all my plugs to see if i was burning oil, they were all dry with just a lil white carbon on the plugs. Checked the radiator and over flow for oil residue and found nothing, checked the exhaust and found nothing, so where is my oil going?
I'm baffled and want my oil to stay where i put it, any ideas would be heavily appreciated.
I'm baffled and want my oil to stay where i put it, any ideas would be heavily appreciated.
12-24-2011, 10:01 AM
#2
double check the oil level, fill to proper level. Start the vehicle and let it run. While it's running crawl under it and look. I know it sounds simple but that's where i would start. Get a good flashlight and sit there for a while and figure it out. Royal purple (unless it's a brand new high performance motor) is over kill in my opinion. I run regular oil in both my toyotas with a lucas additive. I gave up on the over priced fancy oil a long time ago. Just an opinion for what it's worth.
12-24-2011, 10:14 AM
#3
Registered User
Thread Starter
double check the oil level, fill to proper level. Start the vehicle and let it run. While it's running crawl under it and look. I know it sounds simple but that's where i would start. Get a good flashlight and sit there for a while and figure it out. Royal purple (unless it's a brand new high performance motor) is over kill in my opinion. I run regular oil in both my toyotas with a lucas additive. I gave up on the over priced fancy oil a long time ago. Just an opinion for what it's worth.
12-24-2011, 10:38 AM
#4
when i ran royal purple on my old truck it looked like regular oil when on the dipstick. Also when you changed the oil pan i'm assuming you drained all of the oil? I had a recent experience with something similar that will give you some food for thought. The story goes like this.
Two weeks ago i was called by my dad to come over and change the oil and service the f150. Usually i start the vehicle and let it warm up a little before draining the oil. This puts more oil into the rest of the engine and circulates it as well. I didn't start the truck this time and just drained the oil. I filled up with the regular amount of oil 5qts i recall and found after starting the truck the oil was about a quart low. I figured that since i didn't cycle the oil throughout the motor before changing that more oil left the system. I added another quart and set the proper level for the truck. The moral of the story? when you changed the pan gasket you may have let the motor go completely dry thus needing more oil to fill it back up before starting it. Truck runs fine and the motor isn't burning any oil.
Could this be true for your case? maybe but to be honest keep and eye on the level, keep checking for leaks, and the problem (if there really is one) should rear it's leaky head soon enough. The royal purple reference was more from personal experience than anything not bashing you for using it just saying i went down that road for a while and never found any improvement from using it even in a brand new motor.
Two weeks ago i was called by my dad to come over and change the oil and service the f150. Usually i start the vehicle and let it warm up a little before draining the oil. This puts more oil into the rest of the engine and circulates it as well. I didn't start the truck this time and just drained the oil. I filled up with the regular amount of oil 5qts i recall and found after starting the truck the oil was about a quart low. I figured that since i didn't cycle the oil throughout the motor before changing that more oil left the system. I added another quart and set the proper level for the truck. The moral of the story? when you changed the pan gasket you may have let the motor go completely dry thus needing more oil to fill it back up before starting it. Truck runs fine and the motor isn't burning any oil.
Could this be true for your case? maybe but to be honest keep and eye on the level, keep checking for leaks, and the problem (if there really is one) should rear it's leaky head soon enough. The royal purple reference was more from personal experience than anything not bashing you for using it just saying i went down that road for a while and never found any improvement from using it even in a brand new motor.
12-24-2011, 10:43 AM
#5
Registered User
Thread Starter
when i ran royal purple on my old truck it looked like regular oil when on the dipstick. Also when you changed the oil pan i'm assuming you drained all of the oil? I had a recent experience with something similar that will give you some food for thought. The story goes like this.
Two weeks ago i was called by my dad to come over and change the oil and service the f150. Usually i start the vehicle and let it warm up a little before draining the oil. This puts more oil into the rest of the engine and circulates it as well. I didn't start the truck this time and just drained the oil. I filled up with the regular amount of oil 5qts i recall and found after starting the truck the oil was about a quart low. I figured that since i didn't cycle the oil throughout the motor before changing that more oil left the system. I added another quart and set the proper level for the truck. The moral of the story? when you changed the pan gasket you may have let the motor go completely dry thus needing more oil to fill it back up before starting it. Truck runs fine and the motor isn't burning any oil.
Could this be true for your case? maybe but to be honest keep and eye on the level, keep checking for leaks, and the problem (if there really is one) should rear it's leaky head soon enough. The royal purple reference was more from personal experience than anything not bashing you for using it just saying i went down that road for a while and never found any improvement from using it even in a brand new motor.
Two weeks ago i was called by my dad to come over and change the oil and service the f150. Usually i start the vehicle and let it warm up a little before draining the oil. This puts more oil into the rest of the engine and circulates it as well. I didn't start the truck this time and just drained the oil. I filled up with the regular amount of oil 5qts i recall and found after starting the truck the oil was about a quart low. I figured that since i didn't cycle the oil throughout the motor before changing that more oil left the system. I added another quart and set the proper level for the truck. The moral of the story? when you changed the pan gasket you may have let the motor go completely dry thus needing more oil to fill it back up before starting it. Truck runs fine and the motor isn't burning any oil.
Could this be true for your case? maybe but to be honest keep and eye on the level, keep checking for leaks, and the problem (if there really is one) should rear it's leaky head soon enough. The royal purple reference was more from personal experience than anything not bashing you for using it just saying i went down that road for a while and never found any improvement from using it even in a brand new motor.
Trending Topics
12-25-2011, 12:00 AM
#9
Registered User
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: longmont, co
Posts: 69
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Thats what ya get for using that top shelf stuff. Some buddy' s boostyin all your oil. But theyre doing it smart, only a couple quarts a week. Heck, theyll have a nice oil change to start off the new year. they'll probly leave the filter since you didnt spring for the Xtended Guard 
im only kidding of course. Im not sure where its going but i hope you track it down. She may just be thirsty. Good luck.
im only kidding of course. Im not sure where its going but i hope you track it down. She may just be thirsty. Good luck.
12-25-2011, 07:14 AM
#11
Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: West Palm Beach, FL
Posts: 487
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Best way to find a leak in motor oil is to add leak detection dye, and use the UV leak detection light. You can get a kit at most any auto parts. If you use this, follow the instructions carefully, and you will be able to tell if there is a seeping anywhere on the motor. Small leaks are a pain to locate, and this dye will show you where they are. Have you checked the rear main seal area?
12-26-2011, 09:27 AM
#12
Registered User
Thread Starter
12-26-2011, 09:29 AM
#13
Registered User
Thread Starter
This is the hose that runs off the valve cover to the air intake right? all the hoses are tight and there is no real build up inside of the air intake or throttle body, I cleaned both of these about a week prior to doing my oil pan, and everything was still clean when i checked it.
12-26-2011, 09:32 AM
#14
Registered User
Thread Starter
my motor does have pretty high miles (265,XXX). but to my knowledge if it is burning oil, its a new development but I cant find any proof its doing so other than I can't figure out where my oils going. And its not just a quart disappeared, it wasn't on my dip stick after two weeks. so thats at least 2-3 quarts missing... thats alot of oil to go with out leaving a trace.
12-26-2011, 09:34 AM
#15
Registered User
Thread Starter
Best way to find a leak in motor oil is to add leak detection dye, and use the UV leak detection light. You can get a kit at most any auto parts. If you use this, follow the instructions carefully, and you will be able to tell if there is a seeping anywhere on the motor. Small leaks are a pain to locate, and this dye will show you where they are. Have you checked the rear main seal area?
12-26-2011, 09:36 AM
#16
Registered User
Thread Starter
[quote=MP's4R;51840862]Thats what ya get for using that top shelf stuff. Some buddy' s boostyin all your oil. But theyre doing it smart, only a couple quarts a week. Heck, theyll have a nice oil change to start off the new year. they'll probly leave the filter since you didnt spring for the Xtended Guard im only kidding of course. Im not sure where its going but i hope you track it down. She may just be thirsty. Good luck.[/quotey
haha, that would be a lil funny but no one around here knows whats in my truck other than my family so it seems highly unlikely. and whats this xtended guard you speak of? haha, think autozone only carries up to the tough guard with the fram products.
im only kidding of course. Im not sure where its going but i hope you track it down. She may just be thirsty. Good luck.[/quoteyhaha, that would be a lil funny but no one around here knows whats in my truck other than my family so it seems highly unlikely
. and whats this xtended guard you speak of? haha, think autozone only carries up to the tough guard with the fram products.
12-26-2011, 11:14 AM
#17
Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2011
Posts: 126
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I posted this in another thread, this may explain where your oil is going.
You only lose oil 2 ways; you leak it or you burn it.
If it's leaking enough to make a difference you're going to know, so I'm assuming there's no puddles under your engine.
That leaves burning it.
Usually when an engine is burning a lot of oil it's from something being broken. Damaged piston/ring, damaged valve/valve guide, ect. When this happens it's easy to tell, you see blue smoke because most of the oil being burned is concentrated at one point. You don't necessarily know what's broken right away, but you can tell something is.
But, when the oil being burned is spread out over all the cylinders, you won't necessarily see blue smoke because it's not as concentrated, so the only evidence is the oil level dropping.
If your oil control rings are worn out [a compression test won't necessarily show this], or if they're gummed up they're not going to be able to scrape the oil off the cylinder wall and some of it's going to get burned.
If your rod bearings are worn out they're going to splash too much oil on the cylinder walls, and the oil control rings [even if they're in good shape] won't be able to keep up, and some of it will be burned.
These are rough numbers, but if each of your cylinders burns 1 DROP of oil each power stroke [spread 1 drop over the entire cylinder wall]; at 3000 RPMs and 60 MPH you're going to burn an entire quart of oil in under 4 miles.
If you're not seeing blue smoke or any major oil drips, you're most likely burning it. What you can try to do is use good oil and do frequent oil changes and see if it helps ungum the oil control rings [assuming they're gummed].
Also, higher RPMs will burn more oil, so keeping your RPMs down will help.
Unfortunately some engines are just going to burn oil no matter what you do.Toyota 1.8L engines in the Corolla and Celica from the mid/late 90s
You only lose oil 2 ways; you leak it or you burn it.
If it's leaking enough to make a difference you're going to know, so I'm assuming there's no puddles under your engine.
That leaves burning it.
Usually when an engine is burning a lot of oil it's from something being broken. Damaged piston/ring, damaged valve/valve guide, ect. When this happens it's easy to tell, you see blue smoke because most of the oil being burned is concentrated at one point. You don't necessarily know what's broken right away, but you can tell something is.
But, when the oil being burned is spread out over all the cylinders, you won't necessarily see blue smoke because it's not as concentrated, so the only evidence is the oil level dropping.
If your oil control rings are worn out [a compression test won't necessarily show this], or if they're gummed up they're not going to be able to scrape the oil off the cylinder wall and some of it's going to get burned.
If your rod bearings are worn out they're going to splash too much oil on the cylinder walls, and the oil control rings [even if they're in good shape] won't be able to keep up, and some of it will be burned.
These are rough numbers, but if each of your cylinders burns 1 DROP of oil each power stroke [spread 1 drop over the entire cylinder wall]; at 3000 RPMs and 60 MPH you're going to burn an entire quart of oil in under 4 miles.
If you're not seeing blue smoke or any major oil drips, you're most likely burning it. What you can try to do is use good oil and do frequent oil changes and see if it helps ungum the oil control rings [assuming they're gummed].
Also, higher RPMs will burn more oil, so keeping your RPMs down will help.
Unfortunately some engines are just going to burn oil no matter what you do.Toyota 1.8L engines in the Corolla and Celica from the mid/late 90s
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
jasonty
Pre 84 Trucks (Build-Up Section)
41
12-23-2018 01:00 PM
Odin
86-95 Trucks & 4Runners
8
07-15-2015 09:28 PM
