I checked my dipstick today and I'm at 1,500 miles in. I burnt 2/3 of a quart in 1,500 miles with pennzoil platinum. Is this excessive burning?

I was thinking of going back to Dino oil? Any recommendations?

Is it a good idea to run the oil till it gets closer to the "L" line on the dipstick so I can figure how much I burn or should I just top it off?

Will topping it off affect the oil analysis?

 

2/3 quart in 1500 is not ideal, but definitely not excessive.. if you burn a quart every 1000 miles.. that's excessive..

personally, i think as long as it's between L and H.. you are fine.. you probably don't need to wait til "L" to top off and measure.. half way mean 1/2 quart i think..

topping off will definitely affect analysis.. you are mixing "new" oil with "old".. meaning the analyzed oil will look newer and better.

 

Thanks for the reply! I'll just send it in without adding an oil.

Any recommendations on a good conventional oil?

 

I use good old conventional 5w30 castrol. When I top off I use castrol high mileage. I burn about 1/2 quart every 2000 miles.

I don't really need to top it off, I just do it for peace of mind.

2 years ago I switched to conventional after realizing I was burning a quart every 500 miles.

 

personally, i use the 0w-30 Castrol Syntec.

but for conventional, I've seen my friends use Castrol GTX with good results..

 

My 2003 G35 uses about 1 quart of oil per 1,000 miles. The engine is clean and I have no noticeable leaks. I have used Castrol 5-30 throughout the 10 year life of the car. Could I reduce consumption by switching to Castrol (or some other brand) high mileage oil? Any other ideas that might reduce consumption? Thanks.

 

^which castrol do u use?

 

I am using Castrol GTX.

 

Is there a reason why conventional oil usually burns less than synthetic oil? I understand that synthetic can cause leaks but so far I haven't seen any leaks in the engine bay.

If I'm consuming oil at the rate of 2100 miles every quart, where is the oil possibly going?

Is it possible to get 180,000+ miles out of the engine even with the minor oil consumption?

 

As I said in an earlier post, it's most likely burning it, however, you don't see it because the cats are burning it up.

Yes, you can get 200K+ out of an engine, just don't let the oil get below the "add" mark on the stick. When you are two quarts down, you are asking 3 quarts to do the work of 5 and the oil breaks down quicker.

 

Well...my G has been burning oil for the past 150K miles or so. I have 173K on it now. I just recently had a split exhaust valve and my engine is in the process of being rebuilt. The builder asked me about oil consumption and that is more than likely the cause leading to my exhaust valve being split.

From what I understand, using synthetic oil does something to the pistons rings over time. I think it makes them shrink a bit. Anyway my rings started to go bad and I got some carbon blow-by that more than likely got caught on the exhaust valve seat which caused the valve to split. That being said, my bearings were going bad and but the wear from the bearings did not show up in an oil analysis test for some reason.

On a good note, my block was in immaculate condition. The builder could not believe I had 173K miles on the block. Absolutely no wear at all. He just has to do a light hone and drop new standard sized pistons in. I think this has a lot to do with taking care of my engine and adding oil when needed (I always check the oil when the G is completely cold. Just make sure to compensate for oil expansion and not completely fill the oil to the top fill line when adding oil) Now, my bearings probably had wear due to me being out of the country for 6 months and having a co-worker take care of my car. My co-worker did not add oil when needed, and I'm fairly certain...did not warm the car up properly before driving or pushing the engine. After that 6 months I came back to a G that had a slight rattle like sound on start-up and above 2500K-5500K. That was probably do to oil starvation though.

I think as long as you top your oil off frequently you should be ok. Just know that a day could come where the oil consumption could catch up to you. I would suggest 0w-40 over a 10w-40 for both hot or cold weather. The 10w, you can get away with in warm weather, but not cold. Why risk it, just stay with the 0w so the oil can get into the engine quicker at startup. Hope this helps.

 

Hey everyone,

I just got my oil analysis back from Blackstone. Everything checked out to be normal! Blackstone said the engine is healthy despite the oil consumption.

I was hoping the switch to dino oil would slow the oil consumption down but it didn't. I'm down about 1/3 of a quart in 600 miles, again. The next thing I'll try is to switch out the gaskets.

 

Stearlership in baton rouge actually told me to uscomventional oil over synthetic and I do have to say my oil burning days are better but not gone