Strange Oil Consumption

[Subarian]

Here's a strange one I haven't figured out yet. I'm going through a quart of oil about every 500 miles. There's no drips on the driveway, no obvious leaks (strange for an EA82) and no smoke, even under hard acceleration. The tailpipe has no more than normal soot, and no oil residue. Any ideas I might be overlooking?

[Snowman]

It's probably the PCV valve. It can sporadically suck large quantities of oil into the intake, and you won't even notice if you aren't constantly looking for smoke out the exhaust while driving. It usually happens when going around hard corners.

 

Get a new OEM valve and the consumption should decrease (aftermarket ones simply do not work, BTW).

[fj401968]

Several years ago while go down a long, steep hill in my '68 Landcruiser, the carb sucked some oil past the PCV valve. It smoked for quite a few miles after that. After that incident, I decided to just vent the crankcase through a crankcase breather filter I bought designed for a pre-PCV era vehicle and I capped off the PCV intake on the manifold at the base of the carb. After that the vehicle ran better too because often the PCV valve would malfunction and allow the manifold pressure to be compromised.

 

I probably won't do it to my '87 GL wagon as the PCV system seems to work better than it did on my Landcruiser.

 

Tracy

 

 

It's probably the PCV valve. It can sporadically suck large quantities of oil into the intake, and you won't even notice if you aren't constantly looking for smoke out the exhaust while driving. It usually happens when going around hard corners.

 

Get a new OEM valve and the consumption should decrease (aftermarket ones simply do not work, BTW).

[Subarian]

At the rate the oil is disappearing, I'd definitely notice any smoke, especially since I"m watching for it. I don't think it's the PCV, since I"ve inspected it and there's not a lot of oil in the lines. Any other ideas?

[Snowman]

At the rate the oil is disappearing, I'd definitely notice any smoke, especially since I"m watching for it. I don't think it's the PCV, since I"ve inspected it and there's not a lot of oil in the lines. Any other ideas?

 

Not to insult your intelligence, but you would be amazed at how much oil can sneak through a bad PCV valve, and at $12 or so to get one from the dealer, it would be a good idea to eliminate this incredibly common problem (about 80% of the soobs I deal with have had this problem at some point) as a possible cause. EA engines are very easy on rings and valve seals, the other sources of burning oil, so it's not likely that those are bad.

 

It's often very hard to notice the smoke from a bad PCV valve. There are only two stretches of road that I have ever seen the smoke on, because it comes and goes in a matter of about five seconds.

[Ross]

Agreed, my ea81 burns about the same amount and i've never noticed it smoking. It stoped burning it after i put in an old pcv valve i had lying around, but now it does it again. Time for a trip to the dealer.