Burning Oil, how worried should I be?
03-09-2007, 04:57 PM
#1
12 Second Club
Thread Starter
iTrader: (1)
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Raleigh, NC
Posts: 280
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Burning Oil, how worried should I be? My car has 70,000 miles on in it. A few months ago I had a cam, headers, ORY, valvesprings, pushrods, ls6 oil pump etc. installed. I've noticed that since I don't have cats, my exhaust tips get dirtier. I've also noticed that at idle it puffs a very minimal amount of smoke on once every few minutes. It's so minimal that it's hard to tell if it's blueish or black. Yesterday my "low oil" light came on 500 miles before I was due for the normal 3000 mile oil change. I immediately had my oil change and was told that it was about 1 quart low. The car runs well and from what I can tell, does not appear to be burning oil at full throttle. I'm kinda concerned about this. HELP.
03-09-2007, 05:26 PM
#2
What is your air/fuel ratio? at idle and WOT? Does is smoke more at WOT or idle?
You want to make sure to keep your motor to the correct oil levels at all times! Or you will be joining the spun rod bearing club very soon. There is a number of things that could cause this. Have you owned the car its whole life? And used good octane gas? Just little things like that can be hell on piston rings. You have to keep in mind how much compression is bieng made in an engine. With low quality octane that only makes the situation worse with time.
Best of luck to you on solving your problem!
You want to make sure to keep your motor to the correct oil levels at all times! Or you will be joining the spun rod bearing club very soon. There is a number of things that could cause this. Have you owned the car its whole life? And used good octane gas? Just little things like that can be hell on piston rings. You have to keep in mind how much compression is bieng made in an engine. With low quality octane that only makes the situation worse with time.
Best of luck to you on solving your problem!
03-09-2007, 05:42 PM
#4
12 Second Club
Thread Starter
iTrader: (1)
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Raleigh, NC
Posts: 280
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I have no idea what my the a/f reading is. I'm going to take it to the shop to get it checked out next week. It does not appear to smoke at WOT, just a few small puffs at idle approximately every 30 seconds or so. It's very mininal. I'm the second owner, bought it with 17,000 miles on it 3 years ago. I've always ran 92-93 octane gas. Before the cam,etc I ran a can of octane booster through about once a month, since it would ping at WOT occaisionally and this seemed to help. My oil pressure is around 60 psi at idle and goes approximatley 75 psi WOT.
03-09-2007, 07:49 PM
#6
12 Second Club
Thread Starter
iTrader: (1)
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Raleigh, NC
Posts: 280
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Originally Posted by slammedchevy
did u happen to mess up the valve seals when u did the springs?
Trending Topics
03-09-2007, 08:18 PM
#8
TECH Apprentice
iTrader: (12)
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Lafayette, LA
Posts: 380
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I have 42k on mine and it puffs a little. This sounds really shadetree but why don't you do a small amount of seafoam in the brake booster, then run a few oz of marvel in the tank. That knocked my predet out. As for the smoke at idle.....my buddies with 21K does it and mine w 42k also smokes a little bit and when we are beating our cars hard which is mostly when we hang out. We burn some oil....all I can figure is that when you stay in the power band like that turning that many RPMs you are going to consume a little oil, do it alot and you consume a lot. It was an eye brow raising thing when it happened the first time, now we just check the oil every fill up. One other thing was that when he floored it one time the throttle got stuck, seems the throttle body was gummed a little bit from some abuse on our way down to florida. Some how oil got puked in there, I'm thinking this could be related to the oil consumption. Someone on here knows, just stay on top of the oil.
03-09-2007, 08:24 PM
#9
FWIW my on my 98 camaro I had the cam in my sig (232/238 on a 112lsa .610/.640) installed at Dez Racing with 58K miles on the clokc and it never burned a drop of oil or smoked. Some people say its normal but I had a bigger cam than yours and it never smoked period.
03-11-2007, 09:41 AM
#10
12 Second Club
Thread Starter
iTrader: (1)
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Raleigh, NC
Posts: 280
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Should I just trade the car in? I'd really like to avoid making major repairs to it. I'm afraid this may be a major issue and really don't want to deal with it.
Last edited by 2002LS1Z; 03-11-2007 at 10:00 AM.
03-11-2007, 05:51 PM
#11
TECH Apprentice
iTrader: (12)
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Lafayette, LA
Posts: 380
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Dude that is a joke right? You modded out your car like that and then want to dump the *****? Well if you want to get rid of it, send me some pics! A nice shortblock would way cheaper than even the mods you put in the car so far. I just wouldn't let a little smoke scare you after all the work you have already done. That is just insane, you car has many miles left in it I'm sure
Originally Posted by 2002LS1Z
Should I just trade the car in? I'd really like to avoid making major repairs to it. I'm afraid this may be a major issue and really don't want to deal with it.
03-11-2007, 06:43 PM
#12
Originally Posted by sapper_daddy
Dude that is a joke right? You modded out your car like that and then want to dump the *****? Well if you want to get rid of it, send me some pics! A nice shortblock would way cheaper than even the mods you put in the car so far. I just wouldn't let a little smoke scare you after all the work you have already done. That is just insane, you car has many miles left in it I'm sure
03-11-2007, 06:46 PM
#13
TECH Senior Member
iTrader: (23)
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Watertown, NY
Posts: 8,797
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Maybe when you did the valvesprings you messed up putting the valve seals on and now oil is leaking though the valve and into the combustion chamber.
03-11-2007, 07:46 PM
#14
TECH Fanatic
iTrader: (19)
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Northern, VA
Posts: 1,336
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Yeah man i wouldnt be worried. Just make sure you maintain the correct oil level. those cars are Notorious for burning oil. One thing you can do to make sure your rings arnt going bad is while the car is idling, take off the oil fill cap. Now put your hand on top of the cap, and rev the car a little. If you feel a stong vacuum feeling on your hand, your rings are taking a crap. But personally i wouldnt worry, if the rings were going bad you would be smokin like no other on WOT.
03-12-2007, 09:28 AM
#15
Originally Posted by 2002LS1Z
Should I just trade the car in? I'd really like to avoid making major repairs to it. I'm afraid this may be a major issue and really don't want to deal with it.
Well as long as it isnt eating or burning through a quart or so of oil every 500 miles then I wouldnt be too worried. As others have said just make sure you monitor you oil level and dont let it dip too low. I would see if installing an oil catch can would work for you. Might be some oil blow-by through the pcv tube. If you oil pressure is holding on your gauge and you dont hear any knocking I wouldnt be that concerned.
03-12-2007, 12:21 PM
#17
TECH Enthusiast
iTrader: (16)
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Birmingham, AL
Posts: 577
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
My car burns more oil now with a cam and other stuff. I run it hard every time I drive it, so it's going to burn more like that as well. Just monitor the oil level more frequently.
03-12-2007, 12:32 PM
#18
You might need to install you a catch can between your pvc line and your throttle body. Pull off your throttle body and see how much oil is being sucked down your intake. It is an easy install and there are several good threads on this board with pictures of different catch can installs people have posted.
03-12-2007, 09:31 PM
#20
Staging Lane
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Posts: 84
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
It's not that difficult if you do basic work on your own car. See part 3 of this document for what's involved in changing the seat/seal.
http://www.ls1howto.com/index.php?article=23
http://www.ls1howto.com/index.php?article=23