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Old 09-03-2009, 09:14 AM   #14
bhw33191
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Re: Burning oil at idle

Quote:
Originally Posted by Blue Bowtie View Post
Clean the head oil drainback holes as suggested, and look for sludge accumulation while the valve covers are off. If you find sludge, that's a good indication that the rings may be coked badly. Clean oil and frequent changes can help, along with a bit of moderately loaded driving once the engine is warm.

An older low mileage engine can also suffer from valve stem seal failure and guide oil leakage. This will contribute to oil burning.

I would avoid using the higher viscosity oil for now. Use a good quality mineral oil while the initial cleanup is underway. Eventually, you should be using 10W30 synthetic to help prevent sludge altogether, but it may be a waste for now. Once any heavy sludge is removed, switch to syn and good filters to help clean out remaining sludge.
It might be too late, just changed my oil yesterday from the 10W-30 synthetic [valvoline high mileage] (which i've used for about 2 oil changes) to 10W-40..and that may have made it worse because it left a puff of smoke after i took off from a stop after driving for a while and that has never really happened before. (The AC was on i'm not sure if that had anything to do with it because of the extra load on the engine maybe). But anyway..the big question is should i be getting some kind of oil additive? Or are those frowned upon. I'm not sure if its a rumor but i heard if you use "Restore Engine Additive" you need to KEEP using it?
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'83 Caprice Classic LM1 (truck) 350 swap. about 200HP, 305 ft/lbs..for now.
-- 65,000 original miles --
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