Please HELP? My 1990 Celica GT is BURNING SO MUCH OIL!

[friscogiants]

My 1990 Celica GT (Manual Tranny w/ 194,000 miles on engine) is burning one qrt of my oil everytime I gas up! (Approx. 250 miles.) I have to fill it with another full bottle of my Castrol GTX 10w/30. Any suggestions? Remedies other than new engine???

[nialusa]

Could be
1. Valve stem oil seels
2. Piston rings
3. A leak somewhere?
4. try some thicker Oil, I use 15w/50 but I doubt that will have any effect what so ever.
5. Cylinder head gasket.

Your cars done alot of miles, so its probably not going to be an easy fix regardless of what it is

[SigmaProjects]

Also check your Valve Cover gasket, that was the problem with my friends truck.

[friscogiants]

Originally Posted by SigmaProjects

Also check your Valve Cover gasket, that was the problem with my friends truck.

Is the Valve Cover Gasket expensive? Can I replace that myself?

[nialusa]

Are you "burning" oil, ie black/blue smoke from the exhaust or are you just "loosing" oil ie from a leak. cause if your "burning" oil it wont be the valve cover gasket, that will just be a leak which you should be able to spot easily.

[friscogiants]

Originally Posted by nialusa

Are you "burning" oil, ie black/blue smoke from the exhaust or are you just "loosing" oil ie from a leak. cause if your "burning" oil it wont be the valve cover gasket, that will just be a leak which you should be able to spot easily.

From what I am told, I am "burning" the oil b/c there are no major leaks anywhere. There is no black or blue smoke coming from my exhaust either. I think I need to get it pressure tested to see what's wrong. Also, from what I am told, as long as I monitor the oil level and make sure that it's full, it will be fine right? Just keep adding oil.

Ken

[nialusa]

True. but you shouldnt have to keep adding oil, once in, your engine should actually burn very little oil. If you have no oil leaks anywhere and you have no oil smoke coming from your exhaust then its a complete F**king mystery where its all going to!! burning oil isnt too goos for a car, it will shorten the life of your cat, & will gunk things up. double check for leaks in places like around the oil filter and under the inlet and exhaust manifolds, places that often get overlooked, simple things like making sure your dip stick is in place correctly etc also check around your drive shaft oil seals and sump.

[91 Celica St]

change your oil and put in a pure synthetic blend, 1 of 2 things will happen... ull burn more or none....if you loose more faster ur leakingoil and just dont see it (synthetic is alot thinner and excapes alot easyer) its not all necessarily tru but pull ur parkplugs out and look to see itf theres any oil in the spark plug hole or if u can see a collection of oil on top of the pistons

also are you loosing power or do u notcie anything ddifferent with the car? i dont necessarily think it would be the vavle seats unles he had a loss of power

[nialusa]

Originally Posted by 91 Celica St

(synthetic is alot thinner and excapes alot easyer)

I`m not too sure about that, you can get different wieghts of Oil, I`m sure 10w50 dinosaur oil is the same viscosity as 10w50 fully synthetic. but you dont wanna be using thin oil on an older engine as it offers less protection. you certainaly dont want to be using anything as light as 5w30. stick with 10w50 fully or semi synthetic.

[friscogiants]

I topped off my engine oil and drove for 15 miles. No change. I decided to let it sit in my parking spot for two days. No oil spots under the car and no oil on the spark plugs. Thanks for all your help and suggestions guys.

[91 Celica St]

There is no reason why you should be thinking at all about using anything except Mobil 1 Synthetic. It is the best oil you can put in your car, no matter the car or the driving circumstances.

There are only two reasons why you would ever want to use dino (conventional) oil in your car. One is if it is designed to burn significant amounts of oil (as in an early rotary engine), as dino oil burns much cleaner and easier than synthetic oil. The other reason would be if you have to store your car for extended periods of time (more than 6 months) because dino oil "sticks" to parts and prevents rust under these conditions better.

Other than that synthetic is superior in every way. Here are some that I borrowed from a person who knows his shit on oil:

1) lower friction
2) lower engine wear
3) better stability under high temp extremes
4) better viscosity stability with use
5) less deposits
6) better fuel mileage
8) less cold start wear. Approx 80% of engine wear occurs during warmup.
9) far better lubricity at low temps
10) better shear protection & oil control (pressure/flow) at extreme temps