Oil Leak Question

[C man]

I have a leaky oil pan. I plan on changing it tomorrow or this weekend. Its been like that since I had the car but I though it was small. Plus there has never has been a drop of oil on the ground. When I changed my starter the other day I got a closer look at it and it is worse than I thought and explains why my oil consumption is so excessive. (1qt every 1200 miles)

My question is: if the pan Is leaking, when does it leak if it never hits the ground. And here's a pic of the oil pan

[accutechautomotive]

if its not leacking then its burning it start it up and hit the gass peddle hard and see if you can tell any smoke comes out the tail pipe if there is you have ring problems

[BNaylor]

Obviously the oil pan gasket leaking is not the source of the high oil consumption. You'd have to see oil puddles under the car in sufficient quantity. The oil pan gasket is a common issue on SII 3800 engines but I've never seen them cause oil consumption like that. Other sources of oil leaking are the valve cover gaskets, front and rear crank seals.

But in your case I agree it sounds internal to the engine. Either piston rings or valve stem seals.

Another suggestion is check your PCV valve and make sure the o-ring seal is there.

[C man]

I guess I've changed one side of the valve stem seals. When it sat for a long time it would give a little puff of smoke It could be the PVC valve. It could be the piston rings, but its been burning the same amount of oil since I've got it at 108k miles. When I press the gas hard it doesn't smoke. They won't even inspect your car were I live if it smokes. And you have to press the gas hard before they inspect your car. But I will change the oil pan gasket, check PCV and top it off again and keep up with the oil consumption and see what I come up with.

[HotZ28]

Click Here for a similar discussion about oil consumption. Do not waste your time, or money on an oil pan gasket; as mentioned earlier, that is not your problem. In fact, the oil on your pan could be coming from the end seals on the LIM. Jack the car up and clean everything with "Gunk" and spray it off with water. Check it again in a week or two, for signs of fresh oil. The slight oil sludge on the exterior of your pan is nothing unusual, and is certainly not the cause of the unusual high oil consumption!

[C man]

I think I got this message to late. I already had bought the oil pan gasket, "special order" yesterday and replaced it before read the post again. At $45 it probably was a waste of money but I've been wanting to change it for a long time so it was kind of a mental thing. I think it could have the "gray hair effect" with the piston rings.

Here a pic of my engine. The cylinder wall (not in pic) still have the cross-hatches at 143k. Pennzoil only



I do have a question though how does the oil level sensor work? Its just a tube.

[The00Dustin]

I think the oil level sensor just tells you when it's a quart low, so all it has to do is sense if there is oil where it is, not really how much oil, but that is just a guess.

Also, I have a 99 PA Ultra which didn't lose any ail at 140K (Im pretty sure I was checking before taking it in for changes and it was still full, I am absolutely sure I check after changes and it hadn't been overfilled since I got it at 40K). Then one change as I was driving along around 152K (it had been overfilled by half a quart twice in a row at this point, I was suddenly a quart low with only 3000 miles on the change (I use Valvoline SynPower and 5000 mile changes). I added a quart and it was down a quart again another 800 miles later. There was never a drop on the ground, so I changed my oil early (4000 mi) and changed the PCV valve shortly thereafter (in spite of the fact that no one thought it would cause that much oil loss and in spite of the fact that the original was still clicking, it was only $1.98 at Advance). It was overfilled yet again that last change, and got down to full pretty quick, but it's only ¾qt low with 4700 miles on the change, so I'm thinking about putting some Restore in it (that isn't a leak stopper, but since it isn't leaving puddles or burning enough to put out blue smoke and it feels like it has decreased power, I figure it might help). If the Restore doesn't help, I'll probably just go to petroleum based oil and see what happens.

Anyway, point of the post, if you can replace the PCV valve for <$3 after tax and some mechanics recommend doing so every 30K, it might be worth trying (or someone may come back and say any $3 PCV valve is not worth having in a car you care about). Thing is, as I only had ridiculous leakage during one change, it could have been any number of things (I wonder about the overfilling, and I would think loose drain nut except I never saw a spot under the car), and the PCV valve may not have been related at all.

Edited for miles & oil level on current change.

[C man]

I should have rephrased my question. I meant to say how does this particular oil sensor works. Because its just a plastic tube with a connector on the outside.

But about the oil consumption..I think that Instead of filling it up at 5qt like I usually do I'm going to fill it up at 4.5qt. It seems to burn off the first 1/2qt pretty fast and burns oil slower as it goes down.

And am I right about reading the dipstick holes. When I fill it with just 4qts it reaches the first hole. There are a total of 5 holes in the cross hatch area so that means that each level is an additional .25 qts because if i put 5qts in its dead-on on the top full mark.

[C man]

I think my consumption of oil has went down considerable since the one side valve seal change and oil pan gasket change. I now realized that each hole in the cross hatch are represents about 0.2qt (1/5). I put .5qt of oil in after the pan gasket change it filled it up 3 lines and now after 920 miles its only down 2 holes. If each hole represents .2qt that now my oil consumption should be a qt of oil every 2300 miles now. So I'm happy.

[Jrs3800]

Man O Man do I have some Vids to show you...LOL

I think 1995 being the first year of production, GM may have had some quirks in the motor that were fixed by the 97-98 model years...

My original always burned some oil, different oils, and 10-40 didn't even stop it, some slowed the consumption a hair... I ran Synthetic in it from very early on till its death( well it was piston slapping something fierce ) when I pulled the motor out... When I pulled the heads the piston slap( Piston rock ) was very bad... By the time I pulled the motor the Piston slap was bad enough for the PCM to see the slap as KR and would yank all of the timing... Blow by and oil consumption went through the roof... At the time the original engine had 161,000 miles on it...

I currently have a 1996 Motor in the car with low miles, and it acts just like my original did way way way back in the day, burns very little oil and doesn't beat it either... After my 2000 mile round trip it has used about .20 of a quart and is still honey colored...LOL.... The car is now at 175,000.... So far so good...

The oil level sensor... Hmm not sure... I believe it may use a light of some sort to determine if there is enough oil in the pan... I'd have to look that one up to know how it functions...lol


Also looking in your pan I like what I see... Look quite clean with no metal particles... Thats a very good thing to see..

[C man]

Yeah, I was pretty glad it was clean. But I did find some extra stuff in there that's not in the picture. I found some paper filter element, which I thinking is from the fram filter that was used on the car before I purchased it. I only use purelator filters. I also found so thin plastic peices and have yet to determine what the were but they were small and look like they made a ring around something.

I have use 10w-40 oil before and It does nothing as far as oil consumption. I usually run it in the summer but its been a mild summer. Last summer almost everyday was close to 100 or 100+ degrees.