Keep Checking your oil!

[BaylorCamaro]

Be sure you keep checking your oil. I checked mine yesterday and it was fine. I drove about 200 miles today, and the last ~5 miles my o2 sensor was starting to act really weird. I wouldn't think this would have anything to do with the amount of oil you have or may not have, someone want to confirm this?

Anyways I just checked the oil for the hell of it, and it was about 1 qt low. The phantom oil thief strikes again! The car seems to be running fine, I didn't hear any weird noises so hopefully everything is OK. But the fact that within 200 miles it burned a qt + of oil is interesting to say the least..

[smokingcamaro]

I wonder what the issue is for the V6 to burn that much oil? I check mine about once a week not once has been low I really hope it stays that way. I have 31,000 miles on mine

[2010camarolt]

wow thats scary! are your running synthetic or regular oil?

[Out4it]

Holy Crap!! I check once a month. Now it will be once a week. I sure hope its something minor and it can be taken care of before something big happens. Keep us posted please.

[BaylorCamaro]

Originally Posted by 2010camarolt

wow thats scary! are your running synthetic or regular oil?

Synthetic.. I usually use Mobil 1 or Royal Purple. However I just changed my oil about 500 miles ago and mistakenly got Mobil's middle grade. It's synthetic but not Mobil 1. No idea if that has something to do with it, who knows.. ugh.

[formare]

That is insane. Could you guess how many hours of run time was on the engine during that 200 miles? Was the sensor acting odd or was the reading on the sensor acting odd? Does this mean your STFT was being modified in large way?

One quart in 200 miles would signal you have a major engine issue that if not resolved quickly will cause a major failure.

Wouldn't that much oil cause huge clouds of blue smoke?

[Macrackie]

Sensor probably started acting up when she started to get covered in oil. Could have lost a exhaust valve seal and started dumping unburnt oil down the exhaust. Just a thought.

Maybe that is where the phantom oil issues come from?

Has anyone ever looked in the exhaust ports after their motors crapped out due to lack of oil. A friend of mine had a bad exhaust valve seal and poured out a fair amount of oil on his harley a few years back. Amazing how much oil he could lose over on bad valve seal in a short amount of time. Best part was she never smoked a bit.

[formare]

Just a thought - but if you have a manual and spend a lot of time above 4000 rpm then you may have "glazed" your cylender walls. That will require the engine be rebuilt. Also you may wish to check this out:

#01-06-01-011F: Information on Engine Oil Consumption Guidelines - (Jan 13, 2009)

According to GM 1 quart every 500 miles is perfectly normal.

[scrming]

Originally Posted by formare

Just a thought - but if you have a manual and spend a lot of time above 4000 rpm then you may have "glazed" your cylender walls. That will require the engine be rebuilt. Also you may wish to check this out:

#01-06-01-011F: Information on Engine Oil Consumption Guidelines - (Jan 13, 2009)

According to GM 1 quart every 500 miles is perfectly normal.

actually i think it states 1 quart every 2,000 miles...

ok... 2,000 for normal driving... 500 miles for "aggressive"

[BaylorCamaro]

Originally Posted by formare

That is insane. Could you guess how many hours of run time was on the engine during that 200 miles? Was the sensor acting odd or was the reading on the sensor acting odd? Does this mean your STFT was being modified in large way?

One quart in 200 miles would signal you have a major engine issue that if not resolved quickly will cause a major failure.

Wouldn't that much oil cause huge clouds of blue smoke?

Run time was prob around 4 hours maybe 5. Basically the o2 sensor readings seemed to be all over the place. At a normal drive speed my o2 is any where from 13.7-15. However that last ~5 miles would go from like 12-21 (21 is max). I have no idea what the issue is there. I think maybe something might be getting on the sensor, and the theory of a bad exhaust valve and dumping oil out the exhaust might be why. However this is all speculation.

I'm not sure if it was a qt that I burned, what is the dipstick reading translate to? It was REALLY low when I checked it but I added less than a qt of oil and checked the dip stick again and it was on the "max" OK" level.

Originally Posted by Macrackie

Sensor probably started acting up when she started to get covered in oil. Could have lost a exhaust valve seal and started dumping unburnt oil down the exhaust. Just a thought.

Maybe that is where the phantom oil issues come from?

It could be possible that if oil was going through my exhaust it was covering my o2 sensor and thus the bad reading. However I had no smoke coming out the back.

Originally Posted by formare

Just a thought - but if you have a manual and spend a lot of time above 4000 rpm then you may have "glazed" your cylender walls. That will require the engine be rebuilt. Also you may wish to check this out:

#01-06-01-011F: Information on Engine Oil Consumption Guidelines - (Jan 13, 2009)

According to GM 1 quart every 500 miles is perfectly normal.

I have an automatic.

[Harry.S]

I have a manual and the same thing happened to me. Changed the oil a little over a month ago and one week there wasn't any oil on the dipstick anymore. Put some more in and the whole time it was running normal. No low oil sign either. Then after it burned 3.5 quarts in about 1000 miles. :O

[TJ91]

I checked my oil after all this. Car is in storage, last oil change was monthes ago. Only synthethic oil, has around 3000km on it. Its full. although I checked when it was warm and running.
Ill check again tomorrow with the car cold
As for driving the car hard, I drive the car HARD! How does one glaze the cylinder walls and how do you know its glazed?
Once again. My modding bug has stopped with the car for now. Way to worried to drop any more cash into the motor. I paid for an extended warranty so all is well. Only thing that sucks is ive been doing my own oil changes, extremely early and only full synthethic. Cant afford synthethic changes at the dealer, so ill probably be going back to dino oil and regular changes at the dealer just to avoid any warranty coverage BS with doing my own oil changes.

[formare]

When the oil is checked - is the car off for at least 10 minutes or so and on a fairly level ground?

It could be that oil has not yet traveled back down to the oil pan. Meaning its in the engine but not showing on the stick yet. Adding oil in that condition will cause it to be over full creating all kinds of hell in the engine.

[formare]

"o2 is any where from 13.7-15. However that last ~5 miles would go from like 12-21 (21 is max). " I'm not sure what this means. I'm not able to read the o2 sensor wiTh any of the obdii tools I have. Mine shows STFT and LTFT. Is a higher number more oxygen or less oxygen?


"glaze the cylinder walls and how do you know its glazed?" Fairly common in performance motor bikes. The cylinder walls glaze due to the rings not having the higher combustion pressures from being under load pushing them outward. A high load condition allows the rings and cylinders and oil to all rub each other until they are happy and polished . This glaze is a bunch of combustion by product embedded in the walls from the lack of scraping by the rings. sometimes you can work them hard enough to self correct but often it requires a rebuild. If you try and work them you must watch your oil consumption as it will be higher until / if it unglazes.

This can occur if you are taking your engine to high rpm under low load conditions.