the case of the missing oil

[skulptr]

ok, so i'm going through a quart every week to 2 weeks now. i'm not smokin, i had a small leak a fwe months ago, oil sending unit went bad, fixed that. i had the oil flushed and changed, 2 weeks ago. i'm now off the stick, and what does show is black as night.

 

but the stick isnt very helpful cause its always changing. i leave it over night, and the oil level will be over an inch past the bob at the end of the stick, after i get home from work same day, let it sit for HOURS check the stick, dry.

 

advice? this has been a never ending road of problems since i bought it in july, my exhaust started falling off last week, literally falling off onto the road, the drivers side exhaust header broke into 3 pieces a week after i bought it

Edited January 20, 2010 by skulptr

[Nismojunky]

sounds to me like your burning oil?

[Thunderbolt]

I hate to say it, but from what you wrote. The engine need either to be overhaul or put in another one from the junk yard. How many miles on her and I bet it was neglected from the previous owner. You know the lack of oil changes and prevented maintenance. That really sucks.

 

David

[skulptr]

I hate to say it, but from what you wrote. The engine need either to be overhaul or put in another one from the junk yard. How many miles on her and I bet it was neglected from the previous owner. You know the lack of oil changes and prevented maintenance. That really sucks.

 

David

 

 

rolled over 173k miles last week. and there is no engines available up here, there all disabled by our lovely president and his stupid idea to screw everyone that cant afford CARS.

 

and if i was burning it, that fast, wouldnt it smoke?

[4wdRequired]

Why was the engine flushed? Were you having oil problems before that?

If the oil is black after two weeks change it. The flushing may have just loosened a bunch of sludge that's in your oil now.

 

Check your PCV valve and see if it's OK.

 

Open your oil fill -carefully- while the engine idles. If your rings are bad you'll have a lot of blow-by puffing out the filler.

[skulptr]

ok i'll do that tomorrow. and i had it flushed just to have it done, after 173k miles i figured its time for some extra tlc to keep her runnin. also my air filters arent lasting very long. this last one i bought lasted about a month, it has a big black spot concentrated in one spot.

[Kingman]

Sounds like a bad case of blow-by to me. The oil is being forced from the valve covers into the intake and then out to the filter.

[stevebaz]

If things are good in your motor your oil would not be black in 2 weeks. Your flushing could have loosened up a bunch of crap and polluted your new oil. Did you change your filter? If you are burinig a quart of oil in 2 weeks you would know it out your tail pipe it would be black and sooty. I would look into the oil drain back holes under the valve covers, your flushing could loosen up chunks of stuff and block the drain back holes leaving alot of oil sitting on top of the heads and causing pvc issues and sucking excessive amounts of oil down the valve guides. If you were sucking that much oil through the engine I doubt your catallitic converters could handle it and your o2 sensors would throw a code and a check engine light.

[skulptr]

so i took the filler cap off and didnt get any smoke coming out. but i did notice looking around the engine, i replaced the drivers side exhaust header, and the new heat shield has a pretty well covered oil burn on it, so it makes me think my leak is around my valve cover on the back side of the motor. go figure. looks like the intake is gettin pulled this weekend so i can reach that impossible to reach area

[4wdRequired]

I would pull the valve covers and have a peek. Probably flush loosened a bunch of crap now sitting on top of the heads as Steve said.

[skulptr]

any tips on what it takes to get to it. obviously i have to remove the intake plenum. what else?

[adamzan]

I would download the FSM for your truck, it will help out immensely.

[skulptr]

ok so i replaced both valve cover gaskets, and to my demise i realized i put them both in upside down. its been over a week now since i did them, an dit looks like i'm going to be doing them again this coming weekend. i put the flat side inside teh flange on the covers. supposed to be flat side to the block. oh well. at least the leakage issue is at bay for now.

 

so heres a few pictures from the work. i'm not sure if the internals are supposed to be this color, but the pitch black you see is oil...

 

 

 

this is how one gasket came out, the other side was about 15x worse and dried up. about 2 hours of just picking out old dried gasket.

 

 

and finally clean valve covers replaced. startin to finally get somewhere.

 

 

 

 

 

when i removed the intake plenum, i noticed a plug that was not connected to anything. i followed the wire to whats called the AAC valve on the bottom side of the plenum, any idea what this was for? its connected now, and the check engine light hasnt returned saying o2 or knock sensor since then. and is it normal to have a REALLY hard time starting back up after doing this job? when i first started back up, it spit and spattered ran rough like it was missing then died. wouldnt start right bacck up, had to keep cranking til it started, and ran like it was missing bad again. opened the throttle a little, it smoothed out and now its running fine. anyone had this happen?