Oil -where's it going ??

J

john279

I've noticed all my oil is disappearing after a longish 200 mile round trip.

Filled up oil at beginning of journey to Max level on dipstick.
At end of journey checked dipstick & it barely touched the bottom, was way below the minimum mark on dipstick !!

I changed headgasket few months ago, engine running nicely.
No visible oil leaks, exhaust looks ok.

Car passed emisions check on both MOT tests.

MOT Test 1
CO 0.08 % (limit 3.5 %)
HC 325 ppm (limit 1200 ppm)

MOT Test 2
CO 0.13 %
HC 213 ppm

If car was burning this much oil surely it would show somwehere, in emissions, smoky exhaust or something ??

Any ideas ??
.
 
also check around the oil filter at the back of the engine as my old one wasnt screwed in very tight and dripped oil every now and again, also rocker gasket around the top of the engine, just visually looking for oil stains could give a clue :)

cheers

steve
 
Puzzling

Well, I've just done 90 miles in the car.

Checked oil level at beginning, end & 2 times during journey.
Oil level looked ok each time I checked, didn't seem to have gone down !!!

This is weird, as I'm not sure where oil disappeared previous 2 times it disappeared and I'm talking about all the oil vanishing without any visble sign.

Unless there are some weird set of circumstances that lead to the oil loss, can't think what !!??

I'll check again on my return journey.

Very strange.
 
Dont check the oil inbetween the journey, its all thrown about during driving, so it looks like most of it is gone. Cold unmoved engine is the best place to start.
 
The mystery deepens

Joe.Powell said:
Dont check the oil inbetween the journey, its all thrown about during driving, so it looks like most of it is gone. Cold unmoved engine is the best place to start.
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I was checking a few minutes after engine stopped to see if I was losing oil during journey.
The oil level doesn't change much after a few minutes.

As far as I could tell oil level was about same during jouney as at start, so don't think I was losing oil during journey.
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So after my previous posts, where oil level hadn't changed during 90 mile journey or at the end.

Car has been parked up for last week, not been driven at all.

Checked oil level today & it's gone down !!!!

No visible leaks.

This is silly/crazy, where's the oil gone while it's been parked !!??

Ps: I did notice the vacuum hose from distributor was disconnected from carb. manifold T-piece connection, but surely can't be related.
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john279 said:
Ps: I did notice the vacuum hose from distributor was disconnected from carb. manifold T-piece connection, but surely can't be related.
.
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that will affect your ignition timing john, which can alter the oil consumption if the rings are worn :)
 
frank said:
that will affect your ignition timing john, which can alter the oil consumption if the rings are worn :)
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The oil level hadn't changed during the journey.

Checked it twice during journey & at the end, it was ok & about same level, which was noticably higher today when I checked a week later after car was parked.
.
 
john279 said:
So after my previous posts, where oil level hadn't changed during 90 mile journey or at the end.

Car has been parked up for last week, not been driven at all.

Checked oil level today & it's gone down !!!!

No visible leaks.

This is silly/crazy, where's the oil gone while it's been parked !!??

Ps: I did notice the vacuum hose from distributor was disconnected from carb. manifold T-piece connection, but surely can't be related.
.
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Topped up oil to max level on dipstick.

Reconnected the vacuum hose on distributor which had come off.
(can't see this being related to original problem)

Made 90 mile return journey.

Checked oil day after journey & oil level looks ok, still at max level.

Looks ok for now.

Ps: problem I was finding oil level had gone down days/week after completing journey . Oil level was ok during journey & immediately at end of journey.

Strange.
 
Sounds common of an old K10 engine tbh. Even more so after a head change... I don't know if I have it any more but it was known that if a head gasket was changed on a K10 hard carbon particles could get caught between the rings when the head was removed and cause the engines to consume a lot of oil. If it doesnt get better try some thicker oil like 15w50.

Ed
 
im living with this problem on one of my K10's.....and I KNOW that my cause is due to my not replacing the valve stem oil seals with new ones during the head gasket change....did you replace yours?

I can smell mine during high RPM/LOAD driving through the ventilation...costing me a fortune in oil...I should get my finger out!!!..LOL
 
Valve stem oil seals were the cause of my old Micra's heavy oil usage.

And it only showed badly up on prolonged motorway journeys where it was at 4000rpm for a long time. So perhaps this is a circumstance that leads to your problem?
 
SammoHung said:
im living with this problem on one of my K10's.....and I KNOW that my cause is due to my not replacing the valve stem oil seals with new ones during the head gasket change....did you replace yours?
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Well I didn't think I was losing oil during the journeys.
On couple of journeys I checked oil 3-4 times during the journey & it wasn't going down.

It was maybe days or a week afterwards that I found oil had strangely just disappeared, which didn't seem to make sense.

I didn't change valve stem seals during headgasket change, didn't have the time.

I was losing oil before headgasket change, (maybe 1/2 inch loss dipstick), but not nearly as much this. Now it's maybe 2-3 inches loss on dipstick (from Max to below Min levels) !!!

Now during 200 mile round trip, I have lost almost all the oil, it's well below the MIN mark on oil dipstick.

The car is running very well, so I assume headgasket is fitted ok.

Shouldn't oil loss be about the same before/after hedagasket change, If I didn't change valve stem seals ??
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i,m with ed on this one, the ring lands are choked up with carbon, made worse by the gasket change/decoke :wasntme:
 
My k10 went through alot of oil with no visable signs too, and it had a new head skimmed and all new gaskets, so what ed is saying could very well be true ( usualy he is always right :) )
 
Ed said:
Sounds common of an old K10 engine tbh. Even more so after a head change... I don't know if I have it any more but it was known that if a head gasket was changed on a K10 hard carbon particles could get caught between the rings when the head was removed and cause the engines to consume a lot of oil.
Click to expand...
frank said:
i,m with ed on this one, the ring lands are choked up with carbon, made worse by the gasket change/decoke :wasntme:
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Hello there.
Had a thought about these comments few months back.

The car isn't losing any coolant, but still losing oil.

So would that still tally with your possible explanations ??

If you were losing oil, wouldn't you likely lose coolant as well ??

I would have thought coolant loss might be more sensitive/likely in those circumstances of carbon particles caught in between.
 
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