Technical 235 losing a quart after about 300 miles with no smoke

My car seems to be losing a lot of oil but doesn't smoke normally. Seems like it's worse when going hwy speeds (55mph) it's got a slight leak but it's only 1 or 2 drops a day if that. If I'm on side streets it doesn't seem like I use hardly any oil. I haven't done a compression test or anything yet but I would think it would be smoking if it was rings/valves

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Check your plugs to see if they are oil wet .

 

Usually you'll only notice smoke when you decelerate then accelerate. Might be easier for someone following you to see it.

If it's not dripping out the bottom, it's going out the tailpipe...not much else for it to do.

 

Smoke on de-acceleration points to valve stem seals with the high manifold vacuum. Pull the valve cover and see if it's badly sludged up. That will pool the oil around the valve stems.

I had a 6 in a Chevy truck... a trip to the beach and back (20 miles) was 3 quarts. Horrible smoke out the exhaust plus past the breather.. blow by. It was that bad.

 

I'd say Bobss396 hit on something that is reasonably common, sludge in the top end of the engine plugging things up. A lot of these old rigs never got driven far enough to warm the engine up right back when folks usually lived real close to where they worked.

 

there leakers

 

Thanks, I'm gonna look at it tomorrow and pull the plugs and valve cover. Thanks for the help

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Does it give a cloud of smoke when you first start it for the day? A sure sign of stem seals. You could do a compression test, jot down those readings. Then squirt some oil (a few shots of 10w-30 is okay) into each plug hole and run the test again. If the numbers are higher, that points to rings.

 

generally, the rings are wore out....

 

Are you sure the oil is gone. Have you checked if the dip stick is correct and seated all the way

 

When enough guides go bad you usually start to see not only high oil consumption but plug fowling. I drove my Chevy home from Memphis back in '80 with one spark plug with an extension. It got worse and used 17 qts of oil with many stops to clean plugs. The last stop was 30 miles shy of home where my son and I had to clean 5 plugs to keep it underway. There were a lot of issues with that engine after that and it only survived about a year after a head refresh, but that's another story

 

I don't have a compression tester, I'm gonna have to go get one. I pulled the plugs today and none of them had oil on them. Pulled the valve cover and zero sludge, it doesn't smoke at all I did look under the car today and it had a few drops of oil on my driveway and a good amount caked on the oil pan. The dip stick is correct and is in place. I'm beginning to think that it's a leak

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check the nut behind the wheel...lol...

 

Was this right after an oil change? What are you running for a filter?

 

Possibly the front oil pan gasket - it is a cork semi-circle between the pan and the front bottom of the engine. Will only leak when engine is running.

 

Yep, park it in the driveway and run it at highway RPM for several minutes, then check for oil on the slab.

You could be leaking 1/2 qt. per 300 miles and burning the other 1/2 qt.

You probably won't see the oil in the exhaust over a long span (300 miles). Have someone follow you for 10 miles, then check for oil haze on their windshield and ask if they smelled oil while following.

Fix all the leaks, then see how you do on oil consumption.

 

Just some thing to check you might look in the radiator.

 

It wasn't right after an oil change I have checked the raidoiator and it's good, no oil in the coolant. Thanks hot rods ta hell, I will try that and see. But that sounds like that's what's happening

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Pipe white -burning right-
Pipe tan - burning grand-
Pipe black - things just ain't right.
stick yer finger in the tail pipe -n- wipe it (check it)
for wet oil...

 

Some other places to check if you still can't find the source: three typical leak sources are:
1. Valve cover, rear (difficult to see because of firewall proximity). Usually see a thin film.
2. Front timing gear cover.
3. Rear main seal (usually manifests itself as a chattering clutch). Check for drips from the inspection plate.
don