So, my car is burning an obscene amount of oil.. I just changed it 500 miles ago.. and already, the dipstick is nearly bone dry(yes, I added oil before driving it) I pulled the hardpipes, there was a tiny bit of oil on the end of the pipe, a little puddle probably about the size of my thumbnail.. when I first start the car, it makes a ton of lifter noise for about 5 minutes, then quiets down. This must have something to do with it? Also, sometimes when it's really hot out, the oil pressure will fluctuate between 1-3 rapidly... like, the gauge goes crazy.

The car tends to backfire a lot, and make a ton of nasty smells.. along with a nice little smoke show if I rev it high.. am I looking at a rebuild? What should I budget for? Can I leave the engine in the car if I just rebuild the top end?

edit: more details.. the head is pretty new, only like 8k miles or something like that... from speedforceracing, and it's o-ringed. That means the headgasket is also new.. it's a widefire. I use mobil 1 15w50 and a new mahle filter every 3000k on the dot.. Car has a lindsey boost enhancer, 3" inch exhaust, 3 bar FPR, and cup car chips.

 

Clowd,

What do the spark plugs look like. If it's back firing it may be that one of the plugs is fouling. Which means oil is getting burnt. (Thats the problem du jour on my car at the moment). And I guess oil can come from one of 2 places - above (valve train) or below (past the piston rings).

MartinT

 

Compression numbers?

 

oil in the hardpipes would mean worn/leaky turbo wouldnt it? if it was the rings or the vavle guides you wouldnt see anything in the intake side.

 

Well, is it normal to have a small amount of oil in there? Or is it normal to not have any at all?

 

Normal to have a small amount of oil ( no puddles ) in the intercooler pipes, the crankcase vents thru the intake tract.

Large amounts are a problem.

 

Hmm.. I filled up the oil and the gas just now, I turned out of the gas station, floored it... didn't see any smoke this time...

edit: You know what else I noticed? I knew about it before.. but never payed much attention to it.. there's some sort of black duct tape on the hard pipe going from the turbo into the intercooler.. It's right next to where the LBE sits. Wonder if he peirced a hole somehow while installing the boost enhancer?

 

if your valve guides were bad you'd see small amounts of smoke on acceleration, sometimes a puff on start up. My 928 has leaky guides on the number 2 and number 6 cylinders (not good but not enough oil to trigger a rebuild) which causes a puff of blue smoke on start up that goes away immediately. lots of oil loss such as yours would indicate piston rings too, but that would mean blue smoke all the time.

are you sure you aren't leaking from the balance shafts or even the oil pressure sender? I remember adding a quart of oil every 400-500 miles (now every 800-1000 due to leaky balance shaft seal) due to the oil pressure sender leaking. You might want to check there. Clanking valve train indicates a lack of oil up there, or sticky lifters...perhaps even a collapsed *gulp*

 

There's no puff on startup or normal acceleration.. just at like 5500+ there's a fairly large cloud left behind me... and it's brown, not blue. The exhaust almost always smells... weird... not really sure how to describe the smell. Kind of like rich exhaust + popcorn. That may just be because I don't have a cat though?

I don't think I'm leaking from the balance shafts, all the front seals are new.. doesn't guaruntee anything, but.. I doubt it. The only oil leak I have, that I can tell, is from the drain plug, because I lost the seal ring when I changed the oil.

If my top end needs rebuilding.. what should I budget for, what should I do "while I'm in there", etc? What would be causing it to not get enough oil? Time to start getting the Maxima ready for daily use, it looks like..

 

Hmm.. I took the turbo-intercooler hard pipe off directly after driving just now, not any oil... but, up by the turbo end, there was some black sticky gook stuff.. I think it's melted duct tape, due to the P/O putting it on there for some reason.. presumably a hole.

 

If you've got oil coming from the crankcase vent, doesn't that mean your rings are bad and you got blowby? I am having my alternator replaced and I stuck my finger inside the intercooler pipe and ran my finger along the side and I have oil along the pipe walls. As long as its not dripping, this oil is normal? I ocassionally have a puff of smoke when I initially hit full boost at say 2nd gear. After the initial boost there is not smoke if I boost again (say I've driven on a highway for a while and everything is HOT, then theres never smoke during boost) Its usually the first boost of the run even If I drive around for 5 minutes to warm everything up prior to boosting. Maybe its just oil in the turbo burning off because its been sitting overnight? Or should I be concerned?

 

A mist of oil in the pipe coming from the turbo is typical, and if that's all that you have, this is not the source of your issue. Original, worn valve guides would be the next classic culprit for high consumption, but since your car has a new head, this is unlikley. Your next step is to run a compression test and leak down, as worn rings or scoring in the cylinder wall would be the next most likely explanation. When the head was off, what did the cylinder walls look like? Are you sure that you don't have any significant leaks contributing to this? An oil pan gasket leak can dump a whole lot of oil, but it certainly sounds from your running issues like you might have some bigger problems.