Oil Drinker

[Selecta]

Hey guys,
Quick question..I have a KL08 engine and every since i have had it..it seems to drink oil..I mean if I don't check the levels on a regular basis I can actually run out before a scheduled change is required. Now I know there is no leaks and I am not shooting jets of black or blue smoke out my tail pipes..is this something normal or is something wrong?

[Talon_66]

I think its a common thing with the K8 engine. I know mine did that. On occasion mine would puff a bit of blue smoke.

[Selecta]

is this something that I would have to contend with when I swap to the KL03? Or is it something that is only found on the kl08?

[TsiMiata]

All the KL series engines can do it. I have heard it is more common on the 93 and earlier engines. I would avoid using a synthetic oil if the engine mleage is higher. This can make your engine start using oil or make it worse if it all ready is.

[valdigre]

if it is common for the K8 then my engine....is very uncommon... It doesn't drink a bit, even though I like to floor the gas pedal pretty much every day . My K8 has some 65 thousand kilometers done so I don't know how will it do after 100 thousand more!

[Selecta]

Well who knows cause when I picked my car up it had 140k on it so maybe once yours reaches 100k it might develope a drinking problem hehehehehe

[Talon_66]

Mine had 171,000, before I swapped it over to the KLZE

[MX3-Freak]

How would switiching to a better oil (synthectic) make your engine run worse/ burn oil?

[lakersfan1]

I've got a '92 with over 100K miles, I'm over 6,000RPM every day, and run synthetic Royal Purple. I don't loose much if at all. If I put 5 quarts in, I know I get AT LEAST 4.7 quarts out.

[TsiMiata]

On my ole MX-6 when I switched to synthetic I went from using 1 quart every 3,000 miles to 1 quart every 750. I also had a Honda civic Si that started using oil right after the switch to synthetic. I've heard of many other similar stories on higher mileage older engines. I can't say exactly why it happens. I can say there is a chance it will.

I only use regular old dino oil now. Mobil is what I'm using now but Havoline has been good to me also. I use it for a few reasons. One is it's about 1/2 the cost or less of synthetic. Another is I have never heard of someone losing an engine due to the oil. Maybe after 150,000 miles one engine might be in better shape than another. I never keep a car that long to worry about it. I just change the oil and filter regularly and life is good.

[MX3-Freak]

Well of course, I didnt see what you wrote. Synthetic oil has very strong cleansing abilities. If you just start dumping in synth after 150k miles of crap regular oil, of course you will start having oil problems. Oil made from crude leaves depostise on the engine as it breaks down, synthetic leaves none (partly because its so damn heat resistant). After 150k miles of deposites on the engine, then you put a cleansing oil in, guess what happens? The deposties are removed! Now, that is a good thing in some cirumstances, however, when you leave those free deposties in for another 7,500 miles (recommended oil change for mx3), they will reak havoc on all your seals. This leads to oil buring. Thus, it was not the synth oil that caused you oil buring problems, it was the regular oil.

How do you avoid this and still switch over to sythetic oil on a high milage engine? Simple, before you switch over, do an engine flush to remove all the deposites before the sythetic oil is used. Then not only will your not consume more oil, but your seals will last longer, buring less oil.

<small>[ April 16, 2004, 12:39 PM: Message edited by: MX3-Freak ]</small>