Grey plugs, black tail pipe. Where's all my oil going?

[GuzziGrowler]

No drips, all sparkplugs look to be a nice grey colour, which I take to mean the combustion chamber staying oil free / oil rings are sealing. So any ideas why she drinks a litre of oil every 1000km?

 

[Pedro]

No Leaks ? No stripdown? What's the Mileage & is the tailpipe covered in black soot which is a pointer that the oil is being burnt off the direct injection engines suffer with valve problems as carbon build up stops them from sealing completely once closed hence oil seeps past the valve seat & combusted its fixed by having walnut blasting of the inlet chambers & valve heads assuming there is no other issues so what oil are you using? 0.30 is no use on a upper mileage engine its viscosity is far too low

 

[Mikefrank]

As long as it’s not burning oil at an alarming rate stick to 0-30 as that’s what is specified for the engine
Oil these days is far better than 20-30 years ago when everyone used 10-40 and engines back then rarely went over 100k

 

[Pedro]

I'd call using a Litre of oil every 1000 klm pretty alarming! my 200 GT is running on 5w.30 as per the Handbook data its done 45.560 KLM & doesn't use an egg cup full after checking every fortnight & it gets a hard blow out every other week to get rid of the condensates after standing for a while as for lubricants its more Chemical than Oil

 

[GuzziGrowler]

Thanks Gents. Using Total 5w/30 in 51k miled 156. Yes the tailpipe is sooty. Turbo and cam chain changed 2k miles ago by previous owner. I understand the carbon build up issue around the valve seats, but don't get how oil is being burnt because of this. Is this all to do with the air flow reticulation system with oily vapours?

So there's a decent chance a walnut blast clean with help consumption, but also a chance she'll need new valve seats, if not piston rings?

 

[Woodso]

Sorry, whats a 1000 klm in English miles.

 

[GuzziGrowler]

Sorry, whats a 1000 klm in English miles.

A round trip to Brussels, net of visas and tarrifs.

 

[Pedro]

Sorry, whats a 1000 klm in English miles.

621 in GB Miles As for the Oil problem It may need the valve stem seals looking at but a walnut blast clean out might give you a indication its valve issues if it still loses a large amount of oil don't forget the cylinder head is like a bath full of oil when fully pressurized so if there is leak the oil will go down into the block

 

[GuzziGrowler]

621 in GB Miles As for the Oil problem It may need the valve stem seals looking at but a walnut blast clean out might give you a indication its valve issues if it still loses a large amount of oil don't forget the cylinder head is like a bath full of oil when fully pressurized so if there is leak the oil will go down into the block

Thank you Pedro. A walnut'ing sounds a sound starting point, along with a compression test. Cheers.