Tony72Cutlass'S'

Hey All,

As many of you know, this is my first V8. I would like to get a feel of how much Oil your cars burn in between oil changes.

I changed my oil in May, since then i have put on 1250 miles (2000km).

The oil level is approximately 1/8'' below the fill line on the dipstick.

Is this good, is this bad? What do you guys see in your oil level.

Cheers,

Tony

CO53Super88

Sounds great to me. That couldn't be more than 4-6 oz of oil - so about 1/3 quart between oil changes - I wouldn't take issue with that.

oldcutlass

Nothing wrong with that.

Lady72nRob71

I actually keep track of this in Lady's service log. Using an excel sheet makes it easy.
I fill in the date, mileage, and how much oil I drained out. It is easy to measure when when i put the old oil back into the 5qt jug the new came in. It is marked on the side in qt for converience!

Before I cleaned out the oil return holes in the heads and replaced the valve guide seals, oil consumption was about 1.1 qt per 1000 miles.
After clearing the holes and replacing the seals, she drank less than half a quart in 1400 miles.
Not bad for a 156k mile engine...

MDchanic

Yup. A quart per thousand miles is completely reasonable for a well-used engine, less than that is great, just a few ounces in 1250 miles is fantastic.

I had a '72 Skylark with a 350 once. On a cross-country drive, I put in a quart every time I filled the gas tank, which was probably about 300, maybe 350 miles if I was lucky.

- Eric

380 Racer

Yup a quart to every 1000 miles for a car that is used hard was about right. There isn't a dipstick in my current engine, it's blocked off.

1970cs

My 350 is a big fat zero! I have ran as much as 1800 in year but typically 600mi. 65k+ on the clock.

Pat

Tony72Cutlass'S'

Wow, I seem to remember you doing that in one of your threads, but i'm not sure if i'm ready to disturb any of the crud that's in the oil drain holes..

What did you use to clean out those return holes? Pipe cleaners? I should have done this when i had the timing cover off... i would assume that's where they drain to, right?

Valve guide seals? Is that a big job? I'm not sure i'm ready to unbolt my rockers since the engine is running pretty smooth.

Tony72Cutlass'S'

How do you know when to put oil in!? Or i guess you change it pretty often...

Man, Eric, i was going to change my olds oil this week, but i just can't justify changing it when its still clear as the day i put it in.

What do you guys suggest, changing the oil before i store it for the winter? Or drive it another month and then change the oil in the spring? I'm not sure what's better, or if either really makes any difference..

MDchanic

The argument usually goes that it's best to get rid of the old oil, which contains acidic contaminants that could slightly hurt your engine if left alone for long periods.

That being said, I'd say that a big American V8 that's not particularly tuned or customized, should be just fine for a few months, no matter what you do.

I'd leave it alone, and change it when it needs to be changed, about every 6,000 miles.

Incidentally, the factory change intervals are every four months or 6,000 miles in normal use, every 3,000 miles in heavy duty use.
If you really stick to the factory recommendations, which are predicated on the car actually being driven, you will change the oil when the car has been sitting unused. If you go with the intent of the factory recommendations, a 3,000 mile interval is twice as often as you need to change it, and your 1250 mile interval is four times as often.

- Eric

380 Racer

Yes, it gets changed every 30-35 passes and the filter gets inspected at the same time.

Tony72Cutlass'S'

By pass do you mean 1/4 mile?

If so, then i'm guessing you'd have to drive back to the starting line. Which makes it a half mile round trip.

30 passes x 1/2 Mile = 15 Miles per oil change!

Thats 400 times the factory reccomended interval!

And Eric thought 1250 was too much

MDchanic

True, but drag racing exceeds the design engineers' worst nightmares of "heavy duty use."

He put a lot of $$$$$ into that piece of iron, and wants to get as much out of it as possible!

- Eric

rocketraider

I can't speak for the Hurst as it hasn't been run much the last four years but before it was put up it would use about a pint between 3000 mile changes. It will probably use oil out the wazoo now from sitting so long.

The one in the wagon, with right at 230k miles on it now, uses no oil. It never comes off full mark in 3000 miles and oil stays clean. It used to get 10W30 dino but lately it gets 5W30 and I see no ill effects.

The two 455 cars have never gotten much more than 1500 miles out of a quart. The 394s in the Starfires need some attention between leaks and valve seals.

Tony72Cutlass'S'

230K Miles! Have you owned it for awhile and changed the oil regularly??? That's amazing.

My car right now has 117,300 miles. I'm hoping to get another 100K before it'll need a rebuild! Since i did the timing chain and associated gaskets hardware, she's been running real smooth.

I may have located the source of the missing 1/8'' of oil. I noticed that the 6 and 8 Spark plug holes were wet with oil. Sure enough, i think those two last valve cover bolts were leaking. I tried tightening them up a bit and we'll see if it fixes the problem.

rustyroger

My first Olds - a '79 Delta 88 diesel - used about a quart every 200 miles when Ifirst owned it. After I rebuilt the engine it went down to a quart per 1000 miles.
The next two, a '78 Regency with a 455 from a '70 Toronado and an '83 307 Cutlass used virtually none at all.
My current '87 Delta 88 also burns no oil but it has a Buick 231 so I guess that doesn't count.

Older cars were expected to use oil, back in the day when you stopped for gas the pump jockeys would open the hood and check oil and water for you and very likely check your tires and clean the windshield as well. When I first worked at a repair shop in 1972 I worked the pumps one day a week while the regular guy had his day off, I soon learned that checking oil and tires would earn me half a weeks pay in tips. Mind you I was being paid the equivalent of about $20 a week at the time.

Roger.

oldcutlass

I put somewhere between 3-5k miles on mine per year. I run 20/50 and change it once per year. I think I added about 3 qts total to it this year at about 1/2 qt ea time as needed.

I would in fact pull your valve covers and clean all the crud that may be in there and ensure the returns are clear. As for your valve guide seals, if you do not see a large amount of visible smoke in your exhaust while idling then I would not worry about them yet.

MDchanic

OR when you take your foot OFF the pedal after a quick acceleration to 3-4,000 RPM - the high RPMs pump some extra oil into the valve covers, and the sudden high vacuum when you snap the throttle closed will suck the oil in through the guides if they're worn and the seals are bad.

- Eric