Garage put in 15w-40w mineral oil is it ok

[Tony Prodigy]

On 7/4/2023 at 10:55 AM, ozieagle said:

Hi John,

 

Using that much oil, in 500km, then the engine (mainly the rings) is pretty worn. You can keep driving it, but keep topping up the oil.

Personally, I would go to 20W 50 or heavier oil, to see if that reduces usage.  Next I would consider a refresh, which is new rings and possibly big end bearings, much cheaper than a full rebuild.

 

Herb

I had a funny thought reading this thread. Back in the day, and I'm sure most would be old enough to remember, was when an engine used oil, there was the adage, " Just put some STP in it and she'll be right" 

We would keep a stash of 20w-50 oil, any and every brand just to keep feeding the beast.

My mate had an XA Falcon with a 250 top loader manual that used to burn around 2lt of oil a day. It was hilarious ! We nicknamed it The Scud. It was a proper bomb but we had the best fun in that car.
It became so expensive to feed it with new oil, he used to get sump oil from all his mates' oil changes and some from the local garage.  It miraculously ran for another two or so years before throwing a conrod.

Those were the best days.

Edited July 12, 2023 by Tony Prodigy

[cranswick]

Theres some additives you can put in like Repco engine sto[p leak and nulon oil flush and others, could any of those help reduce oil consumption or maybe help clean the engine and impove it

Edited July 10, 2023 by cranswick

[Tony Prodigy]

On 7/10/2023 at 12:04 PM, cranswick said:

Theres some additives you can put in like Repco engine sto[p leak and nulon oil flush and others, could any of those help reduce oil consumption or maybe help clean the engine and impove it

Not sure on the stop leak mate as I've never used it. Do some research online and get some feedback from others who have used it. Youtube usually has some good offerings. It may help.

Oil flush probably won't help if you have accelerated engine wear. It may make it worse to be honest. It's designed to dissolve sludge and if you already have a compromised engine, gaskets etc, it may exacerbate the problem.

I think a compression test would be the first thing I'd do. If it's low on compression, then it's probably time to weigh up its viability. It is using quite a bit of oil and when I recall the white smoke, It has me thinking head gasket issue and potentially other things like worn valve guides, stem seals and perhaps stuck rings. You've probably got gasket leaks as mentioned too.

[cranswick]

On 7/13/2023 at 3:56 AM, Tony Prodigy said:

Not sure on the stop leak mate as I've never used it. Do some research online and get some feedback from others who have used it. Youtube usually has some good offerings. It may help.

Oil flush probably won't help if you have accelerated engine wear. It may make it worse to be honest. It's designed to dissolve sludge and if you already have a compromised engine, gaskets etc, it may exacerbate the problem.

I think a compression test would be the first thing I'd do. If it's low on compression, then it's probably time to weigh up its viability. It is using quite a bit of oil and when I recall the white smoke, It has me thinking head gasket issue and potentially other things like worn valve guides, stem seals and perhaps stuck rings. You've probably got gasket leaks as mentioned too.

thanks, the white smoke stopped,  l think it was just the cold wet weather, the garage said there was a gasket seal leaking oil but they fixed it and theres no more oil leaks , the only problem is its using lots of oil , somewhere about about 1 litre per 2,000 km- 5000 km range, l travel 1,000 km a month and l live in the country,  they said becasue its an old car it will burn lots of oil , so additives designed  to slow oil burn wont be much use ou think. ;lm saving up for another car, l just want to keep this car running for another 6 months until lve saved enough to get a another car , it still runs really well and l havent noticed any problems, l guess l will just keep topping the oil up a bit once a month and keep the diptick on  the half way level so it wont run low

Edited July 15, 2023 by cranswick

[Tony Prodigy]

If it's burning that much oil, then you should be leaving a trail of blue smoke behind and your exhaust tip should be heavily sooted and the side your exhaust pipe is on, the whole area will be darkened with soot. Discounting oil leaks and what we now know the "white smoke" to be condensation on a cold start, the oil has to be burning rather than leaking, so technically, you should have blue smoke.

Have you done a compression test and cooling system pressure test ?

 

[cranswick]

8 hours ago, Tony Prodigy said:

If it's burning that much oil, then you should be leaving a trail of blue smoke behind and your exhaust tip should be heavily sooted and the side your exhaust pipe is on, the whole area will be darkened with soot. Discounting oil leaks and what we now know the "white smoke" to be condensation on a cold start, the oil has to be burning rather than leaking, so technically, you should have blue smoke.

Have you done a compression test and cooling system pressure test ?

 

Thanks, no definently no blue smoke. there was a little bit of wet black soot in the exhaust . Maybe there could still be a leak they didnt find. l dont know if they did a compression and cooling test last time l took it in to ask them to look for a leak,l might take it back to the garage, but apart from the oil use it seems to be running perfectly

Edited July 15, 2023 by cranswick

[cranswick]

l spoke to the mechanic he thinks the white smoke on start up is a little bit of oil burn but he said its not too serious and to be expected with such an old car

Edited July 16, 2023 by cranswick