Normal oil consumption?

#1

I realize that e30’s tend to use oil which is pretty normal especially considering many cars are approaching 200k miles. I come from an e36 M3 that never used a drop of oil so I was wondering if my experience this weekend should give me reason to be concerned.

My car has 121k miles and was very well maintained by the previous 2 owners. A recent trip to the dyno showed that I have 143 hp and about the same torque. I have a very slight oil leak at the filter housing (maybe 1 drop a day). This past weekend at VIR I was using about half a quart of oil every 25-30 minute session. With four sessions per day I used about 3 quarts of oil in two days. I had someone tell me that the noticed blue smoke AWOT but not too bad.

I remove the air intake hose at the manifold and noticed a lot of oil blow by. When I manually opened the throttle oil/carbon flowed out at a steady drip. Is this normal? What should I look out for or do at this point…just keep adding oil?

#2

screwynewy wrote:

[quote]I realize that e30’s tend to use oil which is pretty normal especially considering many cars are approaching 200k miles. I come from an e36 M3 that never used a drop of oil so I was wondering if my experience this weekend should give me reason to be concerned.

My car has 121k miles and was very well maintained by the previous 2 owners. A recent trip to the dyno showed that I have 143 hp and about the same torque. I have a very slight oil leak at the filter housing (maybe 1 drop a day). This past weekend at VIR I was using about half a quart of oil every 25-30 minute session. With four sessions per day I used about 3 quarts of oil. I had someone tell me that the noticed blue smoke AWOT but not too bad.

I remove the air intake hose at the manifold and noticed a lot of oil blow by. When I manually opened the throttle oil/carbon flowed out at a steady drip. Is this normal? What should I look out for or do at this point…just keep adding oil?[/quote] Ken,
Have you done a compression or leakdown test ever? Valve seals couls be leaking.
You shouldn’t be using anywhere that much oil.I think cobetto’s car needed 1/2 Qt. all weekend at Nationals and that is becuse some oozed out on the garage floor.

#3

Mine doesn’t use a drop at about 180K miles (that sound you hear is me knocking on wood).

#4

these posts may be related
http://spece30.com/component/option,com_mamboboard/Itemid,/func,view/catid,5/id,5778/#5778


http://spece30.com/component/option,com_mamboboard/Itemid,/func,view/catid,3/id,3296/#3296

bruce

#5

Thanks for the suggestions. I think I’ll start with the compression and LD test. I am somewhat comforted by the fact that the dyno numbers for my car were very close to both Al Taylors and Dan Smiths when we had them run last month.

What kind of bill would a DIY valve seal job be? What else would you do while your in there? This might be a good winter project.