Are engine oil leaks a symptom of age or mileage?

[Diamondpilot]

Back in the late 60's to late 70's when I worked in a Chev dealer as a heavy repair mechanic I overhauled hundreds of big block engines that burned a quart or more of oil every week, my own vehicle included. The problem GM had back then was the chrome moly rings they used were too hard to seat. After putting new rings in about 50 engines, I suggested using Hasting Rings(HR) because I had used them in my own vehicle and they completely cured my 1qt per week oil consumption problem. They were softer rings and would seat within 100-200 miles or so. GM finally gave the go-ahead to use HR because even the engines that were overhauled were still using way too much oil and they were getting overwhelmed with customer complaints. Well, after about 2 years, GM put the brakes on using the HR - Reason they gave us was they cost about $4.00 more per engine than the rings they were previously using. :confused2:

On my Saturn it was the rings. I wonder if GM just likes to use hard rings to increase longevity?

It does seem GM motors last forever. In many cases the gad motors well outlive the rest of the vehicle.

Chris

 

[Soundguy]

just to make sure there isn't a typo or something, are you really telling us that the engine in this vehicle uses a quart of oil in 1 kilometer? as in you drive 1 kilometer and then have to add a quart of oil? i wouldn't have thought that was even possible.

i type on a tablet pc... i try to abbreviate when possible. saves time.. and these fake keypads are not intuitive to someone who learned to type back on a mechanical then selectric typewriter... I guess most people can't get that..???

i don't live in a country using the metric system as it's standard either.. ( yet.. )

K meaning thousand

thus


one thousand miles.

better?

 

[clemsonfor]

I realized what you were saying Soundguy, its not that complicated and an engine useing 1qt per mile or Kilometer would already have suffered major engine failure. No one in thier right mind would put 1qt per mile into a vehicle, i would to stop 6 times on my way to work if that were me and that would be running it totally dry inbetween, and would cost me well over $140 in oil per day to commute to work!!! think people.


Anyway to those who have GM that dont burn oil good for you there are some, and there are most that do. Like i said i dont imagine my saturn burns oil?? It leakes a bit but i bet it does not leak more than a pint in 4k miles. But in that amout of time i will have added a good 5qts of oil if not more. So its not leaks that is where my oil is going.

My friend has like an 10 chevy/gmc 1500 with the 5.3L motor those things are notorious oil burners. Some say there fine and others like my buddy, who is a pro mechanic at a hyandai dealer (certifed mechanic) and now some other dealer, bought one that was like 2 years old. It started buring so much oil that they dealer could not put him off anymore. They said something about keep an eye on it even though he told them he used about 1qt a week commuting about 600 miles a week. The last straw was when he pulled his tractor to his moms house and it used 1.5gts of oil in the 45min trip!! they took the motor in under warrenty repair. when they pulled the heads and then the rods the pistons just fell out of the motor, the rings were seized, due to that AFM they have. Like i said some of you im sure have no trouble and dont burn a drop, but this is a true story. The dealer also told him they do about one of those 5.3 rebuilds a week under warrenty. I like GM i have 3 vehicle in my fleet that are GM i have a saturn, and old K10 and a jimmy that i need to scrap. But that 86 jimmy has the notorious dog of a motor in the 2.8L but it does not burn a drop of oil??

 

[Soundguy]

My friend has like an 10 chevy/gmc 1500 with the 5.3L motor those things are notorious oil burners.

and for clarity, that's what mine is as well.. a 5.3 etc.

 

[kenmac]

That's why I said what I said. I was thinking kilometer. 1QT per 1K miles don't sound near as bad as 1 qt per km (kilometer) as I took it to mean. Glad you cleared this up. I sure wasn't going to argue with you. It's yours and if you say it burns 1qt per 1km, I sure couldn't prove otherwise.I was just thinking .Wow! he 's driving around in 1 of those 2 cycle cars that I saw people drive around yrs ago. Smoke everywhere

 

[Johnp33]

I use to rebuild a lot of automotive engines, Moonlighting, The only time I ever had one come back was because he insisted on buying some fancy rings, I always used cast iron rings.
I live in the mountains so we do not have any units that do not work hard, I know of a lot of people with 5.3's, and do the servicing on some of them never seen or heard of any complaints.
They may have been repaired before I got involved with then. I will have to ask a friend of mine he is a service writer in a GM dealership.

 

[clemsonfor]

I am talking about the 5.3 with AFM, which stands for active fuel management. Its the system that cuts out cylinders on the newer GM motors. Supposedly the problem was from like 08-10 and then they redesigned something that made it not have the problem my friends had.

But the old 5.7 also an oil sipper, not really burner but still.