...where's the oil going?....(gasser question)

[rich m]

Howdy, everybody! recently went on a trip from here (las vegas,nv) to "back home" in N. E. Oklahoma (Tulsa, Okmulgee, Henryetta, and surrounding area)

Had more passengers than normal, so Instead of the truck, we took the van. It's a '93 Dodge conversion w/5. 2(318) and 4spd o/d automatic.

Started trip with full crankcase/fresh 10w30Pennzoil/new filter(fleetgard 3604). During 90% of trip, dipstick reading never changed, but on one leg of journey, where I had "compression braked" (yeah, I know, it's actually vacuum braking) down lots of hills and mtns. , the subsequent dipstick reading showed a quart low.

Engine's got only about 63K on it. No oil puddle in my parking spot. No blue smoke. Not much "blow-by", judging from color of oil. Engine seems, in short, "cherry". Could it be suctioning up that many droplets of crankcase oil during a long 3rd or 2nd-gear downhill run? BTW, also changed PCV valve and crankcase breather. The old ones (which I suspect were factory original) still appeared to be quite clean... Also, on occasion, (less often since I've run buttloads of injector cleaner thru it) it will stall. The typical set-up for the stall is this: Running down highway. 70 or more mph (this thing seems to have a natural float-point at about 85-90) w/AC on... . approach an exit ramp and "get out" of the gas pedal. Engine RPM, at this point, will sometimes drop right past idle and stall. Cutting the power to the A/C compressor has been a successful strategy. When I forget, restart has been quite easy. Any ideas what's bringing that on? Might there be a relationship?---rm

 

[B.G. Smith]

The most likely place for the oil to be going is past the valve guides. (no alarm) The valve stem seals can be replaced without removing the heads but I doubt that it would be worth the trouble since you only have the problem in the "hills". Hve some one look at the exhaust when the engine is started the first time in the morning, a small wisp of blue smoke is evidence of valve stem leakage. The other problem may be the idle control, if it still has it. My 89 acts up some times. On mine, it cranks up the idle for a few seconds when it first starts. It is mounted on the throttle body by the throttle linkage. It is a smal 12v motor which runs a screw in and out to control idle speed and throttle opening on deceleration. About the only thing you can do to it is maybe oil the screw. I used to live at Checotah and Onapa. bg

 

[RustyJC]

Probably valve stem seals. As mentioned, the tell-tale would be a blue puff of smoke on startup after the engine has sat for awhile - this allows oil to run down the valve stems after shutdown. If that's the problem, it's not fatal (at least if you don't run it out of oil) - just frustrating!



Rusty

 

[rich m]

thanx y'all



I'll just keep the check dipstick at every fill-up habit, and next time I feel the urge to lift that d*mn "doghouse" out of the cab I'll see about that idle mechanism. . maybe it's just dust-gritted and needs a shot of brake cleaner and WD40??



BG- Checotah's still a nice little town, but I'll hafta Yahoo! a map to see where Onapa is... How long since you been "home"?

 

[B.G. Smith]

My mother still lives at McAlester, I am usually up there pretty often. If we are there more than a day or two we usually end up going to Warner (East of Checotah), go through Onapa and Checotah. Onapa is just a wide place in the road about 4 miles South of Checotah. I worked with some folks from Shulter but I can't think of anyone I know from Henretta, except Troy Aikman of course, (ha ha. ) The annual "class reunion" for Onapa school (it was so small that all classes attend) is about Oct. the 3rd. I am going to try to attend, usually abou 100 people and I know about a third of them. bg

 

[rich m]

...so many people just can't relate....

BG, ol' buddy, there's a whole planet's worth of potential internet readers who might follow this "thread", and a bunch of them just can't imagine how homesick a guy can get, just thinking of those 2-lane roads, hills, trees, "wide spots on the road", and astoundingly destructive weather that an Oklahoman is born into.

I gotta get out of this culturally challenged, Godforsaken Hellhole!

Like Tim McGraw said..... "I wanna live where the green grass grows... . "





Found it!



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[B.G. Smith]

Amen on the homesick, I'm not as far away as you are and the years hove numbed the feeling some but still love Eastern Oklahoma. I was readin a thread on another site recently and someone was complaining about the clear cutting of the western USA. I told them, that is Arizona and Nevada and they were that way when we got here. We spent a few days in Nevada last year, too much traffic for me. BG

 

[Bad340fish]

As you said in ur first post you were vacuum braking. When you decel like that its creats a TON of vacuum. Well it will start pulling air in anywhere that it can. As someone said before the valve guides and seals probably have some wear on them. Use the brake pedal and it will go away lol



My parents live just on the edge of south tulsa. Easy to drive a few miles and get some nice open two lane roads with nothing around. I miss living there because I only had to drive 5 or so miles so I could go drive the hell outa my car. Now I gotta drive about 20 miles to do that... alot of gas in a not so dependable car. I could not imagine living somewhere that the "open roads" were not to far away

Clark