Oil eating...

[chevyman1968]

My car is eating roughly one half to a whole quart of oil a day back and forth to work. I am gonna need some advice on how to pinpoint what the problem is.

[Garrison]

Oil in the coolant? Headgasket
No Oil in the coolant - Oil leak (rear main, valve cover, etc)

[chevyman1968]

No there is no oil mixed in the coolant and no oil leaking anywhere under car. Check that stuff as soon as I saw the major oil loss.

[agjoyce]

maybe its just hungry? no but on a serious note, check the valve covers again at the corners. and pull your spark plugs and make sure theres no significant oil deposits there.

[chevyman1968]

Alright, I am gonna check all that stuff this weekend.

[Garrison]

1/2-1 Quart is a HUUUUUUUUUGE oil leak. It is either being digested by the engine and being spit out the tail pipe (also coating your cylinder walls) or it's leaking out of the engine somewhere. There would have to be a spot underneath it if this were the case.

Unless.... do you have a burning oil smell in stopped traffic? When you have fresh air being pulled in, not the circulatory button.

[liqwid]

Check the PCV to see if its locked up. If it is, you can use brake cleaner to clean it out but I personally recommend buying a new one from Subaru (I've gotten burned by auto parts stores).

There's hoses running from each valve cover to the air box in the center. Pull those from the air box side and check for oil (blow by).

Pull your spark plugs and check to see if you're burning oil. You might want to do a compression/leak down test too.

[chevyman1968]

Yes, I get a burning smell in traffic when I have my windows down. I do have a good bit of blue smoke as well but only when I really accelerate.

[agjoyce]

womp womp womp... check your headgaskets bub....

[Garrison]

What most people have reported that what's happening is the oil is dripping (or being blown back onto) your headers and that's the smoke/smell you're experiencing. You've got a leak, and I'm betting it's your oil separator plate.

[86bratman]

I'm thinking the oil control rings may be stuck. I've seen it in a few ejs I've pulled apart if it's not had regular oil changes.

It's most likely not the head gaskets in this case because this motor was just put together, but anything is possible.

[chevyman1968]

The PCV valve is good. I am with 86bratman on this one. The engine only has 700 miles on it. the only thing I haven't replaced was the short block. the heads are completely rebuilt with new seals. I also have the upgraded oil separator plate. I did have that leak on my last engine. There is no oil anywhere under the engine bay. The headers have no carbon deposits from the oil burning on them. There is no smoke coming from the engine bay. The smoke comes out of my exhaust not the engine bay.

[86bratman]

Have you made any progress with the oil consumption?

[chevyman1968]

I am building a new short block I am pretty sure its the short block I put in. It had over 170k on it.