Oil consumption

Mistar_T

Hi all... I thought this may be an issue already addressed, but I've had a quick search and nothing jumped out at me... I've only had my car a few weeks now and I've noticed that it seems to be using a lot of oil (around half a litre a week)... serviced last weekend and done 300 miles this last week, and now needs just over half a litre of oil to take back to max mark.

There is an oil leak from the rocker cover gasket, and possibly one or two further down (obviously will have to do rocker cover first and then clean off), but to be using this much oil in a week i suspect there may be something more sinister going on... I've not noticed any blue smoke from the exhaust while driving or when stationary and the car revved up... is it possible that all the oil is being lost through oil leaks? I've not noticed any major pools of oil where i've been parked, and the coolant and oil have not mixed.

Is there a common cause for the z22se engines using so much oil? I've heard of ecotec engines piston rings going and then burning oil before but thought the z22se was a bit better on that front... any suggestions would be appreciated as the head will be coming off soon anyway and would rather get it all done at once if you guys think there may be an issue with the engine?

john2666

Hi, has the engine previously suffered the timing chain failure problem, if so when the head was done did it have new stem seals put in and also it could have cracked or worn valve guides, these will both cause oil to leak into the bores and will just be burnt off, hence the blue smoke

Mistar_T

john2666 said:
Hi, has the engine previously suffered the timing chain failure problem, if so when the head was done did it have new stem seals put in and also it could have cracked or worn valve guides, these will both cause oil to leak into the bores and will just be burnt off, hence the blue smoke

I do know that it has had a timing chain kit fitted, but i dont think it failed in the usual way... im a little unclear on what happened... not sure what extra work was done when this was done... but i believe the head is cracked anyway from where spark plug for cylinder 1 was seized... while ive got the head off to replace it (to cure this new coolant leak) is it worth replacing the stem seals and valve guides to be on the safe side?

sorry if i didnt make it clear... but i havent noticed any blue smoke at all...

john2666

hi, sorry i misread your original post, i thought you said there was blue smoke, but you said you didnt see blue smoke, does it smoke under load or if you accelerate quickly? its unusual for the valve guides to need doing unless it has had damaged valves, the stem seals are easy enough and cheap, valve guides have to be done at an engine center because they have to be drilled and reamed etc, not a cheap job, if your replacing the head then it should be fine (if the replacement head is a good one)

Mistar_T

so all i need do is source a good head with all the valves etc in to cure my coolant leak and it may end up curing the high oil consumption aswell?

great... would you still do the seals then or not?

john2666

if you get a good head then you shouldnt need to do the stem seals, i think it would cure the oil consuption problem. Is the car high mileage?

Mistar_T

john2666 said:
if you get a good head then you shouldnt need to do the stem seals, i think it would cure the oil consuption problem. Is the car high mileage?

not really... around 83k...

Still on the hunt for a good head though... I'd give the scrappers a ring but you never know if its going to be any better than whats already on the car until its been pressure tested... and even then i wont know if the seals are any good or if there are any other underlying problems until its on the car...

Sjdickso

As said sounds like it could be stem seals or guides. Seems to be more common now with slightly higher mileage z22se's.

slindborg

mine would drink 5/30, so changed to something a little chewier and it barely uses a drop now 🙂
although of course that goes against the salesmans (oops "experts") advice lol

Mistar_T

slindborg said:
mine would drink 5/30, so changed to something a little chewier and it barely uses a drop now 🙂
although of course that goes against the salesmans (oops "experts") advice lol

mines on 10/ 40... some of the lads at work suggested i use something a little thicker... but all through its service history its been on 10/ 40 so i'm a bit reluctant to move away from it.

Sjdickso

Mine also desimated 5/30 fully synth, 10/40 semi seems better on consumption.

si_c1978

good luck mate,
ive abandoned my engine because of similar issues only mine started farting blue smoke after a while,
it does seem thats its a inherent fault with em, an engines life should be way more than 80k :wtf:
i know that the engines were made in two different places(one in germany and the other is in the us)
and the ones from one of the plants (im not sure which) they are a bit wank :thumbdown:

Mistar_T

si.c1978 said:
good luck mate,
ive abandoned my engine because of similar issues only mine started farting blue smoke after a while,
it does seem thats its a inherent fault with em, an engines life should be way more than 80k :wtf:
i know that the engines were made in two different places(one in germany and the other is in the us)
and the ones from one of the plants (im not sure which) they are a bit wank :thumbdown:

I'm guessin the american ones are the shite ones... 😃

Mistar_T

Ok, a little update... I changed the spark plugs in my car and ended up cracking the head, so i got a cylinder head off ebay which was on an astra... its goin onto a vectra b... but vocky's already said to swap over the inlet cam because of the p/s pump.

The head has apparently had 4 valve guides, 4 inlet valves, 6 exhaust valves and all the valves re-lapped in and all stem seals changed. It was then re-fit to the astra and did 370-ish miles before being taken off again and sold (apparently something was also up with the bottom end so the guy ended up putting a second hand engine in instead and selling the head off to recover some of the cost).

I had the head skimmed and pressure tested again to be on the safe side, and it is now almost ready to be put on the car. I'm on a course at the start of next week, so my mate is going to get on and do it for me... might be a little bit left to do when i get back... will have to wait and see.

The thing is... i thought that my existing head (the one already on the vectra) didnt have any of the guides done... but apprently it did (my car had a problem with the cam chain at some point...) and since its using around half a litre a week, i began to think it was maybe going to be the piston rings which had gone... even though ive not noticed any blue smoke.

Anyway, today i had my mate follow me and check for any blue smoke... the only bit he saw was apparently a very small amount when i booted it after it'd been on overrun. He says that the small amount he saw wouldnt be anywhere near enough to explain the loss of half a litre a week. There are oil leaks around the top of the engine... one of these is from the rocker cover... not sure about anywhere else... but the oil left ontop of the gearbox from where it'd run down looked pretty clean and fresh... but i've not noticed any massive patches of oil where i've been parked.

So, sorry for going on, but my questions are these:

Is it really possible that i'm losing almost half a litre of oil a week through mainly a rocker cover gasket leak?
If it is, then is it possible that the reason i'm not gettin pools of oil under my car is that it is going onto the exhaust and being burnt off rather than dripping? - if not... any other suggestions?

I'm hoping that this new head is going to be fine and cure that tiny bit of blue smoke that there was, and that obviously when all the top half of gaskets are changed then the oil leaks should be cured and it wont use as much oil anymore... but i never would have expected the oil leak to be bad enough to loose half a litre a week...

other than what ive said... this has me stumped... anyone else got any ideas? the water and oil are not mixing at all... i cant see what else could possibly cause the loss of oil...

Appologies for the long post 😃