Oil consumption

[swank60]

So I'm loosing about a quart of oil every tank of gas (yeah! )

Here's the rub: it only looses oil when it's running/driving. It doesn't seem to be burning oil at all (there's a little sludge on one or two plugs, but with that much oil loss, wouldn't I be smoking like a crop duster?) And I've closed up most of my oil leaks, but I noticed a big puddle of oil on the garage floor yesterday - and it was in an odd place under the truck, too - like it had puddled up somewhere in/on the undercarage somewhere and threw up after build up.

Here's what I'm thinking: rear main seal is shot. If so, how can I check (without dropping my transmission, pulling the clutch, etc...) Is there some test I don't know about to track this down?

 

[photogod]

There is an inspection plate on the bottom of the clutch housing that can be removed to look at the clutch. A couple of screws or bolts takes it off. Look in with a flashlight and you should be able to see the oil dripping (if there is any) and that will tell the tale. Does your clutch slip or is it coated with oil?

 

[Doc]

I believe I have the rear-mail leak, and that it is the culprit behind my slipping clutch. The 60 is in the shop today, and I'll find out soon.

 

[swank60]

I used to have the slipping clutch, when I first got the truck, but haven't had that problem in a while. I'll check the inspection plate...

 

[lovetoski]

I had oil leaks from both my oil pan and PS side cover (cam cover?). The bolts were really loose. Torqued them to spec and reduced oil loss. Cheap fix. I thought I had a rear main leak, but it was actually oil from the oil pan.

 

[photogod]

Just another hair brain thought. Any oil in your coolant? But I think that might be hard to miss...

 

[swank60]

No oil in the coolant, and I've fixed all of the odd leaks that I've got - and like I said, it doesn't smoke (compression is good at about 132psi per cyl, on average) and really doens't do anything unusual - other than loose a quart per tank mysteriously and throw up a little of that on the driveway after driving it for a few days.

I have, in the past, found a good bit of oil on the trans cross memeber and the trans mount. Cleaned all of that recently and need to crawl up under there and see if there's about 2/3 or a quart of oil back on all of that.

 

[informationjunky]

have someone watch when you accelerate hard and see if there is blue smoke.. you might be suprissed at home much blow by you have. Mine burns oil, yet has good compression and the plugs always look good (not oily) when I change them. Does your oil smell like gas when you change it?

 

[cahilc]

Swank,

Next oil change increase your viscosity. If your at 10w-30 move to a 15w-40, worst case, move to a 20w-50. Try it for one oil change and see what happens.

Cheers,
Cahil