This a really cute tool I whipped up when I first realize I was burning oil. It calculates the actual average age of the oil in your pan based on your consumption (whether burning or leaking) and the miles driven.

The two yellow fields are your variables. One is for crankcase capacity, which is 8.2 quarts for us; the other is for how many miles you drive before one quart is needed, which is measured by the distance between the two holes on the dipstick (I've been told).

All the numbers and the graph automatically recalculate as soon as those two yellow fields are entered.

I have it set to 1 quart per 1,000 miles. You can see the maximum average oil will never reach 7,000 miles, and that at 9,000 miles driven, the oil is really only 5,000 miles old.

Enjoy!

 

Ingenious and inventive.

Mine uses negligible oil between changes - not even sufficient to require topping up. How much oil are you burning?

Graham

 

When I first bought the car last summer (with 101K miles on her), at first it seemed as if it might have been as bad as 500 miles per quart. And it may have been that bad in fact. I've been accurately tracking it for the last eight thousand miles and it's improved from 700 to 1300 miles per quart in that time. I'll keep tracking this until the improvement levels off.

 

On forum advice, I added a can of Restore. Wow, significantly decreased oil consumption in my 105,000 (now 109,000) mile motor.

 

Although it's improved noticeably throughout your ownership, that still seems excessive consumption.

Be interesting if other members pitch in here with their usage. I can't recall reading similar reports about the V8 in either XJ8 or XK8 sections.

Graham

 

My 3.0 oil consumption is about 1qt in 6000mi and in my 4.0 1/2qt in 6000mi. I think it is important to know the oil viscosity of the oil you are using I use 10w-30w synthetic in both my cars.

 

No oil consumption in either our 2005 S-Type 3.0 or 2006 XK8 4.2. Both run conventional Castrol 5W30, and both get oil & filter changes every 6,000 miles....

 

You guys are really making me envious! Who knows: maybe my consumption has been caused by some stuck things and/or some accumulations that may clear up completely someday.

Hey - I can "Dream" - can't I?

 

Freeway use, mine runs about 1200 miles per quart. The last six months of just around town it's up to <1000 miles per quart, but that's with a lot more cold starts per tank of gas. Not leaving puddles on the driveway but you can smell oil smoke at a stoplight and the pipes are black. It just keeps running...
Standard Mobil-1 10-30 (cheap by the case at Costco).
I'm a few hundred miles short of 190k on the original engine.

Mike