Just drove to Florida and back, 1300 miles total, and burned/lost 1/2 a quart of 20W-50 Castrol Oil. Got a little browner too. Does all that sound healthy/normal?

Had valve cover gaskets replaced before oil change, but still have slight seepage from oil pan and front engine cover according to techs.

 

Not sure, would however first ensure there is no seepage anymore.
May I ask why you use such high viscosity oil?

 

Depending on the temperature of the day and speed you may use a little oil. On the average my car uses little to no oil but when making highway trips 500mi (60-70mph) 2 to 4 times I might lose a qt to half qt.

 

Avos, my bad, it's 10W-30, I looked at the wrong container. No seepage from the valve covers anymore!

Gus, it was pretty warm both ways, and I was running 70-80 most of the way, so does it sound like it held up pretty good?

How much seepage should one allow from the oil pan? Is there a rule of thumb?

 

I burn almost no oil. Last summer I drove 8000 miles in 2 weeks and carried three extra quarts with me down in the spare tire compartment just in case. Towards the very end of the trip I put in maybe 1/3rd of a quart. Of course, that's on the 4.2 engine, not the 4.0.

In the grand scheme of things I don't think 1 quart every 3000 miles is very bad. Plus, you already have a likely culprit with the oil pan seepage. With the engine running there is going to be a little pressure in the oil pan, and what is seepage sitting in your driveway might be big drips on the highway.

I'm with avos in wondering why you're using 20W-50 oil. There is a TSB (100-10) that suggest using 10w-50 oil only in Mexico. In the US it says to use 5w-30, but up to 10w-40 is acceptable in a hot climate. Heavier weight oils were used back in the old days when engines had looser tolerances, but with the tight tolerances in today's engines, I'd worry about doing damage with a thicker oil that can't easily squeeze into the tight spaces.

 

Damn... all that typing and I was two minutes too late. LOL! If you're anywhere where it's cold you might want to switch to 5w-30 at your next oil change. It flows better on startup. If you're in Florida or southern Texas the 10w-30 probably isn't a problem. Actually, it probably isn't a problem no matter what, but I like to use what the engineers say I should use.

 

Hi Sam, I'm near where you are, in Greensboro. I corrected myself on the oil, it's got 10W-30 in it now. My tech suggested that on the next oil change to go to a lighter weight oil to see if it quieted the cam chains a little. He thinks one of the tensioners may have a partially clogged oil port, making the chain whirr a little until the engine warms up.

 

There is a very important clause in the 5w-30 overall recommendation. It contains the words "for maximum fuel economy". Not, "for best engine life".

The temperature versus oil grade charts seem to be a better guide as it shows different grades for different temperature ranges. The 5w-30 verbiage seems to be a general catch-all.

 

I get 2000-2500 miles to a quart with 144k miles on my '97. No drips on the ground. Most of my miles are at freeway speed. When I take the throttle body off there is always a lot of oil in the intake manifold, obviously from the low speed breather. I figure that's where most of the oil is going.
Mike