Burning oil loosing a quart a month??? HELP...
 

How many miles during that month? I have to add a Quart at 2k then it is a Q low at 3k when I change it.

Did you run Marvel through the fuel or did you remove the injectors and squirt some in and let it set overnight? The latter worked well for me...compression up and oil use down.

Anyway, your oil use in a car with those miles does not seem excessive.

Your location and car aren't listed, I'll assume you're in the US, and you have an E300 Turbo. Have you checked your turbo for play? Your turbo could be using oil.

can the valve seals be changed on that motor? 250K certainly could have enough wear to warrant investigation of both the seals, and the turbo seals.
I agree that the Marvel Mystery oil needs to be soaked into the pistons through the injector holes. I'd also put a quart in the motor oil and drive about a week or so prior to an oil change. it could assist the piston squirters, and the valve seals too.
it could also cause varnish on the front and rear mains to melt, and allow the seals to leak, so make that a last resort attempt.

If the "add oil" warning comes on when the oil on the dipstick is almost full, the problem could be the float switch in the sump could be faulty. It's a common failure item in high-mileage 60x engines. The warning should not appear until the oil is at the "low" mark, 2 quarts down. About $40 for a new switch and you can install it yourself next time you change oil.

If the dipstick is correct, you are over-filling the crankcase. The excess oil is likely being burned off, that's why the level keeps falling.

Jeremy

I just noticed the "I'm not leaking more than a drop or 2" part of your post...
do you mean you see a drop in the driveway? or your motor and undercarriage are completely spotless except for SLIGHT residue on gasket surfaces and such?
a drop in the driveway is equal to QUARTS being dumped on the road at highway speeds...

If your oil pan is wet with oil and you're slowly giving yourself an undercoating of rust protection, check the front crank seal.

There was a couple of threads where the members said that tiny O-ring in their Fuel SupplyLift Pump was worn and that Oil was being sucked from the Fuel Injection Pump Cam area into the Fuel Supply Pump and mixed with the Fuel.

You might get a Glass Jar and take a Fuel sample and hold it up to the light. One of the members said that it gave the Fuel a Blackish tinge. The reason is becaue the Oil+Fuel mix mostly gets returned to the Fuel Tank.

In the below thread there is a pic of the Fuel Supply/Lift Pump in post #3. The Arrow at the far right points to the tiny O-ring.

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/285915-95-e300d-606-910-fuel-lift-pump-rebuild-question.html

As mentioned above, you do not need to add oil until it is below the ADD mark, never above the FULL mark. My 603s (same bottom end) all run happily at the full mark, at 250,000 miles you should be burning no more than a quart/3000miles but overfilling can be a problem.

The oil light is off (as mentioned above again), or the dipstick is. No oil light until beneath the add mark.

Are you burning WVO? That has been indicated by some to cause ring sticking and increased oil use / low compression.

pull the air intake from turbo and crankcase vent and see if its oily. if its over filled it will show up there.

my car has right at 300k and no oil usage and the dipstick has shown level to be about 1/8" up on the red. ( a little overfilled) and hasnt moved in 2500 miles.

good luck

LUCKY.... I have a case of oil in the garage.. Ill dump one in every 3-5 weeks..

Pull the boot off of the turbo see is its a nasty grimey mess. You try to move the impeller in and out with your fingers to check for bearing play. I'd look into the other ideas before you play with the turbo.

I like the idea of pulling the injectors and soaking them for 24 hours in Marvels. Another person mentioned to shoot some down in to the cylinders..

-How much?

-How long to let it sit.. Hours?.. A day?/

-Do I run it for a while (how long, miles?) then change the oil and fiter and see how much crud comes out??

I'd start with fixing the low oil warning sender, then run until the oil level hits the add mark, should be able to get ~6000 miles or more on an OM60x engine.

If you find that you're burning more than 1qt in 2000 miles, then look into where the oil's going.

If you put the Marvel M Oil in the Fuel it will just burn and have no effect on the Rings.

When I soaked my Cylinders/Pistons in Mervel M Oil I poured in in through the Glow Plug Holes (so I would not have to buy new heat shields).

However, the key to using it is to give it time.

I soaked mine for al full 7 day week and rotated the Engine and poured somemore in. '
I soaked it for another 3 days at which point I had to get the Car Back in use; did an Oil and Filter change and started driving it.

I worked and cured the hazy grey smoke I had been putting out at idle and normal driving.

When I used the Marvel M Oil on my Volvo Diesel Itried to get 1/4 Cup per Cylinder through the Glow Plug Hole. Howere, if you are at top dead center the whole 1/4 cup is not going in. I soaked for 1 week rotated the Engine and soaked for another 3 days.
Here is a thread on it.
Marvel M oil results sticky rings
Origional thread also has + response
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?t=258757&highlight=Marvel

WOW.. great info.. thanks guys.

Unfortunatally, I dont have a WEEK...more like a weekend.. (its my GET TO WORK Car) I have to pull out a dead glow plug anyway and Ill try it.

Just put some in the glow holes... let it sit.. put the plugs back in and hit the road or do the oil change at the same time?

I think that you're missing the point:

From what you say, your oil light is coming on before the oil is down to the add mark, PROBLEM WITH THE OIL LEVEL SENDER.

Again from what you've posted, you're burning approximately 1/2 quart in 1500-1800 miles when filled to or slightly above the full mark, A QUART IN 3000-4000 MILES WHEN OVER-FILLED IS NORMAL.

Fix the oil sender, measure the miles from oil change to 1quart low or to the add mark.

Good to here. I just added the first Quart to mine at 1897 miles after oil change. I know that is a little sooner than some but not excessive in my book. After the rest of the mechanical stuff is done I will dig into the engine:D

OUCH.
NO
don't do this!!!
sorry I did not see the thread earlier...
yes put the mmo in the glow plug holes.
yes let it soak for as long (days) as possible.
NO DO NOT JUST PUT THE PLUGS BACK IN AND START THE CAR WITH THE MMO IN THERE!!!!!
you must leave the GP"s out and spin the motor over several revolutions first, to be sure there is no liquid in the cylinders that will BEND YOUR RODS!!!!!!!
you may have gotten lucky, you may have ruined your motor. not sure, cross your fingers.

NEVER attempt to start your motor with fluid in the chambers!

down to the middle of the dipstick is where many vehicles sit with oil level.
drive it another 1000 and check it. if it's still in the middle, you are golden.
remember to fill it to that level only.
if it's down to the low mark, then your oil consumption/loss is troubling.

Not to disagree with John, he's one of around a dozen people on this forum who are almost always 100% accurate but:

Out of 12 602/603/103/104 cars I have NEVER had any oil consumption issues when filled to (and slightly above) the full mark, I always change oil and filter, fill to full, and it stays there. Current car has 204,000 on the clock, time for its change at 6000miles and it has made its way down to the middle between the marks, very slowly over these miles. It has a leak so it's not burning (all of) this oil.

If through the years of development and testing the OM603.960 before being installed and delivered in your car they would have found that the oil level was too high, they would have changed it. Further, I doubt that my 4 603s are all anomolies. The 603.970 is a different story, the longer stroke required a windage tray.

Fill it when you change it, don't add until it hits the add mark (unless you're embarking on a trip where you expect to need oil or otherwise are just OCD-ish).

That said, if you are not leaking oil, no oil on the pavement/engine/in the coolant/etc., 1qt/1000miles is high in my experience, but not tear-down time. Could be leaking through the headgasket into cylinder #1, usually this will show significant blowby, could be leaking/burning in the turbo through bad seals which usually shows in lots of oily residue between the turbo and the breather inlet, could be valve seals which will usually show as blue smoke on startup and when idling down on a grade or to a stop. The first two could become critical, the valve seals not such a big deal. If you remove the intake manifold check all of the runners for oil (back to the turbo), and look at the valve stems for cruddy partially-burned oil residue. Where evidence of this oil starts will tell you a lot: Starts at the turbo = turbo seal, starts at the oil breather and lots of blowby = head gasket (probably) between the timing chain and #1, nothing significant but some cruddy valve stems = bad valve seals.

It can also be rings, but it is in my experience the least likely, the bottom of the OM603.96x is pretty well overbuilt. If it is, it will show in a compression test, and usually some hard starting (on one or more cylinders) will result. Sticking rings is far more likely from alternate fuel use or other unusual circumstances, which some have cured with the MMO treatment mentioned above, ... sticking rings can and usually do eventually result in scored cylinders or worse.

"Good luck, we're all counting on you"
- Airplane

oh, I'm not saying it's normal for 603's in general, I've barely gotten 1000 miles on my first 603 experiance... but I'm saying he should give it another 1000 miles and see if it stops or continues to drop.
if it's stopped at the 1/2 mark, his car may be a tad worn, and blowby/windage/what have you, may be causing the oil to froth a tad, and loose a smidge during drive. heck, the OP may be using lucas additive which causes oil frothing and that could explain the oil loss!

if it keeps dropping (which it sounds like from your experience it will) more steps are going to be needed to curb it's lubrication appetite!

100% agree.

Well, Ive run it for a while now and I think the Marvels helped.

Im going through a quart about every 1500-1800 miles.

From what Ive heard that aint bad for a car with that many miles.??

** I did run the starter a few times to get the liquid out of the cyl before I put the glow plugs back in.

Good tip...

I am having a similar problem, i would be grateful for any suggestions.

My add oil light comes on every 1500-2000 miles or so. I notice blue smoke on startup, especially if for some reason I don't get a good glow and it stumbles a bit on one cylinder for a few seconds. My idle always evens out after 20 seconds. The blue smoke goes away at idle after it is warm. I tried holding the revs at 3000 in neutral and I get a bluish haze. I get grey smoke when I'm driving harder, I think this is related to timing chain stretch, which is my next thing to check and fix if needed. I get a slight vaccuum when I do the oil cap test. If I disconnect the breather hose I have some visible vapors that don't seem to change with reving the engine. I have no noticeable external oil leaks. Don't think it is related to the level sender either.

What is most likely? Rings, Head gasket (or head :/), valve seals, turbo seals?

'87 300TD with 307K, Thanks!

have you pulled the intake hose off the turbo and looked for oil in there?
if the turbo is dry inside, the next likely source for oil is the head, if there are no other signs of leakage...