Help! oil usage

[Matt (SD,CA)]

I just bought a 1980 300d 240,000 miles. The car starts right away with frost on the roof, temp in the 30's (first crank). The car blows very very little smoke. I have seen no blue smoke come from the exhaust. I had my brother drive the car so I could check for smoke, runs very clean! Heres the problem it is using close to a quart of oil in a 150 miles! PLEASE HELP, God Bless Matt (SD,CA)

You probally have an oil leak somewhere, most likely the valve cover gasket. My car has a leak there, and it's starting to leak really bad.

[Matt (SD,CA)]

Matt (SD,CA)

[kerry]

Do a compression test. It is very hard to see oil being burnt out the tailpipe. On gasoline engines it is easier to see when accelerating after a long downhill with high vacuum in the engine. Diesels however, don't operate with high vacuum pressures. Compression and leak down tests are the quickest way to know if you have ring problems although it is possible to have good compression rings and poor oil rings.

[Matt (SD,CA)]

The car runs Cold! Most of the time it runs around the 40c to 50c range. If I am climbing a long hill it will hit maybe 60c. Im thinking since it will not warmed up all the way, thats why its using oil? I have a ford 6.9 diesel that is tired and it has to crank for awhile before it starts in the morning(blows blue smoke all the time & uses the same amount of oil). The 300d starts as fast as my 97 Chevy van that has a 5.7 vortek V8. Just turn the key and it fires right up, so I dont think it is a compression problem. Matt (SD,CA)

[jobah]

First, replace the thermostat. The thermostat fails in such a manner that the engine will not heat up.

Next, look for leaks anywhere (main seal, valve cover, ip pump o-ring). You are likely not burning oil, rather, you have a leak. Keep looking, you will find it.

[Aaron]

Check the gasket between the oil filter housing and the engine block!! When it leaks, IT LEAKS GOOD!!! Usually it leaves a big coating of oil on the underside of the car.

[gasman]

How hard is it to replace oil filter housing gasket on an '84 SD?

gasman,
I don't think it is all that hard, just takes a few hours to do. This is something I am planning on doing on my 300CD sometime this week or next week. Try doing a search, and you should be able to find instructions on how to replace the gasket

Before replacing the oil filter stand gasket try to tighten the bolts. I was all set to replace mine and had cleaned the area of the leak just to make it a little less messy for me. Noticed the leak was from around the bottom two bolts and one was about a full rotation loose. After this no more leak.
That one leak was costing me a quart every 400 miles and made a mess under the car. Also inspect your oil cooler lines. I had one with a very tiny hole on the bottom of the hose and when it leaked it leaked bad. Was on a 1500 mile road trip when this happened and was about 500 miles from home. Was pumping a qt. every 50 miles and oil was everywhere. However standing there with the car running you could not see where it was coming from. The oil cooler is thermostat controlled. If the engine is cold you will not have a leak from these hoses. Look at the back of your car. If your trunk lid and tail light area is full of tiny oil spots you have a leak somewhere.

Actually I am going to try and tighten mine down again, now that I finally got the proper 6mm hex hed wrench, before I was just using a the equivalent standard hex wrench size, and probally striped things out . If that doesn't help, I am going to order the gasket anyways and replace it