1973 /450sl oil consumption

[zeggate]

I went on my first long trip from NYC to ATlantic City ,N.J. and the car drove fine. However just before Perth Amboy the engine started hesitated and dragging. I pulled over checked for overheating(not the problem ), I checked the oil dipstick and founjd it almost dry. After waiting for AAA for 3 hours and got a friend to bring me some oil and the car started right up and I drove home. Now I need to fix this problem and I need all help and advise. By the way the car has 151,567 miles on the odometer. These may not be the true miles ,when I got the car in 2001 the speedometer cable was disconnected.Please help, thanks

[kbflorida]

sounds like a leak somewhere to me. you're going to burn some oil on a trip, but unless it was low to start with, you shouldn't drop two quarts or more on that trip.
but are you sure it wasn't low to start?
I always keep extra oil in the trunk. with an old car you never know when something might start leaking...

[UPSTATE NY]

Normal for 4.5 to use a quart or so before the 3000 mile oil change. Why yours ran so low not sure. I was a little worried when my 76 SL was low on fluid when I changed the oil/filter, I learned thats the way they were engineered.

My plugs never fouled.

Hopefullly you didn't do any damage when you ran it low on oil.

Good Luck

Later
JOB