Burning Oil caused from Running Rich?

[imagine3163]

Hey guys, I searched about this for a while but couldn't find anything that pertained to my personal situation. So here it is...My car has been going through a lot of oil lately - around 1 qt for every 300-500 miles. I have checked around in the engine bay and everything seems to be dry (I would assume that if my car is losing this much oil I would see or feel something that was noticeable). There is also no large oil spots under my car so I think oil leaking is out of the question. That leaves the option of burning oil. I have never seen any blue smoke of any kind. I have however seen occasional white/gray smoke after the car is fully warmed up but have not seen any loss in coolant. When I took it to my mechanic to check it out, he said that running too rich can cause some fuel to mix with the oil and it will therefore burn away. When I smell my oil, I can smell gas in it. Does this sound right? Would running too rich cause my oil to burn? I just recently got my WB but haven't had time to install it yet. I was just wondering theoretically if this could be the culprit. Will leaning out the afr help?

 

[MountainDew]

When do you notice the smoke coming out of your exhaust? Under boost? Idle? Deceleration/Downshifting?

This could help further diagnose the problem if it isn't fuel related to running rich. Sorry, not much help right now because I'm not very knowledgeable with fuel yet. Don't want to be giving out false information.

 

[imagine3163]

The white/gray smoke is without boost and under acceleration. When I do boost, the smoke becomes darker (which I know is fuel). Its not a lot of black smoke when I boost just a little bit. Pretty much all of the smoking ceases after I have been driving for a long period of time (like after 30-45 mins).

 

[MountainDew]

The white/gray smoke is without boost and under acceleration. When I do boost, the smoke becomes darker (which I know is fuel). Its not a lot of black smoke when I boost just a little bit. Pretty much all of the smoking ceases after I have been driving for a long period of time (like after 30-45 mins).

So the white/grey is pretty much only under vacuum? Black smoke definitely sounds fuel related. I'll step out and let someone who knows what they are talking about in. Best of luck.

 

[Styl]

I'm having a very similar problem too: burning oil, whitish/gray smoke, but no coolant loss. And I actually think I'm losing more oil then that, also. Don't see any oil leaks anywhere either... This is very maddening. I can only see the smoke at idle after it warms up. >_< I'd appreciate some suggestions, too... Hopefully we can both figure out whats going on.

 

[laserspeeddemon]

Blue smoke (burning oil) can look alot like white smoke (burning coolant). It's possible that you're valve seals are serverly leaking, but a more likely cause is the failure of your piston rings/seals. The presence of a strong fuel smell in the oil also suggest blow-by which would get worse on boost. This further suggest piston ring/seals failure. The fact that it goes away after long driving could be contributed by the tendecny for metal to expand when heated. To make abosolutely sure, do a dry/wet compression test when the engine is cold.

 

[imagine3163]

The engine was rebuilt about 8 months ago (since then I have only put on around 2,000 miles). All the rings and seals were replaced and a metal headgasket was put in. The compression was 150 for all 4 cylinders (I had it checked a couple of weeks ago due to the same problem). Since then, nothing has changed. Could it be a mess-up in the rebuild? Does this mean that running rich has nothing to do with gas mixing with the oil?

 

[94cyclone]

I have a 1g with the same problem! Oil disappearing, white smoke at idle and cruse, no coolant leak, black smoke under boost.

I have my wideband O2 hooked up and as soon as I hit boost my afr shoots to 10. I only have 550's installed, stock fuel pump, both honeycombs removed, and an AFC with high setting -50% from 1k - 7k.

 

[rich3389]

the compression on a 7 bolts should be around 170.

 

[OneLove]

I am having bad oil burning problems too

oops nevermind didnt relize this thread was old. My bad