Where did my oil go?

[trocutlass63]

So I was driving home from college and I noticed my oil pressure gauge had dropped from just shy of 60psi to below 30psi and that was followed shortly by an awful lifter tick. I limped it home and checked the oil to find a dry dipstick, two and a half quarts later it was reading full the oil pressure is back up and the tick is gone. It seems to be running fine now but needless to say I'm quite concerned that I was two and a half quarts low when I just did an oil change less than a month ago. The 307 was rebuilt less than a year ago by a reputable shop and the most puzzling thing is that there were no oil spots beneath the car and no signs of leaks.

 

[j17_mia]

sounds like its burning it.. is it smoking ?

 

[hurst1979olds]

If you changed the valve covers to aftermarket ones. Make sure they have baffles in there. The PCV valve will suck your oil pan dry in 500miles without baffles under it. If its not leaking it then its burning it.

 

[trocutlass63]

Figured out it was burning it (little puff of white smoke on start up). I was just worried because it went so fast, but I have driven it more in this past month than the first six months of owning it. Just have to keep a closer eye on it I guess.

 

[TexasT]

That is why gas stations have those paper dispensers. They aren't just to wipe off the windshield washing utensil. Check your oil when you put gas in and while you have the hood up look over the belt(s) , battery terminals and general appearance for leaks and such. Brakes need fluid to operate and the coolant reservoir isn't there just for looks. You might even check the trans fluid after the fill up and restarting the engine. Just a thought.

Good Luck with your oil burning issue. Might need to look into the warranty you got with the rebuild. I'd want more than a year if I paid someone to overhaul my engine.

 

[pontiacgp]

Figured out it was burning it (little puff of white smoke on start up). I was just worried because it went so fast, but I have driven it more in this past month than the first six months of owning it. Just have to keep a closer eye on it I guess.

white smoke isn't oil, it's probably just condensation in the exhaust system

 

[rustyroger]

We've got used to modern cars not needing the hood lifted between scheduled maintenance.
Years ago you often needed oil every time you filled up with gas
I used to rebuild British engines in the late '70s, we always told customers to monitor oil consumption carefully for a few thousand miles, they nearly always used a bit for up to 1000 miles or so.
At this time European cars were like this when they left the factory, some models were notorious for burning oil from new, to get a warranty claim it had to be worse than 200mpq.

X2 on lifting the hood frequently, dont forget to check the tires often as well.

Roger.

 

[JACKSUNBYRD]

my dad used a uv dye from napa you put it in the oil and if it leaks or burns it will leave a tracer of dye that you can put some glasses on and shine a uv light in the exhaust ... it shows up as neon colors. so when you look at your pcv valve hose at your carbureator if it has dye in it, it is coming from the pcv .. and on my car the air filter wasnt big enough so the car was trying to suck air from anywhere it could. we installed a 15 inch high flow filter now it sucks no oil through the pcv...

 

[Mathematic]

why would a newly rebuilt engine be burning oil?

 

[rustyroger]

why would a newly rebuilt engine be burning oil?

Because it has been badly machined or assembled, modern engineering tools can work to closer tolerances than the tools used in the factory when older engines were built new.
Roger.