I discovered today that the 99 Neon Sport I bought my son is burning oil. A lot of oil actually. I checked for crank case blow by when I was buying it but saw none. Are these cars prone to worn valve guids and if so, what's the best fix.

Thanks for any help.

And from my old thread, it's still stalling a bit.

 

Yea the dohc heads are known for valve seats/seals. Try a compression check.

 

same as SOHC.

 

I'll do that and post the results back here. It will be some time this week.



Good habits lead to good outcomes.
Bad habits lead to, --------I forget.

 

okay, I'm confused how is a compression check going to tell how your burning oil? I think all it tells you is you have poor compression. You can still lose it through the rings and bad valve seats.

 

I'm thinking valve guides. Rings would cause blow by in the crank case and I don't see how seats would let oil into the combustion chamber. Valve guides would let oil in but wouldn't affect the compression. I was going to check anyway though just because.

Edit-I changed the spark plugs a short time ago. I was checking to see if the engine was running rich to give some indication of why the poor gas millage but he plugs looked fine. Wouldn't they show increased oil in the fuel mixture? By burning oil, I mean that it was three quarts low 2 months after changing it. No drips or puddles either.


Yea I know that's bad but my son didn't bring it to my attention until yesterday. The oil light was going off which usually means way way too low.

 

I just walked out to get the mail from the mail box at the end of our driveway. We have to back out so there is a spot right in front of the mail box where we usually stop to put the car in a forward gear. What should I see on the ground right in front of the mail box but several oil spots.

I had a Camaro once that had an oil pressure sending unit on the back of the engine that had physically broken. As soon as you started the car, it began to pump oil out over the back of the engine which on this 350 was where the OPSU was located.

I think my next move will be to put the car up on jack stands and crawl under while it's running to see if it is indeed pumping oil from somewhere.

I don't have a shop manual for this car so I can only guess where the oil would be coming from.

 

I had a chance to crawl under the car today but didn't see any kind of smoking gun. There is a hose on the right lower front of the engine that looks like it might be loose since it has some fluid on the out side of the fitting. I can't get a screw driver on it so I'm going to wait for the problem to get bad enough that I have to take a radiator fan out. I'm not sure why there would be engine oil going to the tranny anyway. Nothing dripped in the 5 minutes or so that I had it there running.

I also noticed the engine runs just fine until the cooling fans kick on and then it draws down to where it almost quits. Even the head lights don't pull that much juice, not by a long shot. I wonder if that would be part of the larger problem I'm having with the car stalling during driving.

 

a differential compression test (AKA leak down test) will give you an indication of where your losing compression. If your rings or ring lands are damaged you will hear air leaking into the crankcase. The splash type lube system will lube the cylinder walls and oil will get burned if your oil control rings is not working correctly.

how did you check for blow by?
is it smokeing alot?

many things can lead to oil loss, i would start with the easyer stuff first (valve guide seals)

http://www.pzlqs.com/Tech/Bulletin/D...l/pdf/g01b.pdf

http://www.newcarbuyingguide.com/ind...840/event=view

 

I just took the oil cap off and revved the engine a bit.
I don't think it's burning the oil and it's not leaking when the car sits or there would be puddles in the driveway.

Thanks for the links. It's all appreciated.