Alright, so my truck has always had an oil drinking problem. It hasn't been too bad but its still not good. Every once in a while (if you drive it and let it get hot and shut it off for a while and start it back up again it will blow blue smoke out the exhaust (oil)) and at WOT it will pour blue smoke out. But here is the really bad part. My buddy and I drove it to Arkansas to go pick up a car and haul it back on a trailer. I live in Illinois so it was a 6-7 hour trip. Going down there and back it burnt A WHOLE 5 QUARTS OF OIL!!! When we got back the oil pressure gauge went to zero and my check gauges light came on and it dinged at me and then the pressure gauge went back up. I didn't know what to think! So I popped the hood and checked the dipstick. There was nothing on it... I am thinking that maybe the valve guides could be shot?? I did a compression test on it (electronic and manual) and the cylinders checked out good. Need some answers! And don't tell me that the plenum is bad because I checked and its fine. lol

 

And while it was apparently burning the hell out of the oil on the trip, it was not visible.

 

Sounds like your valve stem seals are shot. Only around $20 for a set. Might want to crawl underneath and check for a leak, that's a lot of oil to go through if you're just burning it.

 

Okay but then I have to pay a bunch to have them installed. lol And there are no leaks.

 

Dude, I'm sorry to say, but if you drive a vehicle (any vehicle), you have to pay to play! You must perform some maintenance tasks to keep the vehicle running and that costs money. Either you must do the maintenance or pay someone to do it, but without vehicle maintenance, the vehicle will likely break down and leave you on the side of the road, costing you even more money or possibly injure you and others.

As for your oil loss issue, since you stated that the oil PSI guage fluctuated wildly, be sure to check to see if the oil pressure sender is leaking - it is located behind the intake. A telescopic mirror and a flashlight are helpful in checking it. Loosing that must oil sounds like a leak under pressure to me. Fix it quick before you completely loose the engine, unless you are willing to keep dumping oil into it and checking it every few minutes..

 

I know and completely understand but this truck has cost me sooooo much money its not even funny. And its sad because it is a really nice truck! But, it has burned oil ever since I have had it and I bought it 5 years ago. I think I will just buy a whole new 360..

 

The real question is why you waited five whole years to address it

 

Burning that much oil, there is more than valve seals bad.
How many miles on it?

 

It has 173,000.

 

Electronic compression test??

What did your numbers look like? Think I would be real tempted to run the test with a gauge, dry, then wet, and see what happens. That sounds a LOT like bad rings.