I have a 2003 Dodge ram 1500 with the 5.7 Hemi. I burned through about 2 quarts of oil in about 3 to 4 months. It is not leaking an, there are no funny sounds, no smoke I'm kinda lost. But somehow I’m losing oil. Any ideas?

 

How are you losing oil and dont know how when you already said you are burning it? Your engine is USING oil and you have some internal leaks somewhere (valve guides, piston rings, head gaskets, ECT) and because you are not leaking oil but are missing some, you are burning it internally.

Get ready for an engine replacement or rebuild soon.

 

I don't know how I'm burning it is what I mean (poor choice of words should have said somehow I’m burning it). I wanted to know what would be common for causing this. Or what I should check first. Basically where should I start?

I’m not too knowledgeable with this stuff but I’m trying to learn.

 

Trust me, if you are not leaking it, then you are using (burning it). You normally would not notice it but would notice the low oil on the dipstick. Some engines (depending on the severity) will blow smoke out the tail pipe.

No problem on the verbiage, I just thought you KNEW it was burning.

Like I said, it is going to be inside the engine and not too much you can do about it other than rebuild or replace it.

Are you sure it is not leaking anywhere? Spray the engine with a good degreaser and wash it off good and then drive it a while and check for fresh oil. Another thing to do to check for leaks is to put something like card board under the truck after driving and check for drip spots.

 

As far as it could be leaking I pretty sure it’s not, because I have been parking in my garage for a while now and I have not seen any oil on the floor. There is no smoke. So I don’t know how much could be burning. My truck has about 93000 miles on it. Maybe that can explain more.

 

Usually the more miles there are the more internal wear there is on bearings, piston rings, ECT. Thats just what happens with parts made of metal no matter how well they are maintained without parts ever being replaced. Eventually they break down and when they do like in this case, you get internal leaking which results in the usage of oil. As long as you keep an eye on it and as long as YOU know what is going on, just keep adding oil until you can tear it apart and have it rebuilt or replaced or get a new truck if you want.

 

how bad is this on the engine as far as is this a domino effect will this lead to different problems?

 

You could eventually foul your spark plugs. If it is too bad I guess you could damage the O2 sensors since they breathe samples of your exhaust. Those may trigger other sensor codes but I think that is about the extent of it. If it ever got to that point though you would know it.

 

Any ideas on what would be worth it as far as repair or replace?

 

In order to even come up with a price you would need to know what all is wrong internally or just get a price for a salvage yard engine or a reman-ed