Huge loss of oil, no clear leak.
 

hello,

2001 3.0L 4x4 my pride and joy. last august the engine seized on it. ended up getting a remanufactured engine through a family members shop. since then ive had bad timing problems. now 10k I started losing alot of oil. got the timing finally fixed, but as it stands right now im losing 1qt every 110-200 miles.

1. no obvious leak, did a cardboard test at night no drips

2. pulled plugs, light carbon and oil on threads otherwise beautiful

3. compression test all between 100-120

4. slight drip on bottom of of engine near were the light protective sheet. some oil buildup behind it on transmission

5. oil sludge found behind cam operating sensor when engine went in that was clean.

6. light ash coming out tail pipe, not sure what thats about its pretty thin

after fighting with this for about a month. ive spent alot in oil. and im running out of options, im not a very good mechanic, the mechanic i went through is a family member who lives 200 miles away. Really spent all i had when i got the engine, at this point and time im broke as hell. extremely stressed about this, I commute with this truck 75 miles a day.

Pull the oil filter off and check the base for an old filter gasket that may be stuck to it.The double gasket won't seal and mainly leaks only with the engine running.

Heres what I'd do: go to a carwash and get that engine spotless, run engine to operating temp to burn off the water, do your cardboard test again, but this time let the truck idle till you find your leak. I have a hard time believing that a missing quart in less than 200 miles would be that hard to find (What kind of oil you running, olive?) . If you double ringed it, I think you already wouldve smoked your engine. No way 5 quarts would make it more than a few blocks. Good luck

this. when i was losing oil, i did the oil change, and found out my filter wasnt screwed on tight enough. check that first.

Wirelessly posted

Check your coolant, look for a milky slime substance. I suspect coolant might be part of it cuz usually white amoke from tail pipe is coolant leakin in to motor. Oil could be escaping into coolant thru said leak.

A quart in 200 miles is a lot to lose unless there is a pressure leak.

I had a leak and could not determine where the oil was coming from.
Took a look under the truck a number of time, found what looked like a top of the motor leak, traced it to the Distributor area (’88 2.9L).
Replaced the gasket under that and still had the leak.
Using my findings from the earlier chks, determined it had to be the valve cover gaskets, replaced those, still had the leak, wtf.

Then I finally did the run the engine/under truck oil leak chk (make sure to block the truck as well as the e-brake).
I had the oil chg’d by a local guy who uses Valvoline (always liked that brand) and he replaced the filter and tightened it with one of those bottom of the filter wrenches, (stamped metal version).
Guess what, the wrench had to be a really cheap one because it had cut the filter in three places and it didn’t show until the engine was running. there is was oil leaking out of the lower side of the oil filter, F@@K, how did I miss that.

Replaced the filter, leak was all gone and the guy swore he did not use a wrench to put the filter on, @sshole.

So, chk for leaks with the engine running as “always dirty" said.

Well i have a 2004 ford ranger 3.0l Edge and i was losing any were from 1-3 liters a week, some week better than others.And i did EVER THING to find out were the hell it was going IE leak down/Compression test etc. Now you said you were getting 100-120 from what i have read you SHOULD be getting any were from 150-155 compression for each cylinder. So that could be that your motors messed up. Or i could be wrong. But i don't think so...