new to forum so please be patient if im in the wrong section or asking a question thats been discussed ad nauseaum. i have a 2006 4cyl ranger with 145k miles that i first noticed was using oil at a pretty fast clip. it would not read on the dip stick before the next oil change at 5k miles and i had no leaks on driveway or smoke that i noticed (except once when i stomped it to pass someone and happened to see it in rear view mirror) then i was at the beach recently and had the truck idling while i loaded my superjet in the bed and i saw black specks just below the tailpipe in the white sand. watched for a few seconds and sure enough it was spritzing out (oil?) at an undesirable rate.

is this engine known to have this problem and what might be some things to think about checking to determine the issue?

thanks in advance

 

man i hope there are some smart people on here :) fingers crossed

 

U sure it was oil and not just soot and moisture?

Id keep an eye on it its gotta be going somewhere if it were really burning it you would notice blue smoke. Black is raw unburnt gas. White is coolant all vehicles puff out a small cloud of smoke when stomping on it.

When was the last time you changed PCV valve?

Whats your coolant look like?

 

It would be next to impossible for unburnt oil to be going through the exhaust. Its simply too hot, the cats alone get over 800 degrees which is enough to vaporize oil. If oil were going through the exhaust at a rate enough to drip from the pipe it would be also pouring out smoke like a fog machine. I think something else must be going on here. All fords are known to develop moistuire in the muffler/tailpipe like dngr mentioned so im thinking that may be what you were seeing as well.

 

Welcome to the forum

Yes, you won't get oil out the tail pipe without more smoke than you mention
The Oil has to be vaporized and then condensed in the exhaust, the vaporization would be seen as smoke
You would also get engine codes and MPG would be very low, because of O2 sensor issues

But oil has to be going somewhere

I would first do a compression test, see if rings are OK
Also inspect spark plug tips for signs of oil use, blackened tips

PCV Valves on these engines are hard to change, easiest way is to go thru driver side wheel well, and they NEED TO BE changed, Ford recommends once a year, but once every two years would be my opinion
Old dirty PCV Valve will cause oil loss and oil burning in the engine.
PCV Valve hose could be full of oil

Your engine is a 2.3l DOHC Duratec, it is a Mazda L engine design, but modified for use in Rear wheel drive Rangers and Mazda B2300, called a 23NS

 

so i started to question whether it is oil based on y'alls posts and now im am not sure. it could be water mixed with soot. its not as....oily....to the touch as i would have thought. i just made the assumption that since i was losing oil and no leaks and theres black crap spewing out the tailpipe it must be oil :)

i also remembered, when changing the plugs last time the far plug fought me all the way out and when it came out; only the tip and part of the ceramic came out. i had a hell of a time getting the rest out because the ceramic pieces were laying next to the plug preventing the socket from going over the edge to grip it. when it did come out, the ceramic left behind was no where to be found. so obviously it took a tour of the inside of my engine. i do remember hearing the tour for the first few minutes after i started truck back up. i wonder if it did some vandalizing of the cylinder wall or rings that is causing this issue. i dont recall if those things happened at the same time or if i was already noticing oil loos prior.

thanks for the responses so far !!

 

oh and i did verify it is smoking a little bit. my coworker said its kind of grayish black. he didnt think it was white. i havent noticed coolant level drop

 

Pull out all 4 spark plugs, and look at the tip of each, that will tell you if you are burning oil or leaking it

 

do you know someone with one of those cameras on a stick you could look around with inside the cylinder?

 

just an update but not a final verdict.....i took it to a shop to get their thoughts, they recommended changing the pcv valve and cleaning the throttle body, but before they did any of that work, they ran a leak down test and said i have internal engine issues and recommended not spending the money to do those things. said something about ring damage possibly due to the spark plug ceramic ingestion i had told them about.


so im just driving it .... oil jug with in reach at all times

 

yup ceramic is amazingly hard and probably scored the crap outa that cyl wall and or broke/jammed the piston rings. Dont drive it far as one day it will let go. If its blowing that much oil by you may eventually clog the catylitic converter.