Engine oil?

[SilentDeath]

My 1.6 zetek is suppost to have 5w/30 synthetic according to the local ford dealer, but its currently got 2.5 liters castrol? gtx 10w40 + 0.5liter 15w/40.

So I bought a 4.5 liter bottle of 5w/30 as ive got a slight oil leak somewhere (which i need to fix oil is expensive!) but not sure if they can be mixed.

Oil leak seems to be inside cylinder3 somewhere no idea how to test which bit..
Is there any easy way to lower the amount of oil its burning?

[Shad]

Do a compression test and also check it's not the rocker cover gasket that's weeping. While you're there drain the current oil and change the filter, and fill with your new oil.

[Butuz]

You shouldnt mix different types of oil.

If i were you i would do full oil change. 10w/40 15w/40 with both give you less protection on short runs where the car is cold.

Butuz

[Konan555]

I'd not go as thick as 15W/40 on a zetec, especially if it's pre 98.

[SilentDeath]

Do a compression test and also check it's not the rocker cover gasket that's weeping. While you're there drain the current oil and change the filter, and fill with your new oil.

Is there a tool i can buy for this and how much is it likely to cost? Ive read how to do it in my haynes book.. but if its going to cost a lot (diy or at a garage) ill have to leave it...

Would rocker cover gasket be easyer to fix? i.e not require taking the whole engine apart..


The oil filter and oil are new (under a month) so huge waste if i had to replace both compleatly. More-so if the new stuff i put in leaks out again

I supose i could keep the oil thats in there, to top up occasionally when it leaks or is that a big no?


btw its a 1995 model with 62k miles

[Shad]

Seems like quite low mileage then, which could actually be contributing to your problem.

You can buy compression testers from Halfords for £not a lot, I think they are around 30 quid. Your rocker cover casket comprises of a rubber seal around the outside edge and 4 rubber o-rings around the top of the spark plug holes. Incidently, have you checked the condition of the spark plugs?

The rubber seals mentioned are easy to change, should take you no more than an hour if you haven't done it before.

How much oil are we talking about here? More than half a litre per 1000 miles and I'd start to be concerned.

[Zak33]

I guess your 5w 30 synthetic can only be succesful in it's job, if it has a max of 1 litre of 10w40 or equiv semi synthetic, mixed in with the 4litres and over that it should have.

In essence, it's supposed to run on 5w30 all the time, and you can get yourself out of jail in the highlands of scotland with an oil top up from some dodgy back street garage while you're on holiday with a litre of semi....but nowt more.

However......Fully Synthetic oil is normally used for two reasons

1: to offer extended time periods between oil changes to attract the attention of fleet users
2: to minimise oil use in moders engines.....particularly Turbo Diesels.

Now I'm not saying your car needs Fully Synthetic to stop using oil....but it IS possible.

I've had loads (over 20) Vauxhalls that used Semi Synthetic oil like it was going out of fashion (these were very new cars) but as son as the factory switched to Fully Synthetic....it stopped!!

Dunno why.....so don't ask.

If you don't have oil on the drive and you hae a bone dry bottm of your engines sump (lay down, slide under, look with torch...is the bottm of engine wet with oil) then you are burning it!

ANd lastly....how do you know there is oil in cylinder3?

Is the plug all coked up?

[SilentDeath]

Ive done about 500 miles since I bought it. Didnt leak before oil change but it needed it (oil was black and looked dirty).

When I done the oil change, I put just over 4 liters in which was upto minimum. Few weeks later it was half way between 0 and minimum. 1liter brought that upto minimum.
Now its back between 0 and minimum.

I think a tiny bit of the leak is from the drain plug. There were small drips maybe a few mililiters worth overnight. Unless the oil is sump is under much pressure with the engine going i dont think this is related.

Is 5w/30 always fully synthetic? Its castrol i think, so not the cheap stuff. Halfords sold own brand 5w/30 that said semi synthetic (half the price too) but the castrol doesnt mention what type.

Occasionally I can smell oil. I can't predict when but it seems more common at start of journeys or accelerating, but randomly at other times too.


I know cylinder 3 is wet. Not sure if its oil/water/fuel (theres no fuel smell though). However when i took the plug out, it was oily and looked like the first pic here: http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=74633

After 2 or so weeks, plug3 now looks like plug4 from the above link which iirc was in there for atleast a year.

[Konan555]

I think a tiny bit of the leak is from the drain plug. There were small drips maybe a few mililiters worth overnight. Unless the oil is sump is under much pressure with the engine going i dont think this is related.

Not pressure, but it IS thinner when it's hot. May well give you the aroma of oil boiling off when you come to a standstill as well.

Anyway, I don't like to think of it as a leak. It's more of an inbuilt anti corrosion treatment for the underside of the car

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16.../underside.jpg

[SilentDeath]

Just had a proper look underneath (with a torch and a HDD plater for a mirror! and my camera phone)


This is the sump after i gave it a wipe. There was a tiny tiny drip from the drain plug which wouldnt be loosing much.

These are of the gearbox which is covered in oil. So this is where the leak is. Any ideas how i could narrow it down to which part or if theres any common places a leak could be? I assume its where the gearbox bolts onto the engine, or it would be transmission oil instead (which i havent checked yet... I probably should)






This would probably cost a lot in labour costs to repair as the whole thing might need to come out? in which case i will just keep topping it up


Edit: I done oil change, tightened up drain plug as much as possible, and put about 3 liters of 5w/30 in. That took it past minimum on the dipstick. Will put more in tomorrow if its lower.

[SilentDeath]

Ive had it looked at today, but would invlove the cylinder head if i wanteed it fixed (probably £300-400, so im gonna leave it).

I didnt quite realise at the time how oil is specified, i.e 0/30 fully synthetic being the best you can get, with 15/40 being almost the worst (which I have been using for a while, although it appears to have made no differnce to amount used). Its currently costing me £30 in oil every 5k miles (total since ive had it)

I will do a oil and filter change, and fill up with a bottle of good oil (about £20 for 5 liters :/), with another bottle to top it up ( = £40), then I can measure how much it is using.
I also bought a bottle of wynn's engine flush fluid. It says to put it in, run engine at max 2000rpm for 15 minutes, before doing the oil change.

It seems the ht lead for cylinder3 wasnt working too good, causing bad sparks and possibly misfireing. This + 15/40w oil caused deposits under the valve seats, and made them stick open very slightly - this is where the oil was getting in.

After chainging the leads (about 6 weeks ago) the carbon build up on plug3 has stopped, but there is still oil in there. In theory it could fix itself but I doubt it.

[markymicro]

Oil might be leaking through the stem seals, try useing some stop leak, my old v reg Corsa was the same so I put some of that engine stop leak in and it sorted it.

[:: blade ::]

Oil might be leaking through the stem seals, try useing some stop leak, my old v reg Corsa was the same so I put some of that engine stop leak in and it sorted it.

if it was leaking through the stem seals the engine would smoke ive got the same engine and i had a nice little oil leak and i found out it was comming from the oil filter that had worked itself loose, this engine is comming out in a few weeks anyway and being replace with a 2.0

[markymicro]

my corsa never had smoke, it was only a little of oil that was getting through, but lttle amounts soon add up to big amounts If you are into cars/engines, about 6 months back I built an engine for my other corsa pic below:1.7-1.8 S/C 230bhp est.

[jon bda]

Hard to tell from the pics but the gearbox seems oily...weeping crank seal behind the flywheel maybe?.

[:: blade ::]

ooooh nice, ive just got a standard mondeo engine which is around 130bhp, but in the near future it will be gettin ripped out again and having a turbo conversion and am hoping for around 300bhp

:edit: heres a pic of the oil leak i had on mine