Sherry

[Sherry Connor]

Well, I have a real mystery.  My 1985 Toyota New World runs beautifully, does not smoke and shows no leakage.  Yet the oil runs right through it.  Any ideas.  A mechanic has been over it, changed the oil and declared it in good shape.  Where is the oil going?  Any ideas appreciated.

 

[lopezg273]

My opinion is that to get a better... opinion... from the peanut gallery is that we need more information.  

How much oil do you have to add, and how often?  Did the mechanic check for oil in the coolant (he probably did, but just asking).

Oil can just really go to the following places:

1.  Into the combustion chambers, and out the tailpipe as smoke* if your piston rings are bad.

2. Into the coolant, which then makes the coolant look all oily and stuff.  Or sometimes the coolant goes into the oil, which makes the oil turn into mayonnaise (the inedible kind).  This would happen if a gasket (typically, head gasket) was bad.

3.  Into the ground, which then makes the ground all oily and stuff.  This would be easy to see, especially if you place a piece of cardboard under the engine overnight to detect the drips.

4. The netherworld, in which case only wizardry is the answer ha-ha.

My V6 90 Dolphin also runs beautifully but I have to add about a quart of oil after like 2-3K miles.  This is normal.  Adding a quart of oil every 2-300 miles would definitely not be normal.

*note: You might not see a lot of smoke unless there is A LOT of oil consumption.

[Maineah]

The first question is how much is "runs right through it"? A quart or two in 3,000 mile will not show up as "smoking". The 22RE were known to leak oil at the crank seal it is very hard to see and because of the pan below the engine it often didn't show up on the ground. If you are losing oil that would be my guess if everything else seems to be in order, it was a pretty common leak.