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Burnin' Oil

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cpbol

cpbol

Freshman Member
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What do you think is normal for oil consumption on a BJ8 with 72K miles?

I seem to be burning about a quart per 1000 miles. Normal for a 50 year old car or cause for alarm?

Chris
'67 3K MKIII
Mentor, OH
 
Are you burning, or leaking? My BJ8 used a quart every 1,200 miles before I put a PCV valve in. Also, you'll leak more in stop-and-go traffic than in highway driving.
 
I don't think You are going through too much oil. Especially at 72k. Compression test is cheap and easy and will give You some info.
 
cpbol said:
What do you think is normal for oil consumption on a BJ8 with 72K miles?

I seem to be burning about a quart per 1000 miles. Normal for a 50 year old car or cause for alarm?

Chris
'67 3K MKIII
Mentor, OH
Click to expand...


Seems about right to me.
 
Using the choke frequently, or for longer than necessary will increase oil consumption too.

It was common for oil consumption to increase during the colder months when cars with chokes/carburetors were still in daily use.
 
You are burning oil when you get 100 miles to the pint, you are not burning oil when you don't have to worry about it for weeks on end - such as after my rebuild.:encouragement:

:cheers:

Bob
 
cpbol said:
What do you think is normal for oil consumption on a BJ8 with 72K miles?

I seem to be burning about a quart per 1000 miles. Normal for a 50 year old car or cause for alarm?

Chris
'67 3K MKIII
Mentor, OH
Click to expand...
Are you getting smoke from the tailpipe? If so, what color is the smoke? and is it constant or just on acceleration? Do you get a puff of smoke on startup?
These can all indicate a different (or combination of) problems which can be: (Worn Valve guides and/or seals) Or worn piston rings.
The valve guides & seals would just require removing the head, piston rings you're talking about a full rebuild.

Cheers,
Dan M.
 
I'm going for the easy fix first - going to replace the valve seals and see where that gets me. I agree that if that doesn't fix it, it is either worn guides or rings.

Is it possible to remove the pistons without pulling the engine? I haven't done enough research yet to see if I can get the caps off the rods and pull the pistons out of the top of the block. Judges?
 
cpbol said:
Is it possible to remove the pistons without pulling the engine? I haven't done enough research yet to see if I can get the caps off the rods and pull the pistons out of the top of the block. Judges?
Click to expand...

Yes . however ,
I would replace the valve seals first and with the right tools you can do that without pulling the head . You need a home made lever arm valve spring compressor .
Dont use the regular black neoprene ones that come in the gasket kit , you need the high temperature hard ones which are usually brown in colour and readily available from a good hydraulics supply place . They last a lot longer and can stand the high temperature better .
 
I think what you are experiencing is not unusual but whether it is good or bad is a matter of what you are willing to accept. With the quality of machining today and the quality of the right parts, (piston rings, valve guides & seals, etc) even an old engine can be built to high enough standards that it would go many thousands of miles without needing to top up the oil. but an engine needing a quart every 1000 miles can still be expected to go many, many more miles before it would really need a rebuild. If your engine is showing alot of blue smoke from the exhaust pipe during normal driving as in every gear change or alot of blue smoke after some decceleration and then getting on the gas or your oil pressure is noticably below recommendations or there are some noises, then I believe it is a canidate for a rebuild. Absent of these indicators then you might decide to not rebuild it and just keep the oil topped up. I would make sure that all the external gaskets are in good order as they tend to leak a lot. If you do decide to rebuild the engine I think you could see that there are two ways to go about it. Some would do what I call and engine freshening up. This is putting in new parts but doing very little machining. Then there would be a complete rebuild. This is done when a machine shop brings the engine to what would be considered almost a blueprinted status. I would want to line bore the crank journals. resize the rod big ends, balance the rods and proper boring and honing of the cylinders. Also proper work on the valves, seats & guides. With this kind of work, built to street standards not racing standards, you should be able to expect an engine that will use no oil between reasonable oil changes. Just my opinion. Enjoy.
 
I offer my experience with my acquisition of a Healey 3000 with 90,000 miles on the clock. It emitted blue smoke. I looked in the oil filler cap and saw a lot of oil spraying around at idle. I took out the rocker shaft and found it was badly worn and allowing the oil spraying that was then drawn into the rear carb and burned in the engine. After replacing the shaft there was no more smoke.
 
TimK said:
I offer my experience with my acquisition of a Healey 3000 with 90,000 miles on the clock. It emitted blue smoke. I looked in the oil filler cap and saw a lot of oil spraying around at idle. I took out the rocker shaft and found it was badly worn and allowing the oil spraying that was then drawn into the rear carb and burned in the engine. After replacing the shaft there was no more smoke.
Click to expand...
Back in the days when I worked at Austin-Healey West (San Francisco '78-80ish) we surmised that probably half the loose engines that were brought in for me to rebuild were based on the symptoms of a worn rockershaft.

Before replacement spares became so universally available (remember, Moss Motors' Healey catalog was only 12 or 14 pages then) we'd wait until we had 10 or 12 old shafts and take them to a company in the East Bay to turn them smooth and build them back up with industrial chrome (Ward Hard Chrome was the name of the place). We'd source the bushes wherever we could__we could never find the "grooved" type like the originals__and then get them reamed to the size of the individual shafts.

Nowadays, you type some words or numbers on a keyboard, and you can build the whole car! I'm NOT complaining, and it's been fascinating to watch the redevelopment.
 
cpbol said:
I'm going for the easy fix first - going to replace the valve seals and see where that gets me. I agree that if that doesn't fix it, it is either worn guides or rings.

Is it possible to remove the pistons without pulling the engine? I haven't done enough research yet to see if I can get the caps off the rods and pull the pistons out of the top of the block. Judges?
Click to expand...
It’s been several years, but guys were using seals from a Chevy to replace the originals with. I have set, I believe, but I never installed them. I’ll see if there’s a part number for them and post it. They’re a lot better than the originals I’ve been told.
 
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