Oil change on oil burner

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Jan 22, 2011
Messages
9,499
My old Dodge (W/2.5, 4CYL) has 163k miles and I have to put in a quart of oil every 800-1000 miles. How many miles should I go on an oil/filter change? Conventional oil and I drive about 1000 miles a month of mixed driving with an occasional highway run.BTW- manual states every 7500 miles/ 6 month for normal driving. Do not know if I should exceed this?
 
Last edited:
What's the manufacturer ODI?

If you're adding that much oil, essentially refreshing the additive pack, I can't see any reason to not do the full drain interval.

Just make sure you are using an oil that meets or exceeds the minimum spec in the manual
 
Well, you'll get several different answers. Here's my .02 cents.

How often would you do an oil change interval(OCI) if you didn't have to add oil...3K, 4K, 5K???

Using conventional oil as you have mentioned, you can probably go ~5000 miles on your OCI even if you didn't have to add makeup oil during the OCI.

Now, each time you add a quart of oil(~1000mi), you are adding new oil and it's additives into the mix. So, in(lets say), 5000 miles you'd be adding an additional 4-5 qts of oil.

You may be able to go 8K-10K miles before doing another OCI and then change both the oil/filter.

I do know folks that have this oil consumption and they only change the filter about twice a year. IDK if this is good advice!
 
Last edited:
I don't have a link, but there was a site that documented the oil in a early 2000's Camero. They used M1 and kept pulling a sample for UOAs to see when the oil was done, and I vaguely remember them finding that the act of topping up oil extended the life of oil rather significantly. I don't remember the numbers, but their Camero was fairly new and didn't require nearly the amount of top up oil that your vehicle does.

I personally don't mind doing two oil changes a year, so that's what I would do if it was my vehicle. But I also believe you can put a quality filter on there like a Fram Ultra and just do a once a year oil change. The make up oil you put in there will keep the oil fresh and maintain the TBN, and the Fram Ultra can handle going 12k miles before being changed.

If oil changes aren't easy on you or your vehicle, I'd say do the once a year oil change. If it's easy to change the oil on your vehicle and you enjoy doing it, then I'd suggest changing it twice a year.
 
Yeah but have to and should dump the sump sooner or later. There is garbage that does settle out in the pan that could get sucked up into the oil pick up eventually if it builds up enough.
 
Put on a decent filter like a Wix and top up the oil like you have been doing and do not worry about changing the oil. Just change the filter once per year and you will have fresh oil continuously by topping it off monthly. Let us know what you decide to do.
 
Originally Posted By: toneydoc
Put on a decent filter like a Wix and top up the oil like you have been doing and do not worry about changing the oil. Just change the filter once per year and you will have fresh oil continuously by topping it off monthly. Let us know what you decide to do.


+1
 
Originally Posted By: toneydoc
Put on a decent filter like a Wix and top up the oil like you have been doing and do not worry about changing the oil. Just change the filter once per year and you will have fresh oil continuously by topping it off monthly. Let us know what you decide to do.


I like this idea! It's always going to have a fresh supply of oil and additives. No sense in wasting what it's going to burn off.
 
Originally Posted By: Miller88
Originally Posted By: toneydoc
Put on a decent filter like a Wix and top up the oil like you have been doing and do not worry about changing the oil. Just change the filter once per year and you will have fresh oil continuously by topping it off monthly. Let us know what you decide to do.


I like this idea! It's always going to have a fresh supply of oil and additives. No sense in wasting what it's going to burn off.


What about contamination not captured by the filter? Any issues with fuel dilution?
 
Imagine you are mopping your kitchen floor. It has rained outside and you've tracked in a bunch of mud. You put nice clean water in a bucket, add some detergent and start mopping away. As you mop, the water gets dirtier and dirtier, and a certain amount of water is removed from the bucket by the mop and is left on the floor which in turn, concentrates the amount of dirt in the bucket. Additionally, every time you put the mop in the bucket you add more dirt and take away more water.

About half way through the job, the water in the bucket is about half gone and you're having a hard time rinsing the mop, would you simply add more water to the bucket of dirty water or would you dump the dirty water and start again with clean water?

Granted, when you add oil to an oil burner, you are adding fresh oil and fresh additives to the existing oil, but, the oil is already dirty, even more so with an oil burner. Assuming your piston rings are worn to the point oil can slip past them into the combustion chamber, you have to assume that carbon and gasoline is also slipping past the rings and into the crankcase and contaminating the oil which means the oil gets dirtier faster and the additives have to work harder to do their job.

I've always been a strong believer that with an oil burner, if you want it to last, change the oil more often than you would an engine that doesn't burn oil.

If you don't care about the vehicle or are planning on getting rid of it soon, then simply add and drive. If it's a beater car that is on it's last legs, you could even go so far as to add used oil from other vehicles till it either dies or you get rid of it.
 
Originally Posted By: GreeCguy
Imagine you are mopping your kitchen floor. It has rained outside and you've tracked in a bunch of mud. You put nice clean water in a bucket, add some detergent and start mopping away. As you mop, the water gets dirtier and dirtier, and a certain amount of water is removed from the bucket by the mop and is left on the floor which in turn, concentrates the amount of dirt in the bucket. Additionally, every time you put the mop in the bucket you add more dirt and take away more water.

About half way through the job, the water in the bucket is about half gone and you're having a hard time rinsing the mop, would you simply add more water to the bucket of dirty water or would you dump the dirty water and start again with clean water?

Granted, when you add oil to an oil burner, you are adding fresh oil and fresh additives to the existing oil, but, the oil is already dirty, even more so with an oil burner. Assuming your piston rings are worn to the point oil can slip past them into the combustion chamber, you have to assume that carbon and gasoline is also slipping past the rings and into the crankcase and contaminating the oil which means the oil gets dirtier faster and the additives have to work harder to do their job.

I've always been a strong believer that with an oil burner, if you want it to last, change the oil more often than you would an engine that doesn't burn oil.

If you don't care about the vehicle or are planning on getting rid of it soon, then simply add and drive. If it's a beater car that is on it's last legs, you could even go so far as to add used oil from other vehicles till it either dies or you get rid of it.


I expect this post is on target.
 
Originally Posted By: Lubener
My old Dodge (W/2.5, 4CYL) has 163k miles and I have to put in a quart of oil every 800-1000 miles. How many miles should I go on an oil/filter change? Conventional oil and I drive about 1000 miles a month of mixed driving with an occasional highway run.BTW- manual states every 7500 miles/ 6 month for normal driving. Do not know if I should exceed this?
That's a lot of oil for that engine. I've owned several. The current one is a 94 Plymouth Acclaim. ~240k miles. It used to go 5k/qt. Now it's down to 2k/qt. I use whatever is on sale, currently Rotella T-5, 10W-30 and change it every 6k, roughly 2 years. Any filter is fine. I use Motorcraft FL-1A in all my mopars. If it were me, I would go 6k, That's 2 changes a year at 1k/month. In that time you will have added 4 or 5 quarts of makeup oil. With that schedule, you will be doing the equivalent of 3k OC's. You do need to change it to get rid of all the blowby contaminates. Another item is the PCV system. That needs to be serviced at every oil change. Very important for that motor. Good luck.

Wayne
 
Depends on how it's being consumed.

If it's bad rings, then what GreeCguy says is a good analysis. If it leaks or has bad valve guides, then your fuel dilution and perhaps other contaminates may not be as great.

So even a well thought out answer may still have some room for further analysis.

However, this analysis still applies, oil is still cheaper than engine replacement or overhaul.

Use whatever scheme allows you to sleep well at night.
 
A new filter at least oce a year will keep the crud out. Fresh oil added every couple of hundred miles will refresh the old oil. The additives in the replacement oil will neatralize any impurities in the remaining oil,so I would just keep doing what your doing and save up for a newer car. Changing the oil that will be consumed anyway, makes as much sense as washing your car before you take it to the junkyard.,,
 
Use a good filter and it will catch everything harmful
I would change the oil once a year anyway along with the filter
 
Thanks for all the feedback.I presently have around 4500 miles on the oil with a Napa Silver filter. I suspect valve guide/seal issues and not rings. So far the oil does not appear overly dirty as if there were blowby and there is no smoke out of the exhaust.I will run it for 8000 miles then dump it and then go for once a year changes with a better filter.I may have an analysis done at that time and post it.
 
If it's the valve guides I suggest trying a product called motor oil saver from liqui-moly. You can find it at Napa.
At this point you've got nothing to lose.
 
I would use a high mileage oil with an extended OCI/ high efficiency filter. Drain and fill along with a filter replacement every year or so.

4500 on a Napa Silver is pushing it IMO. My .02.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top