Oil Consumption

[Lowcaljeepin]

Alright people I was wondering if anyone was having the same issues as I have been this past few weeks. So I had a coolant consumption issue that was resolved by replacing the head gasket, after I brought my gladiator home from the dealership I noticed they had overfilled my oil. So as most of us would do I went ahead and took a picture of the dipstick and drained a quart and a half from the drain plug until it was 3/4 the way up the hash marks and called it a day. The week following doing this I keep inconsistently smelling burning oil and think nothing of it for a few days as there’s lots of tractor trailers on the SoCal highways and I thought I was smelling diesel. Well one day I showed up to work early and got a hair up my tail end to check my fluids and what not and I didn’t even have oil on my dipstick. No oil light just nowhere in sight. So of course I take it in and have it undergo an oil consumption test of course they seal everything up so I can’t tamper with it and tell me it has to consume a quart within a 500 mile period which I think is bs because that means i could be nearly refilling my oil 2 times within an oil change interval but whatever… so I finish my 500 miles by the next week and the service person basically says I’m crazy and it didn’t move at all so it’s not burning oil so I say there’s absolutely not a chance ask her if they put anymore in and she says no I check my dipstick and it has probably 7 quarts of oil in the pan. So I’m curious of what I can do to get them to not blow smoke up my A$$ and undergo a proper consumption test? Picture is the dipstick post consumption test hard to see on camera but oil is probably 1/2” up the wire.

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[Lowcaljeepin]

Anyone?

 

[yoda13]

Well, I’m seeing a dipstick with full oil?

 

[ShadowsPapa]

So as most of us would do I went ahead and took a picture of the dipstick and drained a quart and a half from the drain plug until it was 3/4 the way up the hash marks and called it a day.

The correct amount of oil, 5 quarts, may well read above the casting on the wire and up onto the wire just a little bit. Mine, with exactly 5 quarts, reads onto the cable/wire part of the stick. It did with my 2020 as well as the 2022.
If you drained it down to 3/4 way up on the hash marks, you already had it down a half quart - even more!
A bit over, even 6 quarts, won't harm these engines. Not that I recommend it, but it's not an emergency with 6.

Mine will read about like this with the proper 5 quarts - at times it reads a bit higher than that, and has never had more than 5 quarts in it.

tell me it has to consume a quart within a 500 mile period which I think is bs because that means i could be nearly refilling my oil 2 times within an oil change interval but whatever

A quart in 500 miles will be smoking.

If you smell burning oil, have you looked for LEAKS - like a valve cover leak onto exhaust?
How about oil from the rear of the engine, back to the transmission?

You didn't say how many miles you drove when you didn't see oil on the stick.
Not sure why you let so much out of it.........

 

[yoda13]

Could oil have been burning off from their repairs in some way?

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Well one day I showed up to work early and got a hair up my tail end to check my fluids and what not and I didn’t even have oil on my dipstick.

Always let it sit for an hour or more before checking oil. A lot of oil will be in the heads, valve covers and so on. Never drive, park, get out and check oil.
I missed that part indicating you didn't let it sit for the oil to drain back into the pan.
That, coupled with the fact that you drained oil out until it was too low could have compounded the issue.

 

[Lowcaljeepin]

Well, I’m seeing a dipstick with full oil?

This was post repair approximately 50 miles had 7 quarts in the pan

 

[Lowcaljeepin]

The correct amount of oil, 5 quarts, may well read above the casting on the wire and up onto the wire just a little bit. Mine, with exactly 5 quarts, reads onto the cable/wire part of the stick. It did with my 2020 as well as the 2022.
If you drained it down to 3/4 way up on the hash marks, you already had it down a half quart - even more!
A bit over, even 6 quarts, won't harm these engines. Not that I recommend it, but it's not an emergency with 6.

Mine will read about like this with the proper 5 quarts - at times it reads a bit higher than that, and has never had more than 5 quarts in it.

A quart in 500 miles will be smoking.

If you smell burning oil, have you looked for LEAKS - like a valve cover leak onto exhaust?
How about oil from the rear of the engine, back to the transmission?

You didn't say how many miles you drove when you didn't see oil on the stick.
Not sure why you let so much out of it.........

After I fill my 5 quarts on an oil change interval it reads right at the very end of the hash marks on mine. There was approximately 7 quarts in the sump when I let some out. I noticed no oil on the dipstick after probably around 1200 miles of driving and the engine was off maybe 30-45 minutes before I checked. I have checked all over for oil leaks they did my rear main with the head gaskets I’m not spotting the driveway and see no signs of burning around the headers or anything…

 

[Lowcaljeepin]

Could oil have been burning off from their repairs in some way?

They did the rear main seal as well so possibly but I can smell it burning which tells me it’s not that but it could be I’m gonna check my inspection port tomorrow!

 

[Lowcaljeepin]

Always let it sit for an hour or more before checking oil. A lot of oil will be in the heads, valve covers and so on. Never drive, park, get out and check oil.
I missed that part indicating you didn't let it sit for the oil to drain back into the pan.
That, coupled with the fact that you drained oil out until it was too low could have compounded the issue.

It was between 30 minutes to an hour of sitting engine off both times I checked if not all at least 95% of the oil should’ve been in the sump at that point… and when I drained it I left what i would guesstimate 4.5-4.75 quarts in there at the very top of the hash marks is 5 quarts on mine

 

[Lowcaljeepin]

Could oil have been burning off from their repairs in some way?

Sorry I didn’t answer this 100%. There was the drivers side head gasket replaced (hole in water jacket #6) the rear main seal as well as a clutch recall I’m not sure any of those would cause an oil burning problem but I don’t see the inside of these engines everyday so I couldn’t confirm that

 

[Mr._Bill]

Unless you drained it and measured how much came out, there's no way to confirm that it was overfilled. The dip stick is not a precision measuring instrument.

 

[Hootbro]

That is a hard post to follow. I would do a complete drain and filter change with a fresh 5qt fill of oil to re-baseline everything and go from there.

 

[sharpsicle]

It doesn’t sound like there’s an oil consumption issue. Is that so bad?

 

[ShadowsPapa]

One of the best parts or things about forums is all the fun of playing 20 questions.
It gets really exciting, like a really good murder mystery, when pertinent clues come out on page 2 or even 3. Then it's a real adrenalin rush.
Some of these remind me of an Ellery Queen or Agatha Christie, or even Isaac Asimov murder mystery, clues are scattered in every chapter and it's often late in the book where things really come together.

We and the OP really have no idea how much oil was in there. 7 quarts? I strongly doubt they'd put 7 quarts of new oil in if it's a warranty thing. They'd lose money, and they can't claim 7 quarts on the "paperwork". They get paid for 5. If the dispenser is off that darned much - says 5 quarts but puts out 7, think of the money lost on every 55 gallon drum.
I've yet to see anyone brag about the accuracy of their 3.6 dipstick. I've not seen every single one and not every member posts their dipstick accuracy, but so far, what I've witnessed says they are more of a go/no-go gauge. Most read above that casting on the end when full.
Ideally, you let these sit a lot longer than 30 minutes if you want REAL accuracy, but 30 minutes will get you close enough to know if it's low enough to add or not.
Why longer?
Because 5 quarts is assumed with the oil filter dry, and the oil filter housing empty.
When you remove the cap and release the pressure on the filter, the remaining oil in the filter housing drains down to the sump (not fast, but it'll get there)

So the only real way to know exactly how your dipstick reads with the correct oil put in is to drain it all, change the filter - and for me, I check the oil level engine cold, in the morning before it's even started. Since I won't be driving mine today, I'll probably wait until this afternoon since I drove it yesterday afternoon.
Mine absolutely does read above that casting, onto the "wire", when the correct amount is put in.

No oil on the stick isn't necessarily low enough to cause a light to come on. Depending on your driving at the time, speed, curves/corners, braking and so on, there's likely still enough oil for the pump to create the volume needed for the oil pressure to be acceptable. Nothing on the stick doesn't mean empty - but is a red flag.
Assuming a perfectly accurate dipstick where those hashmarks indicate full/1 quart low, in a perfect world, full/5 quarts is the very top edge of the hash marks, 1 quart low is the bottom of the hash marks, that means that the dipstick has a range of around 1.5 to 2 quarts, tops. That means there's still 3 to 3.5 quarts in it. And if it was checked shortly after the drive, some of the oil is still up in the galleries, tops of the heads, oil filter housing and so on. So, no, not on the stick is very unlikely to trigger a low oil light.

As far as "over-filled", because these aren't a straight-up container where every inch rise in fluid level is exactly 1 quart, you can't know there was 7 quarts - that's a guess. The sump and crankcase itself is an odd shape for sure. If you measured how much you drained out, then you can get a close estimate, but you can't tell from the stick. Only by draining and measuring can you know what was in it - ideally pulling the filter to let the filter and filter housing drain, waiting a few minutes, then pulling the oil drain plug, and measuring.
You drained down to below full for sure - how low was it as far as quantity when you drained then used the dipstick, no way to know for sure because those dipsticks aren't calibrated.

Back to the "oil consumption" thing - a quart in 1,000 miles is a lot of oil. If it's a leak, it's going to smoke on exhaust, likely drip. A drop of oil spreads out to look like a hell of a lot more oil. (I've owned and dealt with leaking vehicles for decades). Take even a teaspoon of oil and pour it onto something - you can spread that out over a square foot or more. It's going to burn and drip and make a mess.

Burning that much oil - it will destroy the catalytic converters, it will contaminate and mess up O2 sensors, and you may well see blue out the exhaust (with the cats, it might not come out like pre-cat systems). But you'll know it - possibly even some black oily residue at the tail pipe after enough miles of that.

There's roughly 3 ways for oil to get into the chambers to be burned -
Really nasty faulty PCV - you can check that out easily enough.
Rings - compression test or leak-down test can indicate that issue.
Valve guides - extremely unlikely with these.

Oil consumption via the combustion chamber may lead to carbon fouled spark plugs, detonation, poor performance (because of the impact on O2 sensors, as well as fouled plugs and valves)

Oil consumption via leaks - it can't hide for very long! It will show itself.
If it's the oil cooler or filter housing, for example, it may get into the valley and accumulate for a while then come down the back of the engine and appear like a rear main seal.

Now, before we hit page 2 or 3 - any other details we really should know to at least TRY to help?

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