I have an oil gremlin.

[06RangerXLT]

hey heres a thought. my dads car only leaked oil when it was at an angle. meaning when he backs into the driveway, it doesnt leak but when he pulls in forward it does. maybe it only leaks when your driving, and your driveway is at the right angle that it stops the leak.

idk where that much oil could go.

 

[MountainMike]

I also remembered, I have a hole in my oil filler neck, where there used to be a hose going to the air intake to the throttle body. I still have the hose with broken connector inside it, but am waiting on the same warmer day to arrive so i can jb weld that connector back on. Is it possible for the oil to be leaving through this hole, almost as if its evaporating?

Probably not at that rate, unless you have crazy blow by going on. What condition is your PCV valve in? I've seen those little bastards do some weird things to engines, even jamming shut and forcing oil in the air cleaner. Have you opened up your airbox to see how the vent tube looks, oil wise? I'd patch that thing up BTW, even if is has no correlation to this issue it is an open hole into your rapidly moving valvetrain.

http://www.misterfixit.com/blow-by.htm

 

[adsm08]

I had a bad valve cover gasket on my 78 that would only leak when the engine was running. I'd run out 4 qts in a week, never see a drop on the ground, but the week that I left it sit and drove the other car it didn't lose a drop.

 

[bduke23]

I bought a new PCV valve today actually, tried for a few minutes to put it in but couldn't get the rubber lines to come off the old one. I'd been outside for almost 3 hours at that point, and even though I was routinely putting my hands on the warm engine it was getting to a point where I just couldn't do anything with them anymore. I will replace it though. And yes, I plan on blocking up that hole too. A valve cover gasket is something fairly easy to change, and relatively inexpensive is it not? Would it be worth doing just to see if it helps?

 

[Shran]

I have not done valve cover gaskets on a 3.0 before but I can't imagine it's more than a couple hours of work for both sides. That is assuming you haven't done them before.

I'd say that given the age of your truck, it wouldn't hurt to change them anyway.

Good thoughts on the PCV too - the one in my old Granada got stuck and it would coat the air filter with oil in a very short period of time.

 

[HareRazor]

Valve cover gaskets are fairly easy on the 3.0. I would buy an plenum gasket as well because you are going to need it in order to get the drivers side valve cover off easily.

 

[--weezl--]

kinda looks like a Mcdonald's milkshake.

you mean a krusty brand partially gelatinated non-dairy gum based beverage? "shake" never know what you are gonna get with that!

seriously though, running leak for sure... either it's leaking on the exhaust or off of something with nothing below it, like the oil sending unit (if they stick out like my mustang did) if there was something below it, it would collect a little bit there, and you would have afterdrip (an amount of oil accumulated on the outside of the motor, that drips after actually having leaked out of the motor) the other thing could be valve seals, check when you first start up after sitting over night, for a quick puff of blue, although that seems like a lot of oil for seals...

 

[bduke23]

What is the plenum gasket? And no, there is no blue at all, and not a bit of black on any one of the spark plugs I took out (see post #15). I did shake the old pcv before I put it back in, and I could hear it rattling so I don't think its causing the problem, at least not all of it. I will change it anyway though.

Edit: I wonder if it could be the oil pan leaking? That would explain why there is no dripping onto any hot exhaust pieces causing a smell.

 

[--weezl--]

oil pan gaskets typically have either after drip, or it is a constant drip, not a running leak, which is most likely your problem. and if it's a valve seal issue, your plugs can look nice and white like yours, because it burns lots of oil, then dries up with the clean combustion... the valve seal issue is the seals leak oil into the top of the cylinder when the motor is off, then when you start it, it burns all of the oil that has accumulated... but you typically notice blue with this before you notice oil consumption, i'm going to go with valve cover to be honest with you... this seems like the most likely situation...

as for the plenum gasket, it goes between the upper and lower intakes, the lower intake covers the valley, and brings all the intake ports together to the center (not into 1 chamber) and the upper intake or plenum runs the air from the throttle body separates them to the individual cylinders' ports, around some channels and turns (before meeting the lower intake)

this is the full intake manifold for a 5L mustang, the hole on the left of the black part is for the throttle body, the black part it's self is the upper intake/plenum, and the silver part is the lower intake, (which covers the valley)

 

[bduke23]

Ok gotcha. glad to hear its not likely the oil pan, cause that would be a ridiculous amount of work I think. Are the valve seals easy to change? Their pretty cheap, and if I'm taking the valve covers off anyway I might as well do them too right?

 

[--weezl--]

they are a pain in the ass... you can theoretically do them without pulling the head, but i've never done it, nor do i know anyone who has... you have to remove the rockers, then remove the valve springs, from there you can pull the seal up and off, i have been told that you can do it with a compressed air fitting that fits in the spark plug hole, which you use on the cylinders with completely closed valves, it will put pressure in the cylinder, and keep the valve from falling in, but if a valve DOES fall in, you have to pull the head... not to mention the fact that getting the valve springs back on is a pain, however, my father did make a valve spring compressor out of a piece of angle iron, he drilled a hole for the rocker bolt, and then used it like a lever to push the spring down, just make sure you have a hole for the valve stem and retaining clips...

not sure if it's worth your time and effort to do, to be honest with you, being that it is so much work... and it doesn't seem like yours are faulty...

 

[bduke23]

I was way off. Valve cover gaskets it is!

 

[--weezl--]

honestly, the hardest part is keeping the valves in place... if you can get the tool for the compressor to fit in the spark plug hole, it SHOULD be fairly easy... with the heads off, max, 10-20 minutes a head to do all of the seals...

 

[rightnwrong]

That looks funny Tiollib. Mcdonald's milkshake? LOL