Excessive oil usage in 1.9 diesel (1Y)

[discipleofsketch]

Just back from a 1000+ mile road trip up through France from Santander. Apart from a fuel line issue, the van performed great, fully loaded, 3 people, 3 bikes, water in the tank, fridge, coolbox and cupboards full of food and drink.

But... the engine 1.9 diesel (1Y) is drinking excessive amounts of oil - getting on for nearly a litre every 100 miles at motorway speeds!

Some facts:-

- There are no visible leaks, no puddles under the van after standing or a hard run
- small amount of spotting on the tailgate, but not litres and litres worth!
- no smoke, apart from some sooty smoke under hard uphill acceleration. If there is any blue smoke, I haven't seen it from the drivers side door mirror.
- I'm sure i'm not overfilling it. I have a custom dipstick calibrated at 3.5 and 4.5 litres
- engine runs well, always starts, never overheats.
- engine fitted earlier this year, from a golf donor just over 100k ish miles apparently.
- I started using 20/50 mineral rather than 15/40 to see if it slowed the loss - it didn't.
- no oil in the coolant, doesn't lose a drop of coolant (didn't need to top up at all throughout aforementioned 1000 mile roadtrip).

So, i'm deciding what to do - is it worth investing the time/ money in having the piston rings replaced - would worn rings lead to oil being burnt at this rate, without producing clouds of smoke? Anything else that might need looking at?

Maybe I should go the whole hog and get a recon cyclinder head, or whole engine - although i'd be tempted to upgrade to a Td or Tdi if I was going to invest that sort of money.

As I say, the engine runs well - I could just keep using it and chucking in the oil, it's fine for pootling around and shorter motorway trips but i'd be reluctant to do another long european road trip having to top it up every 100 miles.

[California Dreamin]

I think I'd be looking for another KNOWN good engine, 1Y's are common enough but make sure you hear and see it running first.

Martin

[nevill3]

I have a 1.6D and a couple of years ago I changed the oil and filter but used a synthetic oil. I drove rather enthusiastically to Cornwall that year and used lots of oil just like you did. Last year I switched back to mineral oil and now drive at 60mph or less on the motorways and I now use very little or no oil at all.

Do you drive your van quite quickly/hard?

[discipleofsketch]

I think I'd be looking for another KNOWN good engine, 1Y's are common enough but make sure you hear and see it running first.

Martin

If the engine was smoking i'd be considering it, but as it runs so well, smoke-free I think there is life in it yet. I guess if there were a bargain around it might work out cheaper to swap. Would feel pretty stupid if I swapped the engine and it turned out to be a cracked filler pipe or something (as suggested elsewhere).

[discipleofsketch]

I have a 1.6D and a couple of years ago I changed the oil and filter but used a synthetic oil. I drove rather enthusiastically to Cornwall that year and used lots of oil just like you did. Last year I switched back to mineral oil and now drive at 60mph or less on the motorways and I now use very little or no oil at all.

Do you drive your van quite quickly/hard?

Generally I don't drive fast, but a fair amount of this was fully-loaded motorway cruising at 60mph+ - some steepish inclines too. It certainly uses/ loses more at high revs.

[discipleofsketch]

From advice from various people (facebook etc.), current plan is to spend some time looking at what is causing the spotting on the tailgate and fix it, to rule out the possibility that there is actually a significant leak that only occurs at higher revs. Next stage will be a compression test to help me decide where to go from there.

Luckily the van is pretty useable in the meantime, oil loss is much less drastic under general use.

[California Dreamin]

We see similar posts from time to time. The poster says that there are no visible leaks, no oil in the water and little smoke. However, the fact remains that this engine is using a massive amount of oil and it is going somewhere.

Process of illumination says (given the consumption of 1litre per 100 miles):

This amount of oil would be visible if it was a leaking.
This amount of oil would show up if it was leaking internally (into the coolant)
So
That only leaves one other reason remaining: the oil is being burnt.

With this conclusion and the amount of oil being 'burnt' the prognosis for repair is usually quite extensive and hence my original comment.

But...as you say, you need to have a little more proof, so the next steps are to carry out various tests with a emphasis on checking the breather side to eliminate the 'crank case compression' theory'.

Martin

[discipleofsketch]

We see similar posts from time to time. The poster says that there are no visible leaks, no oil in the water and little smoke. However, the fact remains that this engine is using a massive amount of oil and it is going somewhere.

Process of illumination says (given the consumption of 1litre per 100 miles):

This amount of oil would be visible if it was a leaking.
This amount of oil would show up if it was leaking internally (into the coolant)
So
That only leaves one other reason remaining: the oil is being burnt.

With this conclusion and the amount of oil being 'burnt' the prognosis for repair is usually quite extensive and hence my original comment.

But...as you say, you need to have a little more proof, so the next steps are to carry out various tests with a emphasis on checking the breather side to eliminate the 'crank case compression' theory'.

Martin

Thanks Martin, yep - i'd be inclined to agree that it looks like the oil must be being burnt (smelly exhaust) and the repair would likely be more expensive than an engine swap. My dilemma is that on one hand I would still prefer to pour some money into repairing it than taking a a gamble - a known replacement engine would have to come from someone who can honestly say that it it is in excellent nick, and they have driven it thousands of miles etc. etc. if I listened to my current engine and took it for a test drive i'd say it was a good engine, I was perfectly happy with it until I realised how much oil it was getting through!

However, if repairing it means having it remanufactured (been quoted about £900 if I remove and ship the engine off), I would effectively end up with a new engine, with possibly decades of life in it. £900 isn't bad for a new engine, but then I think, well if I have to spend that much (plus labour for removing/fitting/tweaking etc), shouldn't I just hang on, keep slopping in cheap oil, save up and look at a nice Tdi + flipped gearbox conversion in a year or two

Sorry for going on about this, this is just therapy really, and I truly appreciate the replies - i'll report back when i've actually done something about it!