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jerry davis · 10-22-2013, 05:07 PM

Just spent about two months and 9000 miles traveling from the SF Bay Area to Nova Scotia and back. Our 05 with 50,000 miles on it burned about 3 quarts of oil. Just curious if that is the norm or is high.

Rich and Cork · 10-22-2013, 05:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jerry davis

Just spent about two months and 9000 miles traveling from the SF Bay Area to Nova Scotia and back. Our 05 with 50,000 miles on it burned about 3 quarts of oil. Just curious if that is the norm or is high.

I would guess that is reasonable.

tedgard01 · 10-22-2013, 05:31 PM

I used ~ 1.5 quarts in ~ 5,000 miles, in an'05 Dolphin with 26K. Therefore, that sounds about right.

After that I had the oil changed and decided to use Mobile 1 synthetic oil. That should mean that I can change the oil every 7,000 vs 3,500 miles.

I just finished putting on ~ 4,000 miles since that oil change. I have not seen any oil usage over those miles using synthetic oil. I don't know why, but it appears to not be burning any oil since I changed over to synthetic oil.

Also, synthetic oil does not lose its viscosity like regular oil. That is why you can go longer between oil changes.

My son is a high performance auto mechanic and said that is what he would recommend.

Mr_D · 10-22-2013, 05:38 PM

When using synthetic oil in a Cummins they say it can't be used to increase the change interval, it stays the same with dino or syn. oil. If you want to increase the change interval I'd do an oil analysis and go by that. I did that last year and it came book good and to run it another 5,000 miles and retest. This was Delo 15W40 in a Cummins ISC. One more trip this year and I'll do an oil and filter change.

rdownward · 10-23-2013, 08:52 AM

Jerry, I have an '03 36MDDS with the 350 ISC engine with just over 50,000 miles. I have traveled a little over 6,000 miles since my last oil change last December (with a lot of mountain road and full power grade pulling and towing a small toad) and haven't used even a quart of oil. I would be just a little concerned about 3 quarts in 9,000 miles. Oil consumption can have a lot of factors including how hard you work the engine. Except for grades and other heavy power usage, I generally drive at 1,750 RPM (I'm more concerned about RPM than MPH) and let the cruise do the shifting to lower gears and higher RPM when needed. Anyway, IMHO, 3 quarts in 9,000 is a little excessive.

Looking 2009 · 10-23-2013, 12:50 PM

Jerry, you need to make sure that it is not overfilled. On my 03 with 400 ISL 27 quarts brings the level on the dipstick to the bottom of the add line. Put any more in and it will just throw it out the breather tube. WRV did not always use the proper dipstick.

Algoma · 10-23-2013, 02:57 PM

Jerry, I am glad you asked "out of curiosity" rather than being worried about it. Unless you are planning to rebuild your engine there is nothing you can do about it anyway. I agree that keeping the oil level below the full mark will help as these engines are prone to blowing oil out the breather if overfilled. At your next oil change it may be worth calibrating your dipstick in case it is wrong but when I did mine it was spot on so I don't think it is a common problem.

Old Scout · 10-23-2013, 03:16 PM

Think you are misreading the explaination. Engine oil blow-by is a common problem with our Cummins engines. With almost 7 gals of oil to work with, running the engine 2-3 qtrs lower than the "full" 27-28 qtrs will not hurt the engine and it may lessen blow-by or other leaks. Best source would be to go to Cummins an pose the question. Frankly, I dont see much of an issue if your rig "consumes" 3-4 qts of oil over the course of 10-12k miles and a year's driving. Out of curiousity, you might check the back-side of your mud flap or your toad in general to see it there are any tell-tale signs of blow-by.