I recently did some work to my 92 DOHC including front and rear main seals, cam seals and the oil pan. The leak seems to be gone judging from my driveway, but the thing still uses oil like crazy. It runs fine, and I have a hard time believing that it is using more than a quart per fillup, but it does.

Has anyone had any experience with the car using a lot of oil, or has anyone discovered any strange leaks that I might look for.

 

High-mileage engines will tend to burn a bunch of oil, mostly under full-throttle and at elevated RPMs. But, it's hard to see (burns pretty well). From a friend who had one (with 212k miles) that did burn a quart/500 miles, the best time to see it is at night accelerating onto the freeway with cars behind you (you see the smoke in their headlights).

 

would this have the possibly of being a leaky head gasket?

 

A valve cover gasket that leaked that much would leave huge puddles on the ground, and you'd smell it whenever the engine was hot. Really obvious.

Forgot:
If you are burning oil, you may notice a thin black film or dust on the back of the car.

 

How many miles are on the engine? Your piston rings and/or your valve seals could be going. When looking for smoke, have the "spotter" watch for smoke when accelorating from a stop or during normal driving. If it smokes when accelorating from a stop, then your valve seals are most likely the culprit. If it smokes during driving or normal acceloration, then it's more than likely that your piston rings are worn.

A head gasket could cause oil to get into the combusion chamber, but more serious prolbems would probably arise first (water in oil).

 

dunno, but heard one idiot tell me a sugar smell would signal a blown head gasket or milky oil, or sludgy build up on your tail pipe or bumper... i'd go with kcbhiw's suggestoin, blown piston rings or valve seals. i do know this much, if you had blown a head gasket, you would DEFINATELY know... don't think your car would run very far on a blown head gasket, and when you change your oil, you'll see the anti-freeze mixing in your oil pan(milky substance). my friend has been driving his 1990 pontiac piece of **** with a blown head gasket for the past 2 months... supposedly, so who knows, if it's a high mileage car, the biggest culprit probably is your piston rings

 

Head gasket, not valve cover gasket silly

kcbhiw answered though. Yeah I was trying to think of ways the oil could mix with the gas... piston rings was what I was thinking of also valve seals as mentioned

edit:: Oh yeah I think we've elminated the BHG possibility... was just curious if it could be that...lol... well I learn stuff everyday