oil and antifreeze disappearing!

[wellsupplyguy]

Ihave a 99 dodge ram with a 318 motor and it uses oil and anti-freeze,Isee no leaks or drips and it doesnt run hot.Does anybody have a clue on what is going on.

[gunflint]

That's easy, it's a dodge!

[jgeatz]

Check you Oil, make sure it's clean, watch your exhaust does it burn really white, sounds like a gasket problem, If you see white exhaust, better bring it in to get it checked out. tough to run antifreeze through the head, won't last long.

[ChuckN]

From what I've heard, my mechanic can run a test for CO in the anti-freeze to determine if there is a leak into the engine. I think that's what I understand.

It has to go somewhere!

[Surface Tension]

Its gotta be going somewhere. If theres no drips of oil then your burning it. Losing antifreeze and no drips either. Check the radiator cap. If its not holding pressure then vapor will escape and you'll eventually be low on antifreeze. Can you smell it? A leaking head gasket is highly possible, look for water in the oil or chocolate moose on the oil cap and dipstick. It can leak into a cylinder, usually you'll see a white cloud at start ups and if it leaks bad enough you'll see a cloud going down the road.

[Gissert]

Chuck is right, they can check for combustion gas in the coolant. They can also pressurize the cooling system in the shop, and see where your coolant might be going.

I just had problem on my wifes Chevy with the 350. Coolant was going somewhere, and it was overheating once in awhile. I feared the worst, and there was a bunch of snot in the oil cap, and oil level was overserviced. He pressurized the cooling system, and it was a 30 cent hose clamp on a heater hose that appeared to be tight, but was letting coolant out. The snot was just normal condensation from short winter trips. Phew! It has been good ever since.

Good luck!

[loosegoose]

Sounds like you've got a bad head gasket or a cracked head. Are you seeing any antifreeze in your oil?

[wellsupplyguy]

Ididnt see any antifreeze in my oil and when the shop did a pressure test they saidt there wasnt any detectable leaks,Iwas told that if it was a cracked head it would be overheating.And of course it isnt doing that either.Its gotten tothe point were they said the only way to trace the problemwas by tearing into the motor and by the sounds of thatit will start to cost big money, anyone want to trade for a donkey even up? thanks guys for the helpful tips..

[eyeshole]

Well buddy its bad news. If you are losing both water and oil its most likely (99%) a cracked head which is cracked between an oil port and a water port (jacket) in your head. My advice is to check your plugs. The side with the dirty fouled looking plugs needs the head. Eyeshole

[bj1]

it doesn't have to be a cracked head it could be just the head gasket if your lucky.but as stated previously it is a dodge!

[wellsupplyguy]

That seems to be the most popular reason and its starting to ring true, donkey anyone!

[Jeremy airjer W]

Hold on wellsupplyguy, I may have good news. How much oil and coolant is it using. The high oil consumption may be an intake belly pan gasket. The gasket usually breaks near the right rear cylinder causing a vacumm leak in the crankcase and thus sucking oil into the intake. Check the right rear plug and see if it has oil deposits on it (passenger rear). The coolant loss if minor, may be around the thermostat housing which is buried behind the alt and a/c bracket. These can leak pretty good without leaving traces of coolant behind. A quick way to ckeck for the blown belly pan gasket is to check for vacumm in the crankcase by disconnecting the pcv valve from the intake and plugging both sides then take off the breather hose from the airfilter housing, start the vehicle and see if theres vacumm on the breather hose there shouldn't be any. This is a pretty common problem with the trucks/jeeps with these intakes. the updated gasket is metal instead of paper and is supplied with new bolts.

[Moose-Hunter]

Airjer...

You may be on to something there. And I'm surprised I didn't think of it. I had a 97 Dodge 1500 with the 5.9 that showed the same symptoms. Also had a good "knock" under hard "go pedal" pressure. The infamous intake plenum gasket was the culprit!!!

I may have some info stored on this very problem... Feel free to drop me an email and I'll see if I can dig it up for ya...

[ChuckN]

My '93 Explorer 4.0 V6 loses a lot of oil, and it goes somewhere. No leaks whatsoever, no burning. I changed the spark plugs and found corroded plugs on both middle cylinders (#2 and #5). The lifters are noisy when cold, but goes away.

It's old, I don't worry about it. 168K miles.

Just curious if anyone knows where all the oil goes. About a quart every 500 miles.

[Jeremy airjer W]

No disrespect chuck, but a 93 explorer with no external oil leaks? (I'll believe that as soon as GM admits that putting the chevete into production was the best idea they ever had) I've had a couple of older explorers/aerostars that had rear main seals leaking but only when the front of the vehicle was higher than the rear. I know it sounds like an oil pan gasket and it was replaced with the same result oil leaking on an incline. Replaced the rear mains and the problem solved. Also niether of these vehicles showed any signs of a major oil leak until they were on an incline. The aerostar just about had a steady stream of oil!

[Jeremy airjer W]

Moose, the intake belly pan gasket is the suspected culprit, I don't think an intake plenum gasket would have the same symptoms, there wouldn't be an oil loss issue for sure. The belly pan gasket is actually located on the bottom side of the lower intake manifold, the plenum is located above the lower intake. Type-o?

[ChuckN]

It's your opinion, but it's true. I've owned 2 of these motors, my last 4.0 in my Ranger was THE best motor I ever owned. This Explorer is my work beater, so I don't worry about a little oil. Just trying to see if anyone has experience.

This vehicle is parked in my garage daily and I perform all maintainance on it. No oil leak, nothing. I replaced the valve cover gaskets, since those always seem to go bad on the 4.0L. No incline leak that I know of, parked it on steep inclines and never noticed anything.

[Jeremy airjer W]

I would bet that its the valve seals or excessive blow-by, but you would think that you would be leaving a smoke screen behind you, the blow-by issue may not. have you ever checked to see if you have alot of blow-by? Take the oil cap off with the engine running and put your hand over the opening. If you feel alot of pressure pushing back at your hand problem solved. It's done worn itself out. I had a early 90's ranger that kept oil fouling plugs. Finally convinced the customer into a valve job and problem solved. I've also seen various vehicles throughout the years that would push the oil cap out of your hand if you weren't holding on tight. Valve Job $1,200 to $1,600 - Quart of oil $1.29 - Stumping the "experts" priceless!

[upnorth]

My kid has a 92 explorer that does about the same thing, the oil goes and you just don't see where. Blow by would be my guess. But just keeping the oil up seems to works and you can put a lot of oil in for the cost of a valve job and or rings.

[MT Net]

Hey, what was wrong with Chevy'shuv 'vette?

Our old Sable mysteriously went through the oil and coolant. Then it blew the head gasket during rush hour . That was expensive.

[ChuckN]

Yep, must be blow by then. I think I remember a long time ago taking the oil cap off once to add oil while the engine was running, and oil sprayed out and I decided to turn the engine off. LOL

I can look at the bright side. At the rate I add fresh oil, I may only need to replace the filter every 5,000 miles, forget about "changing" the oil.

Amazingly, I have never noticed any smoke or abnormal fumes out of the exhaust.

[Jeremy airjer W]

probably a 3.8 liter, right mt net. I think ford has extended the warranty for some of the engines up to 100,000 miles for this problem. it took them long enough, I couldn't tell you how many of these I replaced. at one point a guy I worked with and myself had the heads off of one in a little over 45min the heads were still steaming when we set them on the floor. aahhhh, the good times!

[Valv]

If your motor burns water into combustion chamber you will notice a very clean spark plug, just like new.

Water steam cleans the combustion chamber perfectly.

You can try to remove plugs and see, it is a simple job.

I had a '99 5.9l (360c.i.) Dodge and I had to replace belly pan gasket and intake gasket, but I had no oil and water consumption at all.

[wellsupplyguy]

Thanks airjer for a glimmer of hope,I wasnt real anxious to put up a fence for a donkey.When the fellas down at the shop hooked up their computer to it,it told them that the 8 plug was missing at one time.The thirsty rig uses about 2 quarts every oil change and I have to add antifreeze about twice a month.I would put some in when it got to the add line.Any ideas on how much the gasket replacement might be or am i better off spending my money on feed?

[Jeremy airjer W]

The #8 eight misfire is a dead giveaway for this problem. As soon as I see the code P0308 I pull the plug. If its covered in oil I check the Crankcase for vacumm. Then I warm up the pen and make the list.

I don't remeber exactly off hand what we charge for them. I'm going to give a big ball park of between $500 - $1,000. Depending on what part of the state you have it repaired in. Way up north the labor rate is around $50.00 an hour. In the metro $90 - $120 an hr.

[IFallsRon]

Could be that your rig just uses oil and evaporates antifreeze. My 94 Cavalier has used oil for years ... no drips or noticable smoke.

Lay off Chevettes. Back when I was making a 150-mile round trip to Minneapolis five days a week, I took my wife's Chevette over 250,000 miles and a second I bought on the side over 200,000. The first one was still running when I retired it because I couldn't keep an oilpan gasket in it. That car was a beauty. In the end, I only had one front seat as the floor had rusted out.