I have a 94 Chevy Cheyenne 3/4 ton with a 350. My wife and I bought this truck to pull a camper. We wound up buying a pop up so the truck is more than enough. The odometer shows 167,000 miles and it’s a beater. I’m not too concerned about it lasting really long but I would like to slow down the oil burn. It does smoke some. Is there some sort of product that can help me out. The truck will be used 5-10 times a year to pull the pop up (no more than an hour or so away) and maybe for hauling something here or there. I’d just like to nurse it for this summer and possibly the next till I can trade my car in on something that can pull the pop up. Just wondered if Lucas or someone made something that might help out with the oil consumption.
What kind of oil consumption are we talking?
There’s really no miracle products that will slow down oil consumption. If it’s really extremely bad switching to a heavier weight oil can reduce the rate of consumption, but that’s really only if it’s burning so fast that it’s running low between fill-ups. If it’s merely burning a quart every 500 miles or so, just buy the cheapest oil you can find by the case and live with it.
My current 4x4 burns a quart about every 600 miles, but it still runs great and hasn’t gotten any worse over the last 25,000 miles (although the thought that it’s burnt 42 quarts of oil over that time period is a little depressing).
You might just for fun change the PCV valve too-- that’s really the one cheap part that can cause oil burning.
I really can’t honestly answer that because I haven’t driven it a lot. I bought it in February and it was full of horse manure (didn’t know it because it had snow on top when I bought it) and I delivered it to a guy to use for fertilizer. That trip was about 30 miles or so round trip and when I got close to home, the oil pressure at idle was way low. Of course, I sure it was low when I got the thing. I’m keeping a gallon behind the seat. I hadn’t been able to mess with doing a lot to it because it had an electric lift gate which was in my way for my purposes. A friend of mine was gonna trade me a bumper and a tailgate for it but neither of us had time to take it off. I only got it off about a month ago and put the bumper on it, installed the hitch and all that stuff. Since we were getting ready to go soon, I changed the oil last week and I seemed to notice it smoking more after that. I maybe have put 200 miles on this truck since I’ve had it, so I don’t know how much but it seemed like it was smoking more after the change. It’s not a mosquito fogger and it dissipated quickly. It’s also more noticeable in first and second gear when revs are high (it’s a stick). Maybe it’s just burning more because it’s actually full now, I don’t know.
I’ll try the pcv valve and see if that helps. I have done a few things here and there like the oil change, replaced the belt, air filter and stuff, but I don’t think it’s worth a rebuild. If the body were in better shape, it might be. Thing of it is, it starts right up, runs well, and that transmission with that granny gear is a beast so I’ll drive it till it dies.
20-50 oil and a can of “Restore”…
There is a problem with the GM trucks of this era that sometimes causes this. Remove the valve covers and check the oil drain holes for sludge. The sludge will stop up the oil return holes and oil will puddle around the valves. Clean out the drain holes and then change the oil and filter. I bet the oil consumption slows down. You might want to consider changing out the valve seals as well. A good mechanic can change them out without pulling the heads using the “rope trick” method.