My stepson bought a 1998 Dodge ram 1500 with a 5.9 and 72371 miles on it.He drives it about 80 miles a day to and from work.The question is why would he burn 3 qts of oil in just a week or 2 there is no oil leaks on the outside had die put in it,mechanic says its going through the engine,my boss says its normal to use that much oil driving the much.Can someone help me here hate being in the middle I say my boss does not know what hes talking about and is beating around the bush here.Thank You Jerry
If the engine isn’t leaking the oil is going past the rings and out the tail pipe. There are no other options.
Have someone check the PCV valve. If the valve isn’t working correctly it can lead to excess oil consumption.
80 miles per day, 7 days a week, for two weeks is 1,120 miles.
Losing one quart of oil in that distance might be “normal.” Three quarts is way too much.
Ideally, an engine should use no oil no matter how far/often it’s driven.
If there are no external oil leaks from the engine, then one must assume that the engine is burning the oil. And if that’s what’s happening, and the engine is going through that much oil, it’s not a good sign.
Tester
Agreed; if it’s not leaking then it’s going past the rings or valve seals, or both.
He bought a used vehicle and in many cases the previous owner knows the vehicle has a serious problem so they simply unload it on someone else. That someone else could be an individual or a car dealer.
Your boss is incorrect about that much oil in such a short period of time being normal unless that truck is getting 8k miles a week put on it.
Your miles are ambigous. Is that 80 or 160 miles/day?
I do about 150 a day in my daily driver and go through about a quart every 3000 miles with an engine with 506,000 on it now. My old diesel was down to a quart every 500 miles before it died. I’d say there is probably an engine overhaul in his future or drop in a used engine from the salvage yard.