Where doth the petroleum flee to?

Let's play a game. Let's say you have a 225 V6 in your Jeep.

You check the oil frequently. It's frequently low.

However, the plugs show no signs of fouling, the valve guides are fresh, there are new valve seals, and the compression checks out at above 120# on every cylinder.

This thing drank a quart of oil yesterday around town, driving to/from work, etc. Yet when I park it the only puddle underneath it comes from the transmission and t-fer case best I can tell and it's small (for a JEEP).

What the heck? Where's this oil going? Really irritating, I'd like to fix this.

 

I wonder if oil would pour out if you loosened the valve covers?

 

Any smoke out the exhaust on acceleration or deceleration?

 

No, no smoking.

Not in the coolant, forgot to add that. I've drained the radiator about 4 times in the past year. No oil.

I suspect the nylon line that supplies the fuel gauge, but that's a heckuva leak. Then again, a fine mist at 60 PSI could do spray it out for as far as I drive.

Oil passages in the heads aren't clogged either Glenn. It's been doing this since before the heads were redone. I had valve covers off last nite.

 

R) No. And those were rings, not the head.

 

I hope not! Sheesh.

I really just need to replace that nylon line to the oil pressure gauge.

Rear main seal? Underside it pretty oily, hard to tell if it's engine or gear oil. I saw engine oil droplets on the ground today after I'd had it running and stopped on an obstacle, but when I shut it off there weren't any.

 

I thought you meant it just started. You're saying you lost a quart pretty quick. Seems like you would have a pretty good mess.

 

Good idea.

Glenn, no, it's not new. I'm just getting around to addressing it. Like I said, my undercarriage is pretty well coated from the uh, bellhousing to the rear axle on my passenger side. The trans and transfer have never been low when I've checked...

 

Thanks Jerry.

 

That'd be the mess I'm talking about. Engine oil is light enough to spread like that, and that's identical to what the rear main in my truck did.

 

Bah! Well, I'm pretty well convinced it's not an internal issue, so that's good.

 

You're not alone, other people have said that too.