So I sold my father the SW2 and we have been extremely lucky. After I put the new radiator, cap, and overflow tank in, it hasnt lost ANY coolant. And this is an SW2 with 263k miles on it!.

However, he adds roughly a quart every 700 miles.

Question I have is could a head gasket leak oil but not coolant, or is it more likely rings or valve seals.

I know I can limit it between valve seals and rings with a leak down test but I thought to ask if anyone had experience on that front.

 

 

I agree with Andy. For some reason, the 1.9 SOHC engine I had in a 94 SC1 didn't use oil, but the DOHC in the 95 SC2 used a quart about every 1,200 to 1,500 miles. Have you tried using a heavier weight oil to see if that slows down the consumption? If so, you may be able to use some engine flush to see if that'll help free up some possibly sticking rings. If not, then it's just time for a rebuild.

 

26xK on an original DOHC is quite high. The amount of oil you're burning sounds par for the course given that mileage
Valve guide seals and oil control rings are leaking the majority of the vanishing oil into the cylinders. It's past the point of Seafoam or MMO helping. Your engine is simply worn out.

If you're on the original cat, you are on borrowed time. If you are on your second cat and there is no smoke out of the tailpipe and no codes, you have some time left before you trash the cat completely.

Your front O2 sensor will likely foul from all the excess oil burning and not detect all of the oxygen present in the nasty exhaust, throwing an erroneous lean code. Make sure you change this as soon as it codes since it will be running super rich, killing what little gas mileage you are getting.

Oil consumption can be slowed by running mobil 1 10W30 synthetic at a min. It sounds counter intuitive to spend more per quart when you know it's going to burn, but consumption rate decrease and less volume burned means fewer quarts added. You'll have to see if the cost of Dino oil per 3k miles vs synthetic makes sense or not. My comparison is 10+ years old and there is eventually a tipping point.

Don't let it get down more than half a quart max or you will just accelerate the demise. It only holds 4.

Obviously, given the advice above, my recommendation is to keep a close eye on it and drive it into the distance unless you are capable of a rebuild of the entire top half of the engine plus full ring replacement on the Pistons.

The car is s 5 speed, yes?

 

Yes it s a 5 speed. It doesnt have much for smoke, my dad only notes white smoke in the morning. but thats likely water vapor. It doesnt smell like burning oil or have blue smoke.

Can piston rings be done with just the head off. Being an inline 4 I imagine I could rebuild all that(and get experience doing it) since its not two heads and its front and center in the car. Ill probably get him using 0w-40 and one of the snake oils just to see if it can slow down said burning.

I had a car that burned quite a bit more oil and it was OK. Not like OK happy ending OK, just it ran for a long time while drinking oil.

 

If you have room to drop the oil pan and crankshaft from under the car, then you SHOULD be able to re-ring it in the car. One of the key factors will be the rear main seal, though. If it's a two piece, then it's very possible. If it's a one piece O shaped one, the you're SOL. That requires the transmission being separated from the engine to change out. The reason you'd have to change it is because in order to get the pistons out, you have to remove the crankshaft. And then you will probably have to have a ridge reamer for the cylinders in order to drive the pistons with the new rings back in from the top. Not a difficult job IF there's a two piece rear main. If it's one piece, then the engine will have to come out and you might as well put a full rebuild on it then. That's just my opinion. It's been 43 years since I got my 1400 hours training in engine rebuilds. A LOT has change since 1975. I still miss carburetors and distributors.

 

It's a one piece rear main seal on this DOHC.

 

 

It would be a while before I even attempt this. The most ive taken off is intake manifolds, pans, and valve covers. Not quite there.

 

Gotta agree w the dude from the Northwest. I did a bit of background reading and it checks out.