Should I do an oil change?

In my last 12k km, I have put in 20 l of oil. I am basically adding 1 l every 2 weeks. Considering that the oil capacity is only 8 l, is there really any point in changing the oil?

Yes, you should change your oil and filter.

wait a minute... WHAT? is it leaking or burning or what? What is the long term plan? i dont think an oil change is going to be worth it (sorry opinion) until you address the issue. I would like to hear the "rest of the story"

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Good point, where is the oil going???

I believe its a bit of both. When I start up on cold days it blows blue smoke for the first 40 seconds. There is visible oil on the passenger side of the engine near the oil pressure gauge as well a sweating RMS. It is not leaking, no drips on the floor. I am heading to the track and I will burn through at least 1.5 l in a day.

ok... so is it burning the oil because you are driving the pants off it? If so... yea change the oil... in fact 12k seems long if you are tracking it that much... the oil leaks need to be addressed. I would be careful thinking the RMS is an RMS.... there are other parts in there that can leak and be a warning sign for "things to come" I know somethime it sucks, but they cost money to repair...and not repairing CAN cost more. That said my old car would drop a couple drops out the RMS (area) for sometimes and is still cruising along. so to answer - change the oil

That's what I figured. It's burns oil, even if driven fairly calmly on the street as well.

sounds like a lot....what do you plan to do long term

wow... thats alot of oil. When I had my Supra I had similar prob around 120K.... never changed oil and filter, just kept adding. I sold the car at 230k miles due to bad water pump, original everything.

Yes, change the oil, but, you have bigger issues to resolve too. Good luck.

maybe try a differant oil? some oils might leak less... some more, might be worth experimenting

Car is hitting 120k km. I have a new clutch, LNE IMS and a motorsport AOS ready to be put in. If I had a spare 10k sitting around I would drop the engine and rebuild but likely will just address those things. Maybe coincidence but I really only noticed the really high consumption after my coil packs failed and I had them replaced. Could the spark plug tubes if installed incorrectly leak?

I think the new AOS will help the issue with the extended smoking on start-up. I wonder what your spark plugs look like with all that oil burn? May want to look.

yea, any part installed incorrectly can leak, even some installed right leak... I understand the $10k sortfall in the checkbook. also while on track I hope you are not runing the oil "full" I normally ran it towards the bottom end of the scales

I usually run at half level and check at the end of every session, which usually require a little bit of top up.

well, drive it...I know Ferd says dont change the oil but my thinking was more in line with change brands of oil...give something else a try and see if it slows the problem without starting an oil thread (only because its been SOOOOO long since we have had a good oil thread) what oil are you using (actuall I was thinking of buying stock in them)

I've tied all sorts mobile 0w-40 mobile 15w-50 lubro molley 5w-40 and now trying the castro 5w-50

lubro molley? must be a Canadian thing

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Developed and produced in Germany almost twice the price of Mobil

I change my oil after 2 track weekends, which works out to be almost monthly.

Yes, change the oil - even if you top it off frequently. Draining the oil will flush out a bunch of gunk and solids that don't "leak or burn" out. Also, change that filter. A dirty filter will restrict oil flow - and can compound the oil burning problem.

Something is WRONG. My '88 would burn off the top quart within 1000 miles. I eventually stopped topping it off in accordance with the dipstick mark and guess what...? Now it NEVER drops below the lower dipstick mark between oil changes. Somehow burning off only the "top" quart...? Be sure you are not inadvertently overfilling the oil due to a sensor problem.

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Sounds like he may have to add oil just so that when he changes it, something comes out. That car needs attention now. What you are currently doing is like supplying blood to a person with a gaping knife wound with no interest in getting the hole sewn up.

Try Redline oil. But agree with rest, change oil

maybe you have a scored cylinder.... did you ever do an oil analysis?.... maybe that will tell you something....

I will do one with this oil change. Also going to use the dip stick and monitor see if consumption drops of when running at min mark.

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I thought about this too. But, one test now won't tell him much. One test now would only serve as a baseline. Future test may tell something going forward. With all the added "make up oil", the test results will not be very reflective, either. If he had a diligent UOA process, possibly the signs of this pending issue could have been seen prior to the larger oil consumption.

you should at least change the filter. then figure out where the oil is going and address that.

Well a day at the track and I thought I would have had to add lots of oil. I started out today with 4 bars above min. I really thought the 100km drive to the track after a winter of short trips would have dropped the level but it didn't. I check the level every session and it dropped a bar every session at the end of the day I added a tad oil to make it min and drove home and the level hasn't changed. I am thinking now that the oil consumption change from before was actually do to installing a X51 oil pan. I am thinking that is may have changed the measurement some how and it actually doesn't like the amount of oil in it when it measure full and burns it off. Gona keep and eye and check every day. and ohh, forgot to mention. Not one blue smoke startup the whole day. Normally I get a blue smoke start up every startup before a session.

so you went down 4 bars today while at the track ? Still alittle excesive, no ? Where were you...I didn't see any track days listed...had I known I would have come out---if for no other reason then to be your co-pilot

If I would have had it at max, It would have dropped to half in one session, then I usually wait to it gets to 3 or 4 bars and fill it to max again. Had I done that I would have had to add it back up to max again or twice again at the end of the day. The difference of what I actually added to day (2 bars at most) to the old way would have been 12 or more bars. It was a private invite to help instruct. I was accused of having nitrous by the 6.GT3 and 7.Turbo instructors.

It's possible that you have fuel dilution of the oil and lots of condensation that when the oil gets hot and the car is pushed hard these contaminents get burned off rather quickly and it appears that you are burning more oil than normal. That in itself is a real good reason to change the oil more often. I'd bet if the oil was changed more often the consumption would decrease. You may consider trying Mobile One 5-40 Turbo Diesel. It has a small amount of ZDDP lacking from other M1 oils and works great in the Turbos to keep the motors quieter and reduces consumption.

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say what now? A coil pack replacement has nothing to do with his oil leak. Regardless, you are losing 1.66 liters for every 620 miles. That is obscene. you have a severe engine issue. leakdown time.

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that is the strangest allegation I've ever seen. Nitrous would be pretty much useless you only sprayed on the long straights, and only ran for say 10-12 laps

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his original Q was: "Could the spark plug tubes if installed incorrectly leak" my answer was - YES I however did not conclude that was his problem...agreed he has excessive oil consumption...

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I took it as a compliment. They really were surprised my 996 was pulling so hard on the back straight. What ground they made I was able to catch up in the braking zone and corners speeds, basically earning me a pass.

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well...and I could be wrong here, but the plug sits in the head, and the "spark plug tube" is cast into the head. The coil pack sits inside/on top of this "spark plug tube". By just replacing a coil pack, there is no impact on the oil seals.

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spark plug tubes are plastic and have rubber o rings

You said there is a leak around the oil sender unit, how about the cam solenoid covers? They tend to sweat as well. Other areas that seem more common are cam covers and the AOS area, maybe the boot is cracked or you have a leaky hose somewhere. Cronic RMS sweat/leak? Either that or one of your banks has a problem. Worn/Leaky valve guides? Scored cylinder? I bet one of your tail pipes is waaaaay sootier than the other of those things above. I've read the stock AOS sucks for track... did the new motorsport AOS help? All of that extra oil MUST be going somewhere!!!!

would love to see the install on that motorsport version of the aos. Never seen one on the 996 before.... pics would be nice!

+1 to redrige, an old thread on the subject: https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...s-updated.html edit: reminds me of my dads old Datsun pickup - he never changed the oil because he had to add a quart about every two weeks. He also always parked it on asphalt because sitting overnight it would leak so much oil. The darn thing ran like that for 5 years before it blew up.