Losing oil in ti 350 - risks to continue driving it?

[kmehr]

Back in Thanksgiving I inherited my grand father's 89 K1500 with a 350 TBI. He ordered it new, and it had 113k on the odometer when he gave it to me. He took meticulous care of it before retiring it and using it as basically a farm truck. It sat for about 3 years prior to me inheriting it, and all it needed was a battery to fire right up and run like a top. I replaced tires, distributor car, plugs, air filter and exhaust, including a new cat. Since getting it, I've put about 2500 miles on it. It runs great, and on the highway doing 70-75 I've been pulling down a hand calculated 17 mpgs. The gas mileage indicates to me that it's running quite healthy. Every now and then it will stutter just a tad at idle. However, it is using about 1 qt of oil every 3-400 miles. I'm pretty sure its the piston rings stuck, as there are no leaks at all and there is no smoke of any color. I plan to do some more diagnosis, and use some marvel mystery oil in the fuel and oil, but my real question is this: What risks am I facing by continuing to run it given the MMO does not free up the rings? I need the truck for hauling parts for about 3-4 trips of 800 miles each, and don't have time or the space at the moment to tear it down and do an overhaul. Thoughts?

 

[kennythewelder]

Drive it till it quits, or until you can afford to get one of these, then put in a crate engine. Here is a sight I like a lot. I know a guy who put a 383 in his truck from here and it is a beast. His engine was about $2800, but they also have stock engines for about $1900 http://www.pmcmachine.com/

 

[kmehr]

Driving it till it quits is definitely what I plan to do, I guess I'm just asking whether my oil use issue is indicating when its going to quit... I'm not really looking for anymore power, especially not at the expense of fuel economy, as I have a 1 ton 84 Dodge I'm currently putting a cummins in (hence the 3-4 trips hauling parts).

 

[skylark]

Warm ul the truck. Pull the brake booster vacuum hose and insert a small funnel. Run the engine at 3-4k rpm and pour a bottle of seafoam into the funnel. When the engine tries to bog really bad stop pouring. Repeat until all of the seafoam is gone. Immediately shut it off and let it sit overnight. Be prepared for a BIG smoke show in the morning. This will release the carbon from the rings.

 

[Jorge6.5]

You will be surprised how long it goes assuming you check the oil everyday and add as needed.

During the summer driving for work I would easily go through a quart every day to day and a half. It burns a lot of oil obviously I keep up with it and it keeps on going. But new motor is going in come tax time.

Good luck with the truck.

 

[kmehr]

My oil was on the lower side of the dip stick so I put in a pint of Marvel Mystery oil. Also took to the place that put on my exhaust because I thought I had an exhaust rattle but the exhaust was totally fine, not hitting anything. While up on the lift, I looked around with the shop owner. He said my cat was getting really hot as it was discolored. He said it was either burning a lot of fuel or oil to be that discolored. I described to him what sound I was hearing- that it sounds like exhaust rattle when I'm in over drive and then give it some gas. He said it sounded like "spark knock" and was probably carbon deposits on the pistons or stuck rings and that was likely causing my oil consumption. Finally, he pointed out that all the rubber in my balancer was rotted out and it needed replacing. Thoughts?

Also, I pulled out #1 and #3 spark plugs and this is what they look likethey have 2500 miles on them, I replaced them when I got the truck)

#1

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#3

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[someotherguy]

That orange crap on your plugs is normal; it's from all the junk in modern gasoline.

Richard

 

[kmehr]

Thats good to hear. Given all the oil I'm burning, I was expecting to see them coated in oil.

 

[TXVortec454]

If you still have the factory valve seals, you need to replace those ASAP. These are notoriously bad on older engines and in some cases can cause significant oil consumption.

 

[kmehr]

I'm sure it still has the original ones. I'm kinda baffled that my plugs weren't nasty though.