losing oil

[kieran jackson]

as in title my nova is losing oil. i cant find any leaks any where the sump is all dry, rocker cover gasket is fine and the head gasket is fine. was told it could be piston rings but cant see any smoke from the exhaust or smell the oil burning the engine is a 12nv if thats any help any suggestions on this would be greatly appreciated.

[AlexW]

How bad is the oil loss?

[kieran jackson]

filled it up to the max mark this morning and done about 250 miles up to york let the car sit for about an hour and when i checked it again it was in between the min and max marks so topped it up again so i could get back ok

[Guderian]

Shove some cardboard under it while running engine to double check it's not a leak.

If it is burning it that is a fairly high consumption. When and if my engines get to burn 1000cc/1000miles i start to think about what i want to replace the car with!

What sort of mileage does your engine have? Typically when cav engines have started to use oil i found it was the gap in the piston where the top compression rings sits, getting too wide. 2 thou is about standard, when they are at 8 to 10 thou of 'slop' they pump up a wee bit of oil into the combustion chamber.

Doesn't necessarily mean you can't get more miles out of it, more of an inconvenience unless it's actually choking the MOT man. On catalyst cars however, the cat's don't like the oil fumes too much.

[spanna]

if not it could be valve stem oil seals that are causing you to lose oil

[Welsh Dan]

Do you get any blue smoke on the first startup of the day?

[*Dave*]

ill come have a look mate. just giv me call or pop down 1 day.

[kieran jackson]

was told it could be the valve stem oil seals and there isnt any blue smoke on the first start up of the day and dave i'll pop round thursday if your off work

[dougie_boi]

take the spark plugs out after its been run but give it a wee while to cool down first and see what there like colour etc that could indicate if its burning oil