Engine Oil Level Drop (Burning)

[DMendis]

Hi Experts,

Im using a 1996 Model (Auto) AE 110 Toyota Sprinter (Petrol). The car has done 237,000 Km (it was 187,000 when i bought it 3 years back). I used to do the service at 5000 KM intervals but when i reach about 1500-2000 KMs after the service, the engine oil level drops to the lower level. And within the 5000KM period i have to top up the engine at least 2 times with new oil. Im using Valvoline multigrade oil. But the fuel consumption is OK and doing 10KMPL at the city

Did an engine tune-up at Mr. Dhammika Fernando recently and his advise was to do the service at 2500Km intervals. My Garage guy (mechanic) suggested an Engine overall repair or replacement of rings.

Is there any place that i can get the car tested? or what do you recommend? Engine repair or replace the rings. I had a bad experience with my previous Ford Laser engine repair as it didn't perform well on fuel after engine repair.

Thanks

[dpbatagoda]

We had same issue with Diesel Carina engine which we put to our HIace shell model van. It had very low pulling, can't climb uphill, black smoke. Later we did engine ring replacement, It did well in couple of years and after around 50,000Kms or so again the problems came.

Then we had to go for original Hiace engine. We put it from an abandon vehicle which we found at a gurage yard. Now that engine has done over 100,000Kms and no problem of black smoke yet. I am sure it has more than 300,000Kms in the clock.

I guess, you have to do it with proper place like Auto court or place near Gamini hall.

[The Don]

Hi Experts,

Im using a 1996 Model (Auto) AE 110 Toyota Sprinter (Petrol). The car has done 237,000 Km (it was 187,000 when i bought it 3 years back). I used to do the service at 5000 KM intervals but when i reach about 1500-2000 KMs after the service, the engine oil level drops to the lower level. And within the 5000KM period i have to top up the engine at least 2 times with new oil. Im using Valvoline multigrade oil. But the fuel consumption is OK and doing 10KMPL at the city

Did an engine tune-up at Mr. Dhammika Fernando recently and his advise was to do the service at 2500Km intervals. My Garage guy (mechanic) suggested an Engine overall repair or replacement of rings.

Is there any place that i can get the car tested? or what do you recommend? Engine repair or replace the rings. I had a bad experience with my previous Ford Laser engine repair as it didn't perform well on fuel after engine repair.

Thanks

It is useful to get a compression test done just to rule out an oil leak, or leaky valves etc. if the engine is found to be low compression, then whether you can get away with just replacing the valves or you need a complete engine rebuild depends on the level of wear and tear. If the situation isn't too bad you might be able to get away with replacing the piston rings, valve seats, bearings that require replacement plus the head, exhaust and intake manifold gaskets and the rocker /valve cover gasket. Decarb and clean the engine during this process as well.

Use genuine products as much as possible so your repair lasts a long time.

If its pretty worn, whats usually done these days is to re sleeve the engine and use the original pistons with new rings. The reason why I don't recommend this as the default option is for some reason Sri Lankan engine shops don't give a very long warranty for the rebuilds, and the workmanship can vary (plus we need to consider the quality of parts as well) so I'd rather make less modifications as possible and as necessary.

You should also check the condition of hydraulic tappets, valves, crank shaft, crank bearing etc while you are doing this repair.

[Crosswind]

We had same issue with Diesel Carina engine which we put to our HIace shell model van. It had very low pulling, can't climb uphill, black smoke. Later we did engine ring replacement, It did well in couple of years and after around 50,000Kms or so again the problems came.

Then we had to go for original Hiace engine. We put it from an abandon vehicle which we found at a gurage yard. Now that engine has done over 100,000Kms and no problem of black smoke yet. I am sure it has more than 300,000Kms in the clock.

I guess, you have to do it with proper place like Auto court or place near Gamini hall.

You plugged in a car engine to a van??? That's really intelligent.

Hi Experts,

Im using a 1996 Model (Auto) AE 110 Toyota Sprinter (Petrol). The car has done 237,000 Km (it was 187,000 when i bought it 3 years back). I used to do the service at 5000 KM intervals but when i reach about 1500-2000 KMs after the service, the engine oil level drops to the lower level. And within the 5000KM period i have to top up the engine at least 2 times with new oil. Im using Valvoline multigrade oil. But the fuel consumption is OK and doing 10KMPL at the city

Did an engine tune-up at Mr. Dhammika Fernando recently and his advise was to do the service at 2500Km intervals. My Garage guy (mechanic) suggested an Engine overall repair or replacement of rings.

Is there any place that i can get the car tested? or what do you recommend? Engine repair or replace the rings. I had a bad experience with my previous Ford Laser engine repair as it didn't perform well on fuel after engine repair.

Thanks

Don has obviously covered all possible scenarios. How much oil does your car burn? How many litres do you top up and at what duration? Answer to that question may lead to you deciding whether to leave things as it is for the time being or embark on an overhaul project. But like Don said, you need to do a compression test first.

[dpbatagoda]

You plugged in a car engine to a van??? That's really intelligent.

Don has obviously covered all possible scenarios. How much oil does your car burn? How many litres do you top up and at what duration? Answer to that question may lead to you deciding whether to leave things as it is for the time being or embark on an overhaul project. But like Don said, you need to do a compression test first.

Yes, it was a diesel engine from a Toyota CARINA car. We got it for cheap price with the gearbox also. That was done in 1990, but due to low pulling power and lot of black smoke we did a rebuilding but we later changed to original Hiace engine in 1994 and we still use that engine even after 21 years without an issue. and we still use that van. It was 1982 built Toyota HIACE shell model van. We used Petrol engine for around 1 year and later thought to move to diesel. That petrol engine we couldn't sold for a good price and it's tarnished now. That petrol engine was one of the quietest van engine I have came across.

[DMendis]

You plugged in a car engine to a van??? That's really intelligent.

Don has obviously covered all possible scenarios. How much oil does your car burn? How many litres do you top up and at what duration? Answer to that question may lead to you deciding whether to leave things as it is for the time being or embark on an overhaul project. But like Don said, you need to do a compression test first.

During the service, out of the 4 Liters, they put about 2 - 2.5 Liters and the rest 1.5 - 2 L i have to use in first 1500 Km so again somewhere at 3000 km i use another 1.5 or sometimes 2Liters. All together 4+2 = 6 Liters at 5000Kms

I think the real situation of the engine can be seen only after dismantling engine.

Also as recommended by Don, where can i get a compression test done?

Thanks

[Crosswind]

During the service, out of the 4 Liters, they put about 2 - 2.5 Liters and the rest 1.5 - 2 L i have to use in first 1500 Km so again somewhere at 3000 km i use another 1.5 or sometimes 2Liters. All together 4+2 = 6 Liters at 5000Kms

I think the real situation of the engine can be seen only after dismantling engine.

Also as recommended by Don, where can i get a compression test done?

Thanks

Try Car Checks (Pvt) Ltd at De Silva Motors, Poorwaarama Road Nugegoda. They are a recent setup who seem to have all necessary tools with them.

Most importantly, they won't try to convince you to do an overhaul, since they only check cars, not repair them.

[DMendis]

Thank Crosswind, will go there and check.

[The Don]

During the service, out of the 4 Liters, they put about 2 - 2.5 Liters and the rest 1.5 - 2 L i have to use in first 1500 Km so again somewhere at 3000 km i use another 1.5 or sometimes 2Liters. All together 4+2 = 6 Liters at 5000Kms

I think the real situation of the engine can be seen only after dismantling engine.

Also as recommended by Don, where can i get a compression test done?

Thanks

The agent for mercedes benz also has a good work shop for engine rebuilds, and then there is lah and nihal and the famous Edirisinghe brothers.

For the moment I think you should top the oil up daily to ensure the engine has enough oil to operate on. Else the damage might be quite severe and you might end up having the spend a lot of money on repairing more things!

[The Don]

Yes, it was a diesel engine from a Toyota CARINA car. We got it for cheap price with the gearbox also. That was done in 1990, but due to low pulling power and lot of black smoke we did a rebuilding but we later changed to original Hiace engine in 1994 and we still use that engine even after 21 years without an issue. and we still use that van. It was 1982 built Toyota HIACE shell model van. We used Petrol engine for around 1 year and later thought to move to diesel. That petrol engine we couldn't sold for a good price and it's tarnished now. That petrol engine was one of the quietest van engine I have came across.

I am fairly sure that engine is still salvageable if you guys left it filled with oil. It might look rusty from the outside but its the internals that matter.

Edited July 8, 2013 by The Don

[san1985]

@ DMendis; could you please update me about what went with your car? Because currently i am also having kind of the same issue.

Thanks in advance.

[Nimz77]

im also having same issue

Edited May 20, 2015 by Nimz77

[masoon]

We had same issue with Diesel Carina engine which we put to our HIace shell model van. It had very low pulling, can't climb uphill, black smoke. Later we did engine ring replacement, It did well in couple of years and after around 50,000Kms or so again the problems came.

Then we had to go for original Hiace engine. We put it from an abandon vehicle which we found at a gurage yard. Now that engine has done over 100,000Kms and no problem of black smoke yet. I am sure it has more than 300,000Kms in the clock.

I guess, you have to do it with proper place like Auto court or place near Gamini hall.

Ring replacement is temporary, just like the rings all components have covered a similar mileage and wear, specially a diesel needs a full job.

[The Don]

Ring replacement is temporary, just like the rings all components have covered a similar mileage and wear, specially a diesel needs a full job.

Can you stop responding to really old posts please.