Hey guys, quick question. 2000 v10 with 188400 miles. Everything runs great. No leaks. Oil pan gasket is weeping, but not dripping. Don't want to cross that bridge yet. Been towing a dual axle trailer with a little car on it quite a bit the last couple of months. Probably total 1,000 miles. Drove it up north which was a steep climb so it really had to work getting up the hills.

My question is, the oil light started flickering last night, and the gauge was also flickering from the L to normal range. It was jumping quite quickly. I put a quart of oil in it today, and the gauge never acted up again. So i think that ruled out the oil sending unit. The truck doesn't leak oil anywhere, at least according to the driveway. Maybe burning oil since I've been towing a lot? I checked the oil dipstick, but couldn't get a good reading. I can post pictures later. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated...
Thx

 

Not uncommon for some of the 6.8s to consume a little oil, So I read anyway. Mine don't. How does a gauge flicker ?? What happens at idle ??

 

The gauge would be fine when I first start it, then immediately drop to zero oil pressure. I think the gauge is either a "yes you have oil pressure, or no you don't have oil pressure". No in between readings. Oil light would come on when gauge drops, then when gauge goes back up, oil light goes off.

 

Mine would act up when cold
No flickering ever, test sender signal

 

Sounds like you were low on oil level, keep closer tabs on it.
Like was already said, some of these motors do burn some as the miles go up, you may also want to check or replace the PCV valve in the passenger side valve cover. A bad PCV will suck oil out and always have you running low levels.

 

My 6.8 with 220K miles burns about a quart every 1500 miles. Is that a normal rate?

I'm running HDEO, Either Chevron Delo400 or Shell Rotella. If I buy regular gasoline engine oil, it's Castrol GTX, but I like the Heavy Duty oils for the higher anti-wear packages (Molybdenum, ZDP, etc.)

I've found that the gauge is either on or off, there is no sender signal. It's either 12v or 0. In fact, the wiring diagrams indicate that it's a switch and not an actual sensor.

 

Modular motors eat oil, some more than others in my EXperience. FoMoCo says up to 1qt per 800 miles or so is "normal." My current Ex ate about 2 qts. in 5k miles. Dads old E-250(5.4) used to eat almost a quart/1k miles.

Just keep an eye on your oil and add as required.

Changing the PCV valve may help curtail some oil usage as well.

 

Pele, I totally agree with you. The gauge is either on or off. Quart every 1500 miles sounds about right. I use motocraft oil filter.

 

Thanks everyone for the clarification.

 

If I remember another post correctly, the oil press, battery, and temp gauges in our rides are three stage gauges...low, normal, and high. So they only really have three positions for those gauges.