3.0 Oil Consumption

[Flexfuel-Dave]

I have a ’99 Flexfuel truck with about 68k miles.

I burned a quart of oil in about 5k miles.

This isn’t a high mile motor yet, but I’m curious what other 3.0’s are using.

Thanx, Dave

[1trip3]

I have a 2001 3.0 flex-fuel engine with a little over 109,000 miles. I change oil every 5k miles and don't use any in between oil changes. I'm using just plain old 5w20 oil of whatever brand is on sale.

[Bear River]

So long as you use less that one quart per 1000 miles you are ok. However, sounds like another case of a factory break in. The factory break in technique is designed to keep you from getting full life out of the engine. It prevents the rings from getting a full 100% seal, and this allows oil and blowby through the rings, contaminating the oil, and ultimately reducing the engines life. If the rings are not broken in properly within ghte first 20 miles or so, they will never seat properly, and as the engine ages, it will gradually start leaking more and more and the oil will become increasingly contaminated.

The correct break in method is to apply load to the engine almost immediately after it warms up. This means wide open throttle. This causes the compression of the engine to reach its peak, expanding the rings fully and wearing them down till they fit perfectly. If they do not wear down and seat before the hone pattern polishes off, they will stop wearing in, and will ride on the polished areas.

My van runs on 15,000 miles oil changes and uses no oil between changes.