Diesel Engine Burns Too Much Oil

It could be due to the engine being new, and not "broke in" yet. If it were mine, i would not be alarmed, but i would closely monitor oil consumption.

do you mean a new engine or a bad rebuild? so loose it burns oil?

Diesels need to be run hard to seat the rings. If you baby it for very long it can wash out and glaze the cylinders and the rings wont seat. you cant over rev the engine unless the governor is not set right. just work the crap out of it. if the cylinders are allready glazed you will need to pull it apart and rehone the cylinders.and another set of rings.

Used to be a number of engine manufacturers had a cure for glazed cylinders, they recommended a table spoon of BON AMI brand cleanser for each cylinder. Rev the engine to governed speed and sprinkle the Bon Ami slowly into the air intake. Catapillar recommended this on my fathers Cat D2 after a rebuild that glazed up. It ran for over 8000 hrs. until he sold it. I also remember a Ford dealer telling me the same treatment on the 530 truck engines. This product is a super fine lime stone (calcium) so it is quite soft but does the job.

Hi,

I think Guest might be right, it does sound glazed. May be when it was assembled it may not have had the rings fitted right, but if it came from the factory you would think it should be okay.

A while back, when I was a boy, my father was a diesel mechanic and a farmer had purchased a six cylinder turbo Perkins marine motor which was used for a irrigation pump. It did have a similar issue, might have been worse, and it was going to need a rebuild so they dropped a little Bon-Ami down the intake while it was running and it was enough to roughen the cylinders and see the season out. Now I wouldn't suggest you do this, as it is a new motor, but you should probably talk with the supplier and check the warranty.

Cheers,

Trevor.

PS: Bon-Ami is a gritty kitchen/bathroom powder cleanser, and again I would not suggest using it in this case.

Back in the early 60"s we had a Cat D2 and had to do a rebuild at 8000 hrs. Manual called for a special hone so dad called cat to get the hone and they told him to forget it too big to move just start it up and sprinkle a table spoon of BonAmi per cyl in the intake at half throttle and it would seat the rings. Worked 100% and this was from Cat at that time. It works. BonAmi is french for good friend and is nothing but ground egg shells used for cleaning windows. Very mild abrasive.

Hi All, an old cure for glazed bores!!! we had a brand new Ferguson tractor that spent the first twenty or so hours driving a hedge flail which was for this machine very very light work. For the following week we set to ploughing and I can honestly say it was a toss up as to whether we burnt more diesel than engine oil. We called the supplier and he sent out this wizened old guy, he looked at the tractor scratched his head and asked the wife if she had a nd powder kitchen scourer, she gave him half a container and watched in horror as he revved the engine hard against the governor and proceeded to tip the scourer directly into the inlet manifold. The engine coughed a couple of times like a forty a day smoker, blasted out a load of crap from the exhaust.

For the next fifteen years burnt negligible oil and pulled like a dozer and was sold for just two hundred pounds less than we paid for it. we still see the old beast at a local market garden working away at thirty years old.

Working around the "old school" guys is priceless. No doubt

Check the air line downstream from the turbo. Bad seals in the turbo will let oil into the air stream and burn it without it being visible. May not be an engine problem at all. -- JHF

I have had many diesel engines from new, the oil consumption reduces fast over the first 10,000 miles and more slowly over the next 30,000 miles. Till about 100,000 miles when the consumption is at its least.

Run it in still........or use the scourer!!! if you dare!(I would not!!)

Alternatively you could use the cheapest oil that the manufacturer allows, that will promote more wear.....

I have heard of the scourer being used succesfully.

They say on a small engine...3 cylinder diesel, to use a teaspoon of the scourer

and do it with the rpm's up under moderate load.

This was from a diesle engine repair shop, they did it with the Dyno attached to act as the moderate load.

Need to know some details, Is it a turbocharged, What model and size possibly year?What rpm does it operate most of the time? Let me know I may be of assistance.

Dear Mr. andrew i wiseman,

You have stated that "we are burning engine oil say for every 100 gallon of diesel shes burning 3 pints of engine oil" You have not mentioned the HP/KW of the Engine. Are you using the same oil for the Turbo charger filter ?, since some designs use oil for capturing floating particles in the air.

Fuel consumption given by you is 100 Gallons = 454 litres = 363.2 Kgs of Diesel. = 800.49 Lbs.

Performance Standards for Specific Fuel Consumption is 0.28 Lb./HPHr., and for Engine Oil Consumption is 0.2 cc per HPHr.

Based on the above Standards the Engine HP works out to 800.49/0.28 = 2858.89 say, 2860 HP and for this HP the Oil consumption will be 2860 x 0.2 = 572 cc or 0.572 LITRES.

You have informed that 3 pints of oil is consumed. But you have not mentioned whether it is British pint or US Pint. For British unit 3 Pints = 1.7598 Litres and for US 3 Pints = 2.1134 Litres, a difference of 0.3536 Litre.

Considering UK pint the consumption reported by you is 1.7598 Litres as against 0.5720 Litres a difference of 1.1878 Litres which is 1.7598/0.5720 = 3.0765 times more.

The possible reasons are as follows and check for them.

1. The oil scrapping rings are not properly functioning.

2. Escaping of Engine oil and getting burnt.

3. The oil in the Turbo Charger filter is is being jetted out and entering the cylinder and undergoes combustion.

Pl. report to this Forum what was the cause and remedy sought.

DHAYANANDHAN.S

Also bad valve stem seals that allow oil to escape