oil leak?! how to find it?

[xmsleepr]

so basically after owning the car for 3 months ive realized that im NOT crazy and my oil IS going down at a rate of about 1 quart per month...ive driven over 3000 miles already in those 3 months and did the first oil change it about halfway thru.
currently it has 5w-30 and the mileage on the car is 117xxx, is that too thin for it?
also the oil is not even black or dark brown still has its light brown color so i doubt that its getting burned
my engine bay is extremely clean and there are no obvious leaks around the valve cover, oil pan is dry and no moisture as far as the eye can see on the back of the block....

 

[NashvegasCG]

Well it's not evaporating. Just because you can't see a leak doesn't mean it's not happening. You ever notice any smoke out the tail pipe? I know in winter months it would be hard to tell if its the cold weather smoke or the motor smoke. I wouldn't use 5w in my car, but I've switched over to synthetic so ya. Unfortunately until you find the leak I don't know what to tell you. Is your car smell rich when it's on.

 

[xmsleepr]

its winter here and my car would smoke as much as the next one when its really cold, and a couple of my friends have said that its smelled like gas before but thats only when im pushing the car and ive never noticed it, im also running royal purple...

 

[finch13]

so basically after owning the car for 3 months ive realized that im NOT crazy and my oil IS going down at a rate of about 1 quart per month...ive driven over 3000 miles already in those 3 months and did the first oil change it about halfway thru.
currently it has 5w-30 and the mileage on the car is 117xxx, is that too thin for it?
also the oil is not even black or dark brown still has its light brown color so i doubt that its getting burned
my engine bay is extremely clean and there are no obvious leaks around the valve cover, oil pan is dry and no moisture as far as the eye can see on the back of the block....

What? When oil gets burned it goes out the exhaust, not back into the oil pan. Oil color has nothing to do with oil burning.

Manual or automatic?

There's not a whole lot of places the oil will leak on these motors, starting from the top:
- Valve cover gasket
- Spark plug tube seals
- Distributor O-ring
- Cam seal (timing side)
- Head gasket (into coolant)
- Oil pressure sending unit (back of block)
- Front main seal (into lower timing cover)
- Rear main seal (into tranny bellhousing)
- Oil pan gasket
- Drain plug

If you drive you're car hard or accelerate quickly, you will burn more oil. On my car if I drive it hard, I can burn through a quart of oil in 2 weeks. If I drive it lightly, I will barely burn any.

Well it's not evaporating. Just because you can't see a leak doesn't mean it's not happening. You ever notice any smoke out the tail pipe? I know in winter months it would be hard to tell if its the cold weather smoke or the motor smoke. I wouldn't use 5w in my car, but I've switched over to synthetic so ya. Unfortunately until you find the leak I don't know what to tell you. Is your car smell rich when it's on.

its winter here and my car would smoke as much as the next one when its really cold, and a couple of my friends have said that its smelled like gas before but thats only when im pushing the car and ive never noticed it, im also running royal purple...

Winter "smoke" aka steam and crystallizing water vapor is white. Oil burning smoke is blue and can turn to black if you're driving hard and putting larger loads on the engine. Have someone drive behind you, it's easy to smell burning oil.

 

[NashvegasCG]

its winter here and my car would smoke as much as the next one when its really cold, and a couple of my friends have said that its smelled like gas before but thats only when im pushing the car and ive never noticed it, im also running royal purple...

pushing the car huh... not the way I use mine...

 

[xmsleepr]

Well my its not getting burned because my exhaust is white and my spark plugs are clean when it gets a little warmer I'm goign to take off the valve cover and timing belt covers to look around...
Its a manual...

 

[xmsleepr]

Well my its not getting burned because my exhaust is white and my spark plugs are clean when it gets a little warmer I'm goign to take off the valve cover and timing belt covers to look around...
Its a manual...

 

[finch13]

Well, when the rear main leaks on manual trans cars it usually contaminates the clutch disc and causes it to grab instead of slip like it should.

 

[xmsleepr]

update:
got a compression test done by drift 190-190-185-190 switched out from royal purple 5w30 to castrol synthetic 10w30 bout a month later missing my quart of oil still

 

[Drift]

update:
got a compression test done by drift 190-190-185-190 switched out from royal purple 5w30 to castrol synthetic 10w30 bout a month later missing my quart of oil still

Your rings are tired man, that's all there is to it.