so i have a 02 z24 cavalier runs great has a little miss at idle now and than but ok so for the last couple months it been using alot of oil. Like for a couple weeks itll burn like 1/4 quart but than at times it will burn 1/2 quart in 50 miles. Did a compression test and it pulled 150 accross the board dunno if thats good or not but there was a like 1psi variation between the cylinders. Also can always smell oil after getting off the freeway or slowing down from 60 or above. Yes the rear cam cover leaks a bit but is just wet not like dripping never a puddle under the car or anything so any help or ideas would be awesome.

did you try thicker oil? If you are using generic oil like Autozone brand, it is usually very crappy and very thin. Also if you use certain synthetic oils have been proven to be very thin then what is on the bottle. For example 5w-30 may be 0w-30 or 10w-30 may be 5w-30. Try switch oil or running a thicker oil and see if the symptom continue.




On the inside my car looks like a fighter jet.

running 10w-30 mobil just regular oil not sinthetic

10w-30 is not thicker than 5w-30 after the car is up to operating temp.

I would pull off the oil/air separator that is under the intake manifold, and see if it is clogged up. It is rair, but does happen. Clean it out, and re install it. Also clean the tubes from the block to the separator, and the intake tube to separator.

Let us know.




PRND321 Till I DIE
Old Motor: 160whp & 152ft/lbs, 1/4 Mile 15.4 @88.2
M45 + LD9 + 4T40-E, GO GO GO

did that today and it was spotless and all the lines were clear i could blow thru them also oil light comes on around left turns done that for a long time and when i first got it i totally forgot somehow and put 15,000 miles on a oil change so im starting to think it prolly scuffed a couple pistons and wrecked the rings

my LD9 did the same thing the oil light comes on due to you lost oil pressure and the smell of the oil is the oil that leaks and drops on the exhaust manifold

If oils disappearing its going one of two places. Out of your exhaust or on the ground.

The best way to start is to clean EVERYTHING in the engine bay and look for leaks or throw a piece of cardboard under the car when you park it for the night.

How does your oil look? Sooty? Check your radiator overflow. Is there oil or anything oily looking? If yes then you have cross contamination (ie head gasket).

Do you have soot all over your bumper? Have someone follow you. Do you see blue smoke under load like merging onto the highway or beating on it from a stop? If yes then rings. Do you see blue smoke when you start the car in the morning or when youre under high vacuum like revving at idle or letting the engine brake itself when you slow to a stop? Thats usually valve stem seals.

How do your plugs look? Brown and flaky? Black? White? Your plugs are your best friends for seeing whats going on in your CC.

If you can isolate it I have some things you can try but at this point its just like throwing darts with a blindfold on hoping to hit the target.

The oil light scares me. If you care about your engine Id at least get a mechanical oil gauge and see what your oil pressure looks like. The senders can and do go bad but I wouldnt bank on it.

is your intake tube and throttle body well oiled if so you have a block in the crank case vent causing the collector box in the front left of the motor to blow off into the intake

i had a 2.4 that did this i pulled it and eco swapped the car it was cheaper then dickin around with that engine any further



JBO since July 30, 2001

My ld9 swap started to burn oil as you are complaining about. Where if you smell oil on decel if you had no cat you would see a smoke trail. I never checked the compression but assumed it was valve seal/guides or rings due to the miles I had. As when set for a day and started it would smoke on first start. From experience though the ld9 is bad for burning oil to begin with, where as much as I have seen in the intake/tb on my personal and other ld9's it sucks a good bit through the pcv system. Before I got the lack of power and smoking on decel/startup I was still burning a quart or more between oil changes depending on how hard it was run. Where that was with zero leaks on the stock gaskets at around 140k on it. Which every other ld9 I've seen on the stock cam tower gaskets leaks.

If I had to guess being yours is so bad as mine didn't burn that much oil smoking pretty good on start up/stomping on it, real bad on decel. You either have a major leak or the motor is about on it's last leg in some shape or form.

so been a while i pressure washed the whole engine bay dont see any oil under there but back bumper always has oil on it ??? also my dad told me the other day every time i shifted it would let out a little puff of smoke. and it dont smoke to bad on startup but every once and a while it does so i dunno lol gonna just rebuild it pretty soon.

Try changing the oil pressure sending unit. Looking at the engine, its on the right side, underneath the cam cover. If there's oil around it, its leaking and going to cause a couple problems. It should be pretty cheap at Advance, i can look when i get into work tomorrow. My Z24 has about the same problem, with the oil light comming on whenever i shift and burning a little bit of oil. I just did the oil change on it yesterday and ill be swapping in the new sender as soon as i find some time. I've been driving all day today and, since the oil change, the light isn't comming on anymore. I'm using Peak synthetic 5w30.

personally i would pull the motor but i'm an LD9 haterany of the 2.2s would be a good fit



JBO since July 30, 2001

My 99 Z24 does the exact same thing. It started a month or two after I bought the car and changed oil the first time and put synthetic in it. I swear oil started leaking from just about everywhere lol. The oil switch included, I've changed it a couple of times. The cam seals also started and I believe the head gasket did as well. Strange thing is the car wouldnt go through much oil if I drove it easy. If I got on the throttle and revved up past like 3,000rpm it would start leaking.

I had a shop change the headgasket and all the other top end gaskets a few years ago and the problem stopped, but eventually came back just not as bad. Now I have to rev it to about 4,500 rpm before it starts leaking. I went back to regular oil because it was getting to expensive to keep dumping in it, but its still leaking just not as bad. I think now its just coming from the headgasket, and not the cam cover gaskets. Ive put cardboard under the car and it never leaks enough to drip apparently, but it sure does leak alot when revved up. I havent seen any other car leak like this before. But this is about the leakiest motor I have ever seen.

Try driving it a little easier and see if it makes any difference in the severity of your oil leak.

'02 Z-24 Supercharged
13.7 @102.45 MPH Third Place, 2007 GMSC Bash SOLD AS OF 01MAR08

Every LD9 I've owned has 'used' oil... at least a quart between changes. I've owned four now.. If I didn't check them regularly, I'd run out. The only one I bought new, did it from Day One of ownership.

So I'd say... it's normal.

My LD9, at the very, most uses an 1/8 of a qrt every 3K miles. I'm using 10w30 Penzoil, or the 5w30 G-oil. I am one of those that does and believes in the old-fashioned break-in period when new.
&
This what I posted on a old thread. And this what's found in the owner's manual.




>>>For Sale? Clicky!<<<
-----The orginal Mr.Goodwrench on the JBO since 11/99-----

I don't know if the LD9's have PCV valves, but you might want to try replacing it if you do.

Otherwise, I'd run 15W40 and some Lucas oil stabilizer.

Don't worry about cold start ups during winter with thicker oils and additives. I live in the Arctic and run 15W40 in every one of my cars and trucks. I've run all my engines in colder temperatures most of you have ever experienced (school don't close here until it's -60*C and that happens more than a few times a year). I still see them all start up perfect and the Lucas additive actually keeps the cold start up noise down a lot. Most of my experience is with GM's full size trucks (V6 and V8 engines and diesels) but I did own a 1.6L SOHC Honda with lots of mods and the 15W40 actually made it much smoother past 5000RPM's and it burned much less oil as well.

So the high RPM Q4's should love seeing some thicker oil.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
1995 Corsica and a bunch of trucks too...

50 weight oil is the best way to have a lifter explode...

so pulled it apart and the rings were so bad the pistons literally feel out of the bores onto my toes lol thought everything looked great untill i pulled the wristpins out and 2 were seized into the rods and starting f ing up the pistons never made any noise thou i dunno weird lol

'02 Z-24 Supercharged
13.7 @102.45 MPH Third Place, 2007 GMSC Bash SOLD AS OF 01MAR08