2.2 GM Ecotec oil consumption.

[turbocharged798]

Have a non-VW question. We have an 05 Cavalier 2 door 5 speed with the 2.2 Ecotec engine. While the rest of the rest of the car is a POS, the engine has been quite reliable and never consumed any oil, until recently. All of a sudden it started consuming a quart every 1500mi or so. I do not see any visible leaks so it has to be consuming it. Car currently has 140K miles on it.

My question is that is there anything I am overlooking here aside from possible ring issues?

Really do not think it would be worth fixing as the rest of the car is falling apart and rusting out really bad IF it is a cylinder/ring issue.Had to put a new subframe under it last year because it completed rotted out.

Car runs fine otherwise.

Thanks!

 

[GoFaster]

Piston rings and valve stem seals are the two places oil can go. Neither are cheap to fix. With that car, just keep putting oil in it until something really breaks. It is possible that a ring pack has gotten stuck, in which case an engine de-carbonizing may help for a while.

1 quart/litre per 1500 mi / 2500 km is not horrendous - just mildly annoying.

 

[Ski in NC]

If car is on it's last legs, use oil drained from your other cars to top off.

 

[GoFaster]

I never did an oil change in the last two years of my old Civic. (It used a litre every 400 km anyhow. Self-changing oil.)

 

[Mark SF]

What grade of oil are you running?

 

[tdidieselbobny]

Maybe try a quart of that Hyper-Lube additive next change-I used it in my son's '01 Jetta 2.0 and was quite surprised.This 2.0 is the infamous one for going through oil(AEG motor).The Hyper-Lube cut the consumption from 1qt/1k miles to about 1qt every 2k-2.5k miles.

 

[Matt-98AHU]

I would try Auto-RX. Guys over on Bob is the Oil Guy forums swear by it. Heard some pretty impressive stories of various engines greatly reducing oil consumption and gaining compression back from using the stuff, including a couple GM engines (the old Saturn 1.9L comes to mind).

I tried it recently in an 09A transmission that suffered from sticking in first gear when cold out. The first cold-ish morning I had after putting the Auto-RX in it, it shifted into second when stone cold no problem. Owner is currently driving the rest of the cleanse cycle and we'll see how it goes.

It apparently is very good at cleaning out sludge, freeing up sticking piston rings and even softening/conditioning oil seals to provide better leak protection. Pretty impressive reports coming from various people.

 

[Ski in NC]

20yrs ago I bought an old beater Rabbit diesel. Previous owner said it burned oil, and he used 20w-50 to reduce the burn rate. For giggles I tried 10w-30. It burned half the oil with 10w-30!! My theory was the worn oil rings were sliding up on top of a thick layer, and the layer was thinner with thinner oil. Went from 500m/qt to over 1000m/qt. Burned about the same for the next 220k miles. Last road trip I took it on, it burned a qt in like 300miles, so I bought a new Jetta!!

 

[turbocharged798]

What grade of oil are you running?

Regular 5W-30 changed every 5K since new. It has perfect maintenance history.

When I get a chance, I am going to pull a few spark plugs and see what they look like. If the oil burning it related to only one cylinder or across all 4, it should be obvious by the condition of the plug

 

[oilhammer]

There is a TSB for 2005 MY Ecotec powered cars (engines were built in the 2004 calendar year) for a revised cam cover and intake manifold.

I can get more information for you if you like, although you probably won't want to spend the money, and the parts may not even be available anymore.

Funny that the J-body cars were such a miserable turd of a car, yet the last few model years they felt the need to put the much better Ecotec engine in them (replacing the equally turdish as the car 2.2L pushrod lump). Reminds me of Cummins powered Rams. Great engine in a piss poor package. There was some talk on some Vanagon forums about making an engine conversion kit to use the Ecotec, simply because they are cheap, reliable, and lots of them out there in bodies that long since rusted away/fell apart. I believe that engine was largely a Saab/Opel design.

But anyways, the oil consumption issue is fixable if you want.

TSB # 05-06-01-00C

 

[bluesmoker]

Have a non-VW question. We have an 05 Cavalier 2 door 5 speed with the 2.2 Ecotec engine. While the rest of the rest of the car is a POS, the engine has been quite reliable and never consumed any oil, until recently. All of a sudden it started consuming a quart every 1500mi or so. I do not see any visible leaks so it has to be consuming it. Car currently has 140K miles on it.

My question is that is there anything I am overlooking here aside from possible ring issues?

Really do not think it would be worth fixing as the rest of the car is falling apart and rusting out really bad IF it is a cylinder/ring issue.Had to put a new subframe under it last year because it completed rotted out.

Car runs fine otherwise.

Thanks!

just use a dino 15w40 that is sm rated

 

[turbocharged798]

There is a TSB for 2005 MY Ecotec powered cars (engines were built in the 2004 calendar year) for a revised cam cover and intake manifold.

I can get more information for you if you like, although you probably won't want to spend the money, and the parts may not even be available anymore.

Funny that the J-body cars were such a miserable turd of a car, yet the last few model years they felt the need to put the much better Ecotec engine in them (replacing the equally turdish as the car 2.2L pushrod lump). Reminds me of Cummins powered Rams. Great engine in a piss poor package. There was some talk on some Vanagon forums about making an engine conversion kit to use the Ecotec, simply because they are cheap, reliable, and lots of them out there in bodies that long since rusted away/fell apart. I believe that engine was largely a Saab/Opel design.

But anyways, the oil consumption issue is fixable if you want.

TSB # 05-06-01-00C

Thanks for the heads up, I will look into it. Probably can match up junkyard parts off a later engine.

I agree the car itself is a total turd with a really decent drivetrain. The drivers door is sagging even after I put a new set of bushings and pins in it. Tried re-adjusting it but I think they made the hinges out of butter and it just flexes and bends no matter what you do. On the flip side it gets 36MPG no problem on regular with a stupid simple port fuel injected engine.

I have been looking at some of the rust on the rest of the car and I think it doesn't have long left. Pretty serious rot in some structural places going on. Probably another year or so I will probably yank the drive train and scrap the rest. The getrag 5 speed trans is probably worth more than the rest of the car.

 

[Chris Thomas]

Oil burning

Have you changed the PCV lately? If the spring is getting weak, it can put the engine in to a vacuum and vaporize the oil.

 

[Ol'Rattler]

There is a TSB for 2005 MY Ecotec powered cars (engines were built in the 2004 calendar year) for a revised cam cover and intake manifold.

I can get more information for you if you like, although you probably won't want to spend the money, and the parts may not even be available anymore.

Funny that the J-body cars were such a miserable turd of a car, yet the last few model years they felt the need to put the much better Ecotec engine in them (replacing the equally turdish as the car 2.2L pushrod lump). Reminds me of Cummins powered Rams. Great engine in a piss poor package. There was some talk on some Vanagon forums about making an engine conversion kit to use the Ecotec, simply because they are cheap, reliable, and lots of them out there in bodies that long since rusted away/fell apart. I believe that engine was largely a Saab/Opel design.

But anyways, the oil consumption issue is fixable if you want.

TSB # 05-06-01-00C

Sad but true. Chevy's are really a great example of a car that is just miserable. On our 1997 Cav by 150K miles I had replaced EVERY component in the cooling system chasing a coolant leak. Turns out GM sell a stop leak product for the leaks you can't stop unless you replace the head/head gasket.

For all the parts I replaced on that miserable POS I could have bought an Audi. For total cost of ownership, all of my Dubs have individually been cheaper than that miserable Cav.

Really? The R/F strut was completely out of oil at 25K miles. You haven't lived until you drive at freeway speeds and the R/F feels like a jack hammer.