Where's My Oil Going???

[Gibsonm21]

Today I happened to catch a whiff of a burning smell coming from my left pipe w/ the truck running; right pipe smelled fine. This prompted me to check my oil level and its at the low point on the dipstick and I'm barely 1k miles into an oil change.

I cooked the oil dry at 3500mi, dealer found no signs of leaks, flushed and changed the oil. I chalked that up to initial break-in, but I'm at 28K now and the truck still burns oil which makes me very uncomfortable. WTF is going on? WTF are the gauges actually monitoring if you can cook an engine dry and show no change in engine temp or oil pressure on the dash?

What type of damage should I be expecting when I take it in?

 

[Oldfart]

You had no oil at 3500 miles??

 

[Mossy 150]

Is this ANOTHER matrix glitch? Wtf is going on in this world

 

[GCATX]

I don't know what year your truck is but there was something about an internal valve cover leak or something on some gen 2'a. I never had it on my '18 but may be worth a little research.

 

[FordTechOne]

Today I happened to catch a whiff of a burning smell coming from my left pipe w/ the truck running; right pipe smelled fine. This prompted me to check my oil level and it’s at the low point on the dipstick and I'm barely 1k miles into an oil change.

The oil level is fine if it’s between the upper and lower spec within 15 minutes of engine shutdown. You can’t get a true reading unless it’s been through a cold soak (overnight).

I cooked the oil dry at 3500mi, dealer found no signs of leaks, flushed and changed the oil. I chalked that up to initial break-in, but I'm at 28K now and the truck still burns oil which makes me very uncomfortable. WTF is going on? WTF are the gauges actually monitoring if you can cook an engine dry and show no change in engine temp or oil pressure on the dash?

Well the gauges are monitoring exactly what they are intended to monitor based on description…engine temperature and oil pressure. Neither are going to tell you the oil level is low.

What type of damage should I be expecting when I take it in?

If the oil level was between the marks on the dipstick, nothing. If you ran it out of oil, it has cam journal damage at minimum. Probably much worse.

 

[Gibsonm21]

You had no oil at 3500 miles??

Yes, CEL came on, took it to dealer, it was dry.

I don't know what year your truck is but there was something about an internal valve cover leak or something on some gen 2'a. I never had it on my '18 but may be worth a little research.

2019

The oil level is fine if it’s between the upper and lower spec within 15 minutes of engine shutdown. You can’t get a true reading unless it’s been through a cold soak (overnight).

Well the gauges are monitoring exactly what they are intended to monitor based on description…engine temperature and oil pressure. Neither are going to tell you the oil level is low.

If the oil level was between the marks on the dipstick, nothing. If you ran it out of oil, it has cam journal damage at minimum. Probably much worse.

It was a couple hrs post shut down when I checked the oil; its at the low mark. At what point should I be concerned here?

How does an engine w/ no oil not increase in temp or decrease in oil pressure, only indication I got last time was a CEL.

Should I expect to already have cam journal damage from the 1st go round?

 

[FordTechOne]

Yes, CEL came on, took it to dealer, it was dry.

Dry as in the dipstick was dry? If the crankcase was empty the engine would have suffered severe damage.

2019

What is your build date?

It was a couple hrs post shut down when I checked the oil; its at the low mark. At what point should I be concerned here?

How does an engine w/ no oil not increase in temp or decrease in oil pressure, only indication I got last time was a CEL.

Should I expect to already have cam journal damage from the 1st go round?

Ford’s guidelines are a maximum of 1 quart of oil consumption per 3,000 miles. If the oil was at the lower dipstick mark after a cold soak within 1k miles of being full, the consumption is excessive.

Oil temperature can rise due there being less available lubrication, but it’s not typically going to be significant enough to set a warning message. As long as there is oil available to the oil pump from the pickup tube, oil pressure is not going to change. If the pickup draws air intermittently, the momentary loss may not be enough to trigger a warning. This is the reason that the first indication of low oil is typically a CEL with VCT DTCs; the loss of oil pressure at the heads causes the PCM to lose control of cam timing.

Did you have recall 21B10 completed? If the cam journals were damaged, the truck would have driveability issues with the new software.

 

[Gibsonm21]

Dry as in the dipstick was dry? If the crankcase was empty the engine would have suffered severe damage.

This was the description I got from service agent. I never thought to check oil level due to mileage at the time.

What is your build date?

3/19

Ford’s guidelines are a maximum of 1 quart of oil consumption per 3,000 miles. If the oil was at the lower dipstick mark after a cold soak within 1k miles of being full, the consumption is excessive.

I checked this morning, a tad above low mark. Oil change at 27.7k mi and I'm around 28.7k mileage now.

Did you have recall 21B10 completed? If the cam journals were damaged, the truck would have driveability issues with the new software.

I brought the truck in for the recall, but don't remember if it was required since they were taking care of other issues as well.

I've had no perceived engine issues since that CEL. Tuned w/ Winfield back in Dec, running great.

Should I top it off or take it in?

 

[FordTechOne]

3/19

I checked this morning, a tad above low mark. Oil change at 27.7k mi and I'm around 28.7k mileage now.

I brought the truck in for the recall, but don't remember if it was required since they were taking care of other issues as well.

I've had no perceived engine issues since that CEL. Tuned w/ Winfield back in Dec, running great.

Should I top it off or take it in?

Since your truck was built before 4/1/2019, you have the previous valve cover part number that can cause excessive oil consumption. Bring it into the dealer, they need to perform TSB 20-2423. The TSB directs to replace both valve covers and change the oil.

 

[Gibsonm21]

Thanks