Good Morning Roverites!
So I did a HG repair about two months ago, replaced the lifters valve cover gaskets, CPS, O2's and so on. Just completed a 950 miles road trip and my D2 is going thru oil like Grant went thru Richmond! Just about 3 quarts in 950 miles. This is triple the consumption pre HG repair. No visible leaks, just seems to be burning a lot of oil.

 

I’m going to say it’s directly related to any valve train work you did. Something is not put together properly

 

I did not take the valve train apart beyond cleaning up the rocker arms and installing new lifters since one was collapsed. No unusual noises or temps.

 

I would suggest checking the valve gaps again to make sure they are still gapped to spec

 

Here is a post from a old thread. It’s suggested not to touch the lifters as issues arrive





If you can pull them up (later in life they get mushroomed and can only leave by removing the cam). If you were to keep up with which lifter and pushrod went in which space, I would think you could soak the lifters in a strong cleaner, like Berryman's parts cleaner, which is under $20 for a gallon can with a plastic dip tray. By keeping the same lifters, in same position, you could avoid problems. And you haven't dismantled them. New lifters are crowned and wear down to match new cam. I would suppose that either cam or lifter being new could make the other old one wear in an odd pattern.

So we assume you took one apart that is not in your truck?

If truck is still all together, you could listen to valve covers with a yard stick to isolate noise, then with valve cover off and at idle, press on rocker arms to see if noise changes. The idea being you locate the approximate area of the problem.

Valve train can have all sorts of gunk problems. You can also look those over first, just by removal of valve covers (intake usually has to come off as well). The rocker arms squirt some oil out of the ends and it lubes the push rod, drips along it, and lubes the top of the lifter. Of course lifters have their own oil port in their body. Three of mine had gunk blocking some of that little hole in the rocker arms.

 

Check your breather on the passenger side valve cover, did you do the valve seals ?

If the breather is clogged and you have iffy valve seals you will burn oil you may not see it but it will go.

 

New lifters could cause valves to be out of spec though it's less likely with an old cam and new lifters vs a new cam and new lifters. However that is a ton of oil. I'm assuming he cleaned all the rocker arm ports, a blocked lifter port would be noisy and lead to that failing not consume that amount of oil. I just replaced cam and lifters on both trucks and did not check valve specs and do not burn any oil after or during the break in process which would put the valves at their most out of spec at first start. Don't think new lifters on an old worn out cam is going to cause them to be the culprit here.

 

To echo above posts that is a LOT of oil to be losing. Start by pulling each spark plug and take a look to figure out which cylinder(s) it’s leaking into. Also good call on the checking the PCV system. I’d do that mod if you haven’t already.

 

PCV mod for sure. Good to pull the plugs and see which cylinder is eating it. My guess is you have the intake gasket slightly out of place and the oil is getting sucked in to one side of the engine, but the plug analysis should reveal that. The valve seals on these are remarkably robust so I doubt that is your problem.

Post up photos of your plugs.

 

Yeah, if it wasn't going through any oil before...my best guess would be valley pan/low intake gasket also. Since it started after head gasket job...and you didn't touch valve seals.