QuestionMy 1998 extended cab 2 wheel drive, 5.0 lts. V8 has 100K miles and runs very good. Last summer while in Canada started to eat 1 qt. of oil every 500-900 miles with no other problem except that lifter(s) started to make clacking noise at start up, the dissapears. It had never lost any oil before. No visible leaks in the floor or around the engine.No oil in the coolant. I had torqued the intake manifold a little last year because there was a small coolant leak in theback of the engine coming from the manifold/block joint. No longer leaks.
Someone had the engine superclean when I purchased 2 years ago (probably detailer shop ?)
Recently an engine code appeared refering to small leak in the evaporator system.COuld not find anything, so I cleared and never came back again.
Oil and filter allways changed at 3,000 miles.
Any idea where to looks for it and also would like to buy the factory repair manual or equivalent since I plan to keep it for a long time. Where is it available ?
AnswerThe shop manual should be available from either the dealer or Helm, Inc. Try an Internet search for Helm and see if you can find it.
Check your PCV valve, and since it is cheap, replace it.
If that does not help, run a compression test after you get the shop manual. Good compression indicates that the rings are okay. Next place would be valve guides and seals. Chevy small blocks are known to wear these items and they can cause oil consumption without smoke. There should be deposits on the spark plugs and one or more cylinders may be worse than the others.
Valve guide and seal work requires cylinder head removal.
