Why dotn you try runnign straight weight oil. Like a 30 or 40 weight. no multi viscocity bs. The mutli viscocity oils are actually a base of whatever the lower number is, with thickeners that react to the heat and increase the viscocity at elevated temps and loads. SO basically a 5-20, is a 5 weight oil, with a bunch of plastics and fillers that expand when heated to make it flow liek a 20 weight at temp. Its liek adding flour to a sauce to make it thicker when you cook. Problem is, that if you ran into a extreme situation, there is the potential for the "fillers" to cook off and fail, and then during the most critical time, what are you left with? 5 weight oil or whatever the base stock is. Im sure youve seen oil come out when its hot, its like water. This may be a little off topic, but I figured Id add it since it may be worth a shot. Try getting Castrol straight 30 or 40 weight and running it next time around. You wont hurt anything, and see how your consumption is then.

When I was racing and building motors for Porsche and Ferrari and v-8s, we would always run straight weight, its the only thing that held up and you knew that what you were putting in was just that. 40 weight across the board. no synthetic, no multi this or that. Changed it every race, or in this case change it every 3k, and in colder weather, let the motor warm up a bit and its fine. Try it, may be worth a shot.

 

I'm sure there's no way to REALLY know, but how many Jeepers went out and checked their oil after reading this thread. I know that I did!!

 

I'm burning about a quart per 2500 pr so miles. It started around 10,000 miles, and now I'm at 13,200... dealer says that 1quart per 1,000 mileage ia still normal.

 

It must be due to the ultra tight tolerances and the utmost precision that they build and machine these blocks and internals to. If you laid out one of our motors next to a AMG engine, you would see the difference, the AMG is junk, our is like jewelry. meticulously handcrafted, built and gingerly assembled piece by piece by technicians with degrees so impressive, they could moonlight at NASA. why do you think a wrangler costs so much

 

Maybe straight weight oils are OK in some racing applications but that's a really bad idea for street vehicles.

Straight 30 weight oil would be way too thick at cold start, which is where the majority of wear happens anyway. So using straight weight oil is just inviting excessive wear.

Conventional oils like a 5w-20, do begin with a 5 base and add VIs to get to 20 at operating temp. But Synthetics are the opposite, they start with a 20 base and have different additive packs than conventional oils.

There are lots of possible reasons for excessive consumption. I'd try to figure out the reason, not try to mask it by fiddling with oil viscosity.

 

i'm not sure if this applies to other engines but our million dollar aircraft engines (turbine) will always purge or burn oil until they reach their unique level. No matter how much you put in it will always go to the level that's normal for that engine (and sometimes it's surprisingly low).

On my last jeep i would always take less out than i put in..but it was always the same amount being drained... There were also never signs of leaks.

I never saw a problem with shavings in the oil pan or any other symptom of a problem with the engine.

I've also heard that consistently using one brand of oil is healthier for your engine (less changes in viscosity or something)

Not sure if this helps but just my

 

This viscocity debate reminds me of a conversation I had with the local dealer service floor guys just yesterday. I mentioned the problems with the 3.8 using oil, and thought 5-20 was too thin. They agreed that the 5-20 might be to get more HP and better gas milage numbers. They said they just replaced an oem engine that came with 5-20 new. The replacement engine came with the oil cap stating to use 10w-30. I thought that interesting.

I still maintain that 1qt per 1000 on any engine with less than 100k on it is unacceptable.