Best oil to resist burnoff?

[Jugernot]

I just bought an 02 Chevy Prizm with the 1ZZ 1.8L (AKA: Toyota Corolla) with 68k about 1 month ago. After doing some reading online, a common complaint for this car/engine is oil burnoff... upto 1 quart per 1,000 miles is normal according to Toyota themselves. Which is just plain craziness, but I digress. I checked mine out and sure enough it was just over a quart low after driving just 1500miles...

I understand that burnoff occurs when the oil hits it's high temp limit (around 400F for pretrol based oils) and the oil starts to burnoff. Synthetic oil (which I have used in every vehicle I've ever owned except this one) has a higher high temp limit, so it burns off less. Having 70k on the car now, I'm hesitant to start using synthetic as I don't want my engine to start leaking from all it's seals, etc. When I had the car inspected, the mechanic said it had a small leak on the left side of the engine, but didn't elaborate.

I went and got two quarts of Castrol GTX High Mileage, which advertises a 17% better burnoff rate compared to "the leading petrol oil".

Should I just move this car over to synthetic or stick to high mileage petrol based?

Jugs

 

[Zenmervolt]

If you were seeing 400 degree oil temps you would be having some pretty massive issues with the car for other reasons. Even air-cooled cars don't see 400 degree oil temps, there's no way that a water-cooled car would see extreme temperatures like that.

Switching to synthetic will not cause leaks. Period. It can highlight pre-existing leaks, but it will never cause a new leak. Never. I switched my 951 over to synthetic at 144,000 miles, my 914 at 118,000 miles, and my Volvo S70 T5 at 111,000 miles. None of them developed leaks. You can switch to synthetic with a clean conscience.

That said, 1 quart/1,000 miles is pretty much the industry standard acceptable rate.

I doubt sincerely that you will see a marked improvement just by switching brands. I would recommend fixing the known leak first and then seeing how much oil is actually burned. Even "small" leaks can lose a lot of oil without leaving a puddle. One of the hard lines to the oil cooler on my S70 started leaking but only under pressure, so it left no puddle in the garage but the car was losing about 1 quart every 500 miles. Fix the leak first. Then watch oil consumption.

ZV

 

[The Stigenator]

Get the diesel based oil's.. Mobil DelVac or Shell RotellaT. they are rated for cars too, but do better for burn off.

 

[chucky2]

Pennzoil Long Life (a HDEO that usually can only be found in 15W40) has shown to for some reason to help greatly with oil consumption...however being so heavy, it'd probably be cheaper just to dump in cheap oil and call it a day.

My dad's '00 5.4L V-8 Expedition, no matter what, uses about a quart of oil every 1600 miles - even after back to back Auto-RX cycles and running a straight 30W (which is also rated as a 10W-30). Sometimes no matter what you do, the engine is going to consume no matter what.

If you haven't already replaced the PCV valve, it'd be a good idea to do so.

Auto-RX could help you here (I say could because in cases like my dads, all he gained was mpg, oil consumption wasn't cut near enough in his case to justify the price), however whether it's worth it to you or not depends really on how many miles you drive, and how long you want to keep your ride....

Chuck