94 sentra burning oil, compression is fine

[EstoMax]

hey everyone, my friend has a 94 sentra and it has developed some oil burning problems.

we checked the compression and across all 4 cylinders it was in the 160's (forgot exact numbers), so that seems fine. Also when he starts the car in the morning there is no oil smoke coming out of the exhaust (so it doesnt seem like its leaking down through the valves)

in 3000 miles he burnt 2 quarts of oil.. he was about to change his oil today and he checked and it was below slightly L . adding 2 quarts put it back to H

so does anyone have any idea what to look for? should i run the seafoam stuff to clean the valves up or would that potentially cause more problems?

he wants to sell the car and he doesnt want it to burn so much oil

thanks

Max

[Engmus]

Maybe a seal or a ring. Try Auto-rx.

http://www.auto-rx.com

[Rival SE-R]

check the pcv and the valve cover breather and all?i know my se-r burned oil in the higher revs, when i pulled the valve cover breather it had alot of oil in it... aside from that seafoam probably wouldnt hurt it at all... pulling the intake tube and checking the throttle body would show if oils coming in that way, there should be buildup and residue around the butterfly plate... if its smoking and not just leaving puddles i cant think of any possible seals aside from valve seals... but your right, you would have smoke on start up and it would go away...good luck-pete

[EstoMax]

okay, so today my friend checked oil again and since the first post, which is about 2 and a half weeks now, the car burnt ~1.5 quarts of oil.

i looked closely at the back of the car and oil residue is getting left on the rear, not a huge amount but i guess thats where most of the oil must be going.

there is no smoke on startup still.

i pulled the intake off and i checked the butterfly plate, there is definately a bunch of oily residue there, the butterfly plate and its surrounding was pretty oily when i pulled my finger through it

heres a pic underneath the car, theres a bunch of oil that seems to be on the exhaust manifold and leaking maybe from the oilpan seal??

ill post another pic from the engine bay where its oiled up

[EstoMax]

heres a pic from the engine bay

[RED_DET]

Upper oil pan is leaking.

[EstoMax]

yeah, he ended up taking it to the shop and they fixed the gasket

thanks for all the help

max