I have a rebuilt 96 12v. No oil leaks, no blow by, runs real strong, but drinks a quart every 500 mi. Engine has about 54,000 mi. What would cause it to use so much oil?

 

the rings may not be staggered and its burning it does it smoke blue at all?

 

That or the leaking into the turbine side on the turbo.

 

a quart every 500 miles you proly wont see too much blue smoke...has it done this since it was first rebuilt? did you hone or bore the cylinders out with out matching the new rings and pistons? you could have too much room in the cylinder.. or the new rings may not have sealed yet. Did you break it in right?(put a heavy load on it when it was new and drive it hard up hills and stuff) Well if theres no leaks and no obvious oily residue in the tail pipe i would say its the pison rings just burnin oil. If there is an oil residue in the pipe(wet oil) than i would say it is you turbo lettin oil throught he exaust side...

 

whats that, breakin it in? That is realy how you do it....im not jokin, for a gas engine you dont do it like that but that is how you seat the rings on a diesel...

 

drive it hard!the rings need to see complete cylinder pressure.

 

I agree - its far from being "broken in". Install a pyrometer and boost guage, hook it to a loaded trailer and drive it like you stole it.

 

could be a number of things. i noticed mine was using oil after rebuild till i re-ringed the 3rd piston, my rings wernt of set enough and they were were a differnt hardness then the rest