Xflow oil consumption

[Westfield]

I have a 1700 xflow which has done about 14,000 miles. The oil consumption seems to be related to how its driven. A good session gets the consumption down to about 200 miles to the pint. I also get a small amount of oil in the catch tank. What should I be expecting in oil consumption terms?

[Dave H]

Tony,

 

My old Crossflow has always required a regular top up. Mainly due to leaking from one or more of the places crossflows leak from. The only time the driving made a big difference was when the rear oil seal was damaged, and the oil escaped into the bell housing. If it is not leaking, I would check for smoke, especially on start-up, to make sure its not something more serious.

[John E]

i'm gonna be really boring here and say that mine doesnt seem to use any oil at all. blush.gif Having said that it was rebuilt last year by a certain Mr King. maybe he will have a comment. Over to you RK.

[Roger King]

Hi John,

 

Afraid that it is probably the usual story here; namely that the standard pistons used in a Supersprint are at best marginal for the job. The rings in particular are prone to failure at around 15,000miles, simply because they weren't designed for such an arduous life (they're from a 1300ccm MK2 Escort engine).

 

The solution is to fit forged pistons which are properly up to the job and also provide a useful power gain (thanks to lower weight and friction).

 

To be fair though, if, by 'a good session' Tony L is referring to a track day, it is not unusual for comsumption to increase 10 fold

under such conditions. This does not necessarily indicate that anything is wrong.

 

One of the 'problems' now, is that consumption figures once deemed normal are no longer acceptable to the customer (quite rightly). This is largely due to the huge decrease in oil consumption seen in production cars and the consequent rise in customer expectation. This decrease is largely due to better piston and ring design and very importantly, improved bore finishes. Having said that, I did read an article recently where an owner of a car from a manufacturer with a quality reputation was told that 400 miles to the pint was acceptable in normal road use. My Ford Ka, which has an engine closely related to the Crossflow has never had any oil put into it (except for servicing every 10,000 miles) and has done 75,000 miles so far.

 

[Graham Sewell]

My SuperSprint xflow is a little wierd. It doesn't consume any oil between services (3000 miles of road use) but it doesn't have a PCV valve, breather or catch tank. I get a little oil mist coming through the filler cap, but that is about it. THis is using Castrol's Magnatec for basic engines (15W40) as I believe these engines are not suited to fully synthetic unless the build quality is improved dramatically (e.g. a Roger King rebuild).

 

Cheers,

 

Graham