Let me start by saying I have never noticed my car to consume oil even after supercharging it and installing forged rods and pistons. I did gap my piston rings towards the higher end but after rebuilding my engine I still never noticed the oil level drop. The last work I did on it before noticing the oil burn was:
-Installed a new OEM timing chain kit from CED
-Installed Powell's trap door oil pan
-Installed LSJ belt driven components to swap to 6 rib belt
-Installed a catch can
-Installed two 3 gph meth nozzles in place of a single 5 gph nozzle. I also turned my progressive controller down all the way so that it starts to spray when I barely get into boost to prevent tip in spark knock. I no longer have a problem with tip in knock but I do burn rich in the lower RPMs (around 10 AFR)
-Started autocrossing

After I made all these final changes to my car I also started autocrossing at the same time. I don't seem to consistently use oil with milage but I definitely use oil
when I do autocross. I'm down about 1/4 of a quart after a day of autocross. I don't see any blue-grey-white smoke out of my tailpipe ever (even took some footage with the gopro to see) and I don't have any leaks. Anyone have any idea what the hell could be going on?

 

Coolant or in that catch can.

 

It's normal to consume some oil when in racing conditions, but in a short stint like autocross it shouldn't be that bad. I'd guess it's ending up in the catch can, possibly being tossed around during the run is causing more of it to leave the engine into the PCV system which now holds it rather than returning it to the engine as stock.

 

Bet dollars to donuts catch can:

 

How many miles on the engine?

 

Just broke 100,000. Fresh rods, pistons, and con rod bearings.

Didn't have much oil in my catch can so I don't think it's going there.

 

So how many miles on the new engine... -_-

 

lol well not everything is new but probably around 12,000 to 15,000 miles on new internal parts.

 

Damn you drive a lot

 

It's my daily and I've been driving to autocross events 200 to 350 miles away.

 

I hope you have AAA and some money to two if you are driving that far to race.

 

Yeah I need a decent back-up plan but I didn't want to jinx myself planning for failure. Now that you have jinxed me anyway I suppose I better get on that.

 

It's only autocross. Decent tires and proper pressures is all you need and you'll make it home.

Autocross isn't really that hard on a car.

 

Forged pistons don't run as tight a PTW clearance as well as OEM ones do so you will have some blowby no matter what

 

You can see a little oil dirt on and around the sensor.




Area noticing wetter oil/dirt








It looks like I have definitely got a leak but the question is how sever and where is it coming from. I started noticing the oil loss after I replaced the timing chain which involves taking of the valve cover. I replaced the valve cover gasket while I was at it. Don't know if this leak has anything to do with the valve cover gasket but thought i would mention the variables.

 

Clean it off really well and then check it every few days to find the source