So my car was burning oil at a steady rate and had all the symptoms of bad valve seals, white smoke at start up, low oil, etc. I've since changed the valve seals and even contributed to the HOW-TO on it http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/show...-1-8-(non-turbo)-valve-stem-seals-replacement
If you take a look at that how-to you can see I posted pics of the new seals and the old ones, so changing it definitely helped. I still get a little smoke at start up but not as much as it used to be before I changed the seals. I hasn't even been a month since I changed my oil (2/22) and today at start up my stock oil light was on, and sure enough the dip stick was bone dry, so I basically burned through 3 qts of oil in 3 weeks. How is that even possible? I have ABSOLUTELY NO external leaks, I park in my driveway so I'd see engine oil everywhere on the ground if that was the case. Could it be I did my valve seals wrong? I just removed the old ones and stuck on the new ones. Did I need to put gasket sealant on them before I put them into place or something like that? What else could be making my engine drink through so much oil?
If you take a look at that how-to you can see I posted pics of the new seals and the old ones, so changing it definitely helped. I still get a little smoke at start up but not as much as it used to be before I changed the seals. I hasn't even been a month since I changed my oil (2/22) and today at start up my stock oil light was on, and sure enough the dip stick was bone dry, so I basically burned through 3 qts of oil in 3 weeks. How is that even possible? I have ABSOLUTELY NO external leaks, I park in my driveway so I'd see engine oil everywhere on the ground if that was the case. Could it be I did my valve seals wrong? I just removed the old ones and stuck on the new ones. Did I need to put gasket sealant on them before I put them into place or something like that? What else could be making my engine drink through so much oil?