My Mini (R55 Cooper S Clubman N14) has been babied all its life and has never seen anything besides royal purple 5w-30. As a mini owner I have dropped quite a bit of money into it. I’ve had the engine recently walnut blasted and it is much better. But I have relatively low compression and was told that a lot of oil goes though the piston rings. I was told that fixing the worn piston rings would mean the whole engine repaired and would be about 6,000. As a college student I cannot afford this. Would a thicker oil help with less oil consumption? I currently go though on average a quart every 1000 miles. Any other advice is greatly appreciated! Thank you!

 

The rings and connecting rod bearings can actually be changed while the motor is still in the vehicle....

 

While worn oil rings can of course be a source of oil consumption they don't affect compression. And the flip side is compression rings have quite a bit less to do with oil control than the oil control rings.

And oil consumption can be elevated from bad valve stem seals.

Heavier (higher viscosity) oil won't help with oil consumption. And the higher viscosity oil can result in subpar lubrication of the engine or improper operation of say the engine's variable valve timing/lift system.

My advice is to run the factory oil. I have found with other engines as the oil approaches 5K miles the engine gets a bit tick-y and a bit of oil smoke upon some cold starts appears. These are signs the oil is due to be changed. (Yeah, I use the odometer but the behavior underlines a 5K mile oil change in my case at least is called for.)

Then just monitor oil consumption and keep the engine topped up. A bit of a pain, sure, but far less a pain than forking over $6000 for an engine rebuild.

 

I would just get the head rebuilt......

 

I remember my student years, when you need to save. I can give you some advice. There are oil additives designed to reduce oil consumption and improve the condition of piston rings and seals. Products like Lucas Oil Stabilizer or Bardahl No Smoke might help to some extent. These additives can increase the viscosity of the oil and improve sealing properties. Good luck!

 

It's an old thread, but for BMW engines,
for various reasons, Shell Rotella T6 (10-40 or so) seems to be consumed at a
far lower rate than most oils.
Yes, it's an oil rated for diesels.
No, it doesn't do any harm to gas engines.

t

 

10w40 shouldn't be too bad for the engine. I'm running 5w40, which would be just slightly thinner on a cold engine.

I'm sure @mountainhorse would have something to say about NOACK numbers being more important....