Where does the oil go?

[Trainmaster]

When the head gasket fails in the 97 - 02 motors they often leak a little oil out of the right side just above the starter. There is a machining flaw in many of those motors that cause the failure. The leak is from an oil passage that feeds oil to the top of the head to oil the rockers.

Of course the failure can also cause coolant leakage, combustion leakage, cylinder failure and all those nasty things depending on how and where the gasket has failed.

Around these parts they usually replace a 5.4 when the head gasket fails. It's a huge job changing the gasket and for a bit more you can get a re-manufactured motor. Remember, the boat's 20 years old. Probably earned its retirement.

 

[proftomda]

My 250,000 mile 4.6 has used oil for a long time, maybe 1-1.5 quarts every 3000 miles. No blue smoke out the tailpipe on acceleration and only occasionally on startup under certain circumstances, which means worn valve guide seals. No leaks, no CEL codes. The engine runs much smoother and quieter on 5W30 instead of 5W20 and as my father law always said "oil is cheap".