I remember something in ” The Viper Buyers Guide” about some of the early ’03 getting some incorrectly ground valves. Not sure that has anything to do with what you are asking but it’s the only thing that comes to mind.

daytonprowler said:
4 qts in 3000 miles? I think it would be coming out the exhaust like a choo choo train.

Yeah thats what I figured as well, but she runs good, strong, no smoke, no smell, no intermix with the coolant.

daytonprowler said:
Valve stem seals would leak oil on the tops of the pistons after shutdown….. on start up you would get an initial cloud of smoke. I would think with a ring problem, that much oil consumption would foul out the spark plugs. What kind of oil and weight are you using?

penszoil 5w40 synthetic, yeah i figured i would see symptoms of the oil consumption, changed the oil now just going to keep an eye on it.

Have you done anything to the valve covers? Paint , powder coat? Had a buddy with a SRT-10 Ram took his valve covers off to be powder coated, when he re-installed he started using oil like crazy. Got so bad he got his dealership involved to the point of them pulling his motor and sending it to Arrow for a rebuild. Got the motor back, re-installed and it started doing the same thing. For whatever reason they pulled the valve covers off, and found that the internal baffle under the pcv valve had been broken or left off and oil was slinging off of the rocker arm straight up into the bottom of the pcv valve and sucking it into the intake. He did not notice smoke out the exhaust either, and his oil consumption was about the same as yours. I’ve not seen the underside of a Gen III valve cover, so I’m not sure if this is a cast piece, or a plate that is held by screws or rivets. I would pull the pcv valve and look in the hole, if you can see the rocker arm, then your baffle is gone or loose.

67PLY said:
Have you done anything to the valve covers? Paint , powder coat? Had a buddy with a SRT-10 Ram took his valve covers off to be powder coated, when he re-installed he started using oil like crazy. Got so bad he got his dealership involved to the point of them pulling his motor and sending it to Arrow for a rebuild. Got the motor back, re-installed and it started doing the same thing. For whatever reason they pulled the valve covers off, and found that the internal baffle under the pcv valve had been broken or left off and oil was slinging off of the rocker arm straight up into the bottom of the pcv valve and sucking it into the intake. He did not notice smoke out the exhaust either, and his oil consumption was about the same as yours. I've not seen the underside of a Gen III valve cover, so I'm not sure if this is a cast piece, or a plate that is held by screws or rivets. I would pull the pcv valve and look in the hole, if you can see the rocker arm, then your baffle is gone or loose.

yes the valve covers have been powder coated! I will pull them back off and double check everything.

daveg said:
Did this all of a sudden happen?

not sure, we never really checked oil level. car gets a LOT of miles, bought it 2 years ago with 12k on it, 67k on it now.

67PLY said:
Have you done anything to the valve covers? Paint , powder coat? Had a buddy with a SRT-10 Ram took his valve covers off to be powder coated, when he re-installed he started using oil like crazy. Got so bad he got his dealership involved to the point of them pulling his motor and sending it to Arrow for a rebuild. Got the motor back, re-installed and it started doing the same thing. For whatever reason they pulled the valve covers off, and found that the internal baffle under the pcv valve had been broken or left off and oil was slinging off of the rocker arm straight up into the bottom of the pcv valve and sucking it into the intake. He did not notice smoke out the exhaust either, and his oil consumption was about the same as yours. I've not seen the underside of a Gen III valve cover, so I'm not sure if this is a cast piece, or a plate that is held by screws or rivets. I would pull the pcv valve and look in the hole, if you can see the rocker arm, then your baffle is gone or loose.

That would be one extraordinary diagnosis! Hope that’s the problem!

MoparBoyy said:
not sure, we never really checked oil level. car gets a LOT of miles, bought it 2 years ago with 12k on it, 67k on it now.

That’s so great to see! An actual Viper “driver”.

I didn’t know you had a Gen 3 too, Alex. You should post up some pictures! I hope you get the oil consumption figured out.

AaronFL said:
I didn't know you had a Gen 3 too, Alex. You should post up some pictures! I hope you get the oil consumption figured out.

He doesn’t

AaronFL said:
I didn't know you had a Gen 3 too, Alex. You should post up some pictures! I hope you get the oil consumption figured out.

I don’t, its a friend/customer of mine.

Oh okay. I was hoping you had two! Those are some good miles going on that car. Props to your friend.