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my engine seriously burns more oil than fuel..

is it safe to mix oils? because not only is my oil level now below min, but:
A) i've no clue what oil is even in my car..
B) i haz non-synthetic in now, but want synthetic.. i don't think i should
mix the two..

i'm debating just changing my oil, even though i should still have at least
another thousand miles before i'm due for another service. some of you
have seen my engine's insides, and its not too pretty..

halp?

Doesn't matter if you mix them. If it did, we wouldn't have synthetic blend oils now would we?

If you go through that much oil stay away from synthetic. That's just pouring money down the drain.

Synthetic oil isn't a magic snake oil for fixing consumption problems.

That's right, if you have consumption problems synthetic will not fix it. You may end up burning more with synthetic depending on what kind of problem you have. Synthetic oil particles are thinner than conventional oil and will leak through cracks in seals and gaskets easier than conventional.

Find out why/how your losing/burning oil first and fix the problem then you can consider switching to synthetic.

It doesn't sound like you have the experience to diagnose the oil consumption properly, so I would take the help of someone with experience in motors with some tools to check it's health. In the mean time, you can run 10w40, but don't beat on it until the oil is hot as it will slow down both the oil consumption as well as the volume of oil going to the head and bearings. Thankfully, our heads are over-oiled from the factory so it's not really a big risk.

isn't non-synthetic not as good for the engine though? im assuming the
car is mostly burning the oil because there aren't any leaks in the
driveway at all.

iThane wrote:my engine seriously burns more oil than fuel..

is it safe to mix oils? because not only is my oil level now below min, but:
A) i've no clue what oil is even in my car..
B) i haz non-synthetic in now, but want synthetic.. i don't think i should
mix the two..

i'm debating just changing my oil, even though i should still have at least
another thousand miles before i'm due for another service. some of you
have seen my engine's insides, and its not too pretty..

halp?

Don't bother with synthetic at this point... you'll simply be tossing money down the drain.

Pennzoil 5w-30 is a decent oil. I used to get good analysis results from Blackstone when I was running that in my Neon.

Make a determination on where the oil is going... either burning or leaking... then decide on a course of action.

Is the consumption higher than 1 quart / 1,000 miles?

More like 1 quart every 1500/2000 miles. I have someone who can look at it. I'd
rather have someone with knowledge and experience do it before I only make things
worse lol.

iThane wrote:isn't non-synthetic not as good for the engine though? im assuming the
car is mostly burning the oil because there aren't any leaks in the
driveway at all.

There is nothing wrong with conventional oil. Modern conventionals are held to an extremely high standard.