All vehicles burn oil, there is no way around it. Its usually just a small amount. If you are finding your dip stick dry, you aren't checking your oil often enough. The old standard used to be a quart every 500 miles was normal. I don't know what they consider normal now.

 

Have you ever replaced your PCV valve?

 

I would try this as well.

 

Ditto. Except only 30 years. Well, I had one car using oil, it needed a new engine.

 

Holy smokes...makes a good argument for changing your own oil, or at least checking it after someone else changes it.

I have had one oil burner, got in the habit of checking the oil every fill up.

 

How old are you saying? Because this wasn't the norm going back to the 60's. Like I said, for the last 50 years I never had a vehicle that burned any oil.

 

Speaking of checking your oil. I have a 2011 with the 5.0. I assumed my oil was low since nothing on the dip stick. I added a qt. still nothing. Another 3/4 of a qt. Still nothing. Run it, let it sit 10 minutes. Now I get oil up one side of the stick but almost nothing in the zone. Why is it so hard to get an oil level reading? The oil was changed about 3k mils ago. I'm sure it's not "that" low. Oil pressure is up over the halfway mark on the gauge. My 07 dip stick would get stuck in the tube to the point that I broke the plastic pull trying to get it out. So now they eliminated the tube but it's like the stick is cleaned off as you pull it out. At this point I have no idea if I'm over filled or under.

 

The oil is high on one side after running the engine because the oil is moving around while it's running. It's normal. If the other side is dry then you need to add more oil. I've always told my customers to use the lower reading if it's different on either side of the dipstick.

 

Oil pressure gauge is pretty pointless, it means nothing to what you are looking at today. And the 5.0 takes almost 8 quarts of oil, lots of 'space' for it to be low.

Add more. And then check out if you are leaking.