I will let him know about the blotter test. That could be interesting. One way or another it should be getting a UOA at some point too.
Originally Posted By: BrandonT
The factory fill oil has some ester in it, that might smell different than dino oil? Anyway I've never heard of fuel dilution issues in the VQ37. You say it has 3700 miles on it, and 1500 on the current oil change? Why is he changing the oil so often? I would have stayed with the factory fill until 3750 miles as specified.
Does it use oil? These will use oil during breakin. And if he hasn't properly broke the engine in it may always use oil, and I suppose if the piston rings never seat, it could have blowby?
Given the miles and the fact he has already probably hit redline, he should do an abbreviated engine breakin. With the car in second gear do full throttle blasts to almost redline, than let off and decelerate under engine breaking to 15mph or so and do that 10 times. Let it cool a bit and do it again. If you don't break this engine in hard (though keeping away from redline at first) they seem to have more issues with using oil.
This isn't a daily driver and so doesn't get many miles -- 3700 miles on it but he's had it about a year. He's doing OCIs based on time (the maintenance schedule calls for 6 months). I think he changed out the factory fill either ~6 months after manufacture or about 500 miles after the owners' manual break-in period was over, I don't remember what drove it. I think it's a little overkill but it's not my car
Not very many miles on it so can't be sure yet, but so far it doesn't seem to use oil. I think he had to top it up to the tune of 1/4-1/2 quart once during break-in but he says it's been steady ever since. IIRC the break in period in the owners manual was 1000 miles or so, and he did it by the book for the most part. Since that point it's had plenty of throttle and I think plenty of engine braking too.
