We have a 13 Armada with a 5.6 Liter V8 that has a 7 Quart sump. My wife works half a city block away from our house. It gets really warmed up once a week maybe when we do errands on the weekends. I work from home and don't go out much. We are in serious severe duty territory. Nissan says 3 Months or 3750 Miles for severe duty.
I noticed before we left for a trip to Disney that the inside of the oil filler cap and the threads on the filler pipe had this milky tan goop in them. I wiped them out with a paper towel, then we drove from Indy to Orlando straight. The mada sat for a week, then it drove straight home. In that timeframe, I have put almost 3200 miles on it and we are still under the three months. No goop when we got home. I figured that might get me out of the severe duty category for this OCI.
We have been seriously cold here for a few weeks now and it is getting worse next week. Tonight I opened up the cap again and there was the same goop in the cap, in the threads and running down the inside of the fill tube. I had the mada out for 1 to 1.5 hours today in the mid teens teaching my son to drive and driving around before I checked the cap tonight and cleaned it out tonight. The dipstick looked good (not milky tan - white. It looked like slightly used oil)
I am thinking two things:
1 - It is condensation mixed with oil rising up the filler tube and condensing at the top and sliding down as it builds. But it doesn't go all the way to the bottom where the engine is hot so don't sweat it. Once it gets neat the hot valve cover, it melts back in and all is well.
2 - The engine is clearly not getting warm enough and this garbage is all through the engine. Change the oil now!
It has had 3 - 4 weeks of running back in severe duty territory since we have been back which means getting really warmed up on the weekends. The mada does stay in a garage that is not heated, but is attached to my house so it is a good deal warmer than outside since I am sure I am bleeding heat in to the garage from the house. And the mada has a oil cooler (warmer) that is attached to a donut adapter at the oil filter that runs the oil over a water jacket. I am assuming that it is meant to keep the oil at coolant temp for towing, but it also might keep it warm in the colder months.
Honestly, I'd rather wait until spring to change it again since its been friggin cold. But I don't mind changing it with oil from my stash if need be.
It is running Pennzoil Ultra 5w-30 and a Fram Ultra Syn filter.
Should I dump it, or should I keep it in the engine since it had a good warm run to Florida and back? Meaning when it got home from that run was the start of the 3 month / 3750 mile OCI since it is Ultra and got all kinds of warm.
(Honestly, my heart is screaming to change it since I have lots of oil in the stash. My brain is saying that the oil still looks great from the dipstick, the goop stops two inches from the valve cover, it's Pennzoil Ultra and its way colder than I want it to be to do an change)
I noticed before we left for a trip to Disney that the inside of the oil filler cap and the threads on the filler pipe had this milky tan goop in them. I wiped them out with a paper towel, then we drove from Indy to Orlando straight. The mada sat for a week, then it drove straight home. In that timeframe, I have put almost 3200 miles on it and we are still under the three months. No goop when we got home. I figured that might get me out of the severe duty category for this OCI.
We have been seriously cold here for a few weeks now and it is getting worse next week. Tonight I opened up the cap again and there was the same goop in the cap, in the threads and running down the inside of the fill tube. I had the mada out for 1 to 1.5 hours today in the mid teens teaching my son to drive and driving around before I checked the cap tonight and cleaned it out tonight. The dipstick looked good (not milky tan - white. It looked like slightly used oil)
I am thinking two things:
1 - It is condensation mixed with oil rising up the filler tube and condensing at the top and sliding down as it builds. But it doesn't go all the way to the bottom where the engine is hot so don't sweat it. Once it gets neat the hot valve cover, it melts back in and all is well.
2 - The engine is clearly not getting warm enough and this garbage is all through the engine. Change the oil now!
It has had 3 - 4 weeks of running back in severe duty territory since we have been back which means getting really warmed up on the weekends. The mada does stay in a garage that is not heated, but is attached to my house so it is a good deal warmer than outside since I am sure I am bleeding heat in to the garage from the house. And the mada has a oil cooler (warmer) that is attached to a donut adapter at the oil filter that runs the oil over a water jacket. I am assuming that it is meant to keep the oil at coolant temp for towing, but it also might keep it warm in the colder months.
Honestly, I'd rather wait until spring to change it again since its been friggin cold. But I don't mind changing it with oil from my stash if need be.
It is running Pennzoil Ultra 5w-30 and a Fram Ultra Syn filter.
Should I dump it, or should I keep it in the engine since it had a good warm run to Florida and back? Meaning when it got home from that run was the start of the 3 month / 3750 mile OCI since it is Ultra and got all kinds of warm.
(Honestly, my heart is screaming to change it since I have lots of oil in the stash. My brain is saying that the oil still looks great from the dipstick, the goop stops two inches from the valve cover, it's Pennzoil Ultra and its way colder than I want it to be to do an change)
