2002 Maxima, VQ35DE = Fail...Oil problem?

[AndyM]

Hey Guys, I'm very knew to this forum although my brother comes here frequently.

Very recently my 96xxx mile 2002 Nissan Maxima 6-spd manual bit the dust. I use this car as a daily driver and have meticulously maintained it since I bought it with 74k on the clock from a bank manager who maintained it very well.

I switched the oil almost immediately to Amsoil SSO 0w30 with their EA oil filter as well.

At 96.5K I got in it one morning to leave and started it and it began knock very badly, it was more like a rapid tap. Click here for a youtube video.

There was no warning, I'm very aware of my cars activity and sounds it makes, and I have never heard before then anything abnormal.
I had been using Amsoil SSO for 20k miles, the previous OCI had been 8k miles total, and the current mileage on the oil was 2500 miles.

I just performed an engine swap...twice in the car. The first motor we got bent a rod 20 minutes after we started it, the second motor seems fine so far.

Here is my question; What kind of oil do I run in it now? I'm very afraid to run amsoil in it again, the UOA results should be in this afternoon but that won't be definitive, the current oil was not the problem is my logical reasoning, my guess is it was the OCI before the current one.

In the newused motor I'm running Halvoline Dino 5w30 as I've heard the Ad pack is good in it.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Andy

 

[ericthepig]

IMO there's no way that was oil related. Would've gone south w/ any oil out there. Fate (and mechanical failure).

I just re-read your post and noticed that the SSO OCI was 20k. How was the consumption during that time? Did you keep it topped off? What was the duration (months) of that run?

 

[addyguy]

Sounds like the previous owned neglected it, and sold it to you..just in time!

 

[javacontour]

Originally Posted By: ericthepig
IMO there's no way that was oil related. Would've gone south w/ any oil out there. Fate (and mechanical failure).

I just re-read your post and noticed that the SSO OCI was 20k. How was the consumption during that time? Did you keep it topped off? What was the duration (months) of that run?


re-re-read it, he said...

Quote:

I had been using Amsoil SSO for 20k miles, the previous OCI had been 8k miles total, and the current mileage on the oil was 2500 miles.


I really doubt it was the oil as well. Probably just a tired engine.

If the replacement was not new, then it failing in a short time period is practically meaningless.

I think it was just bad luck, not bad oil.

 

[AndyM]

The previous owner left 26 oil change receipts in the dashboard, that comes to about 2884 miles per oil change. And his daily commute was 5 miles. The car was meticulously maintained and stealer serviced.
There was noticeable wear on the rod bushings and the cam lobes have noticeable hot spots on the tips.

The oil has NEVER been off the the dipstick or below the low mark not under my watch and I'm about 99% sure that it didn't happen under the previous owners watch either.

 

[Merkava_4]

Was there a catastrophic loss of oil pressure?

 

[AndyM]

Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
Was there a catastrophic loss of oil pressure?


I honestly don't know. I have no oil pressure gauge in this car, but I do have a OP light, but it did not come on.

We've taken the old block mostly apart, the bottom half is off, and the timing chain cover. Our best guess is wrist pin/piston slap. When rotating the crank through we always hit a rough spot that is hard to rotate through. It's not a lifter and not anything to do with the timing chain. Best guess is hydrolock caused a wrist pin breakage.

 

[Merkava_4]

When and if you get the engine back together, I'd recommend you go with a 10W-40. Nissan engines are known to prefer medium weight oils and it's perfectly safe according to the manufacturer to run it above zero Fahrenheit.

 

[zulu]

Total fluke. Had nothing to do with the oil. The VQ35 is the stoutest motor Nissan makes short of the TT version in the new GT-R. It is, in typical Nissan fashion, well over-built for it's power levels. You just got one of the rare fluke engines.

 

[AndyM]

What brand oil do you recommend that is specific to Nissan products?
These motors are known to be oil burners though I didn't notice it in my previous motor, maybe 1-1.5 quarts every 3k miles.

I hear a different brand and weight from everyone I talk too, and it seems the same on this forum, everyone likes a certain type of oil...

BTW, I really appreciate everyone's comments and advice.

 

[Steve S]

Blasphemy. Amsoil is a fine oil But it is just oil it has no special repairing, healing ,restorative,protective properties I am sure you were lead to for some reason that syn oil is special and there is no other choice. What oil to run???? any oil you want that meets the requirements Nissan recommends.

 

[Johnny]

AndyM, I'm confused, and that's not hard to do these days.

Did the original engine blow up and it was using Amsoil, or is the replacement engine that just started ticking using the Amsoil.

 

[lazaro]

no UOA simply all speculation here, Yawn!
so what was making the noise in the original engine?
funny how people are scared to run the same oil again but no one found the original cause of failure. you can watch it on youtube running and knocking but no video of the worn parts.
Amsoil caused the failure for sure.
lets blame the oil

 

[AndyM]

Originally Posted By: Johnny
AndyM, I'm confused, and that's not hard to do these days.

Did the original engine blow up and it was using Amsoil, or is the replacement engine that just started ticking using the Amsoil.


Sorry for the confusion. The original motor blew up and is the one in the video...yes it still ran when I pulled it, but not for long.
The 2nd motor was a salvage yard piece of trash that was going to blow up anyway, it had some cheap oil in it because I intended to drain it after 30 minutes of running anyway, it just didn't make it that long.
The third motor running Havoline 5w30 is running like a champ, I put kroil on top of the cylinders over night, unplugged the ignition before we started it and primed the oil for 180 seconds and then let it idle 30 minutes before we changed the oil.

Originally Posted By: lazaro
no UOA simply all speculation here, Yawn!
so what was making the noise in the original engine?
funny how people are scared to run the same oil again but no one found the original cause of failure. you can watch it on youtube running and knocking but no video of the worn parts.
Amsoil caused the failure for sure.
lets blame the oil


Sorry if I offended you, it was not my intention to come in here and blame amsoil. I'm very new to this stuff and was only trying to get answers.

 

[lazaro]

Originally Posted By: AndyM
Originally Posted By: Johnny
AndyM, I'm confused, and that's not hard to do these days.

Did the original engine blow up and it was using Amsoil, or is the replacement engine that just started ticking using the Amsoil.


Sorry for the confusion. The original motor blew up and is the one in the video...yes it still ran when I pulled it, but not for long.
The 2nd motor was a salvage yard piece of trash that was going to blow up anyway, it had some cheap oil in it because I intended to drain it after 30 minutes of running anyway, it just didn't make it that long.
The third motor running Havoline 5w30 is running like a champ, I put kroil on top of the cylinders over night, unplugged the ignition before we started it and primed the oil for 180 seconds and then let it idle 30 minutes before we changed the oil.

Originally Posted By: lazaro
no UOA simply all speculation here, Yawn!
so what was making the noise in the original engine?
funny how people are scared to run the same oil again but no one found the original cause of failure. you can watch it on youtube running and knocking but no video of the worn parts.
Amsoil caused the failure for sure.
lets blame the oil


Sorry if I offended you, it was not my intention to come in here and blame amsoil. I'm very new to this stuff and was only trying to get answers.

Im not offended just sarcastic here.
if you dont tear into the original engine and find the source of failure you will never know what happened.
the noise I hear in the video is a fast noise wich in my opinion is the recipricating assembly,i/e crank, rods, pistons.
like I said if you dont tear into the engine you are talking to a brick wall...

 

[Johnny]

Originally Posted By: AndyM
Originally Posted By: Johnny
AndyM, I'm confused, and that's not hard to do these days.

Did the original engine blow up and it was using Amsoil, or is the replacement engine that just started ticking using the Amsoil.


Sorry for the confusion. The original motor blew up and is the one in the video...yes it still ran when I pulled it, but not for long.
The 2nd motor was a salvage yard piece of trash that was going to blow up anyway, it had some cheap oil in it because I intended to drain it after 30 minutes of running anyway, it just didn't make it that long.
The third motor running Havoline 5w30 is running like a champ, I put kroil on top of the cylinders over night, unplugged the ignition before we started it and primed the oil for 180 seconds and then let it idle 30 minutes before we changed the oil.


Okay. So is it this third engine that had the 8K OCI and 2.5K run of the Amsoil? Did the ticking start with the Amsoil in it? What's in it now after running the Havoline and Kroil?

Don't let lazaro get to you. He means well.

 

[Pablo]

I'm confused. But I've been really busy lately. I tried to follow this - can you please type a simple stacked timeline, oldest to now.

You are on your third engine in this same car?

The tick of death video, that's not the current engine with Amsoil SSO?

 

[AndyM]

Originally Posted By: Pablo
I'm confused. But I've been really busy lately. I tried to follow this - can you please type a simple stacked time line, oldest to now.

You are on your third engine in this same car?

The tick of death video, that's not the current engine with Amsoil SSO?


LOL! Am I confusing everyone?!

1st and original motor with car:
Had exactly 96K on it when it died. It ran Amsoil SSO for 20k miles. At moment of failure the oil had approx 2500 miles on it. The PREVIOUS oil interval had exactly 8128 miles on the oil change (I'm just showing how far apart my OCI's are).

2nd motor (salvage yard):

Salvage yard claimed it had 39k on it, they lied lied lied. It had no less than 120k on it or it was maintained very poorly. I installed it with the help of my brother anyway.
Oreilly's was running a special so we put valvoline in it for the first 30 minute warm up, it didn't make it that long, bent a rod.

3rd and final motor:

This one was claiming to be a 79k motor, it actually looked like it. Good maintenance, very little wear. We kroil treated this motor over night to loosen the piston rings and prevent hydrolock, I poured a quart of Peak 5w30 on top of each head/cam. Primed the system by turning the motor with the ignition systems plugged in, drained that oil. Put in Halvoline 5w30, ran for thirty minute, drained that oil, installed more Halvoline.


I don't want anyone to get confused here. All I'm talking about is the ORIGINAL motor. Nothing else.

 

[AndyM]

Quote:


Okay. So is it this third engine that had the 8K OCI and 2.5K run of the Amsoil? Did the ticking start with the Amsoil in it? What's in it now after running the Havoline and Kroil?

Don't let lazaro get to you. He means well.


See above. The video is from the original motor. I'm currently running Halvoline 5w30 because Bob said it has the best ad pack for the money.

 

[Pablo]

How many miles do you drive per year?

How do you drive? What style and type of driving?