GC 0w-30, 2008 Infiniti G35 VQ35HR, 8100 miles

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This is my first UOA for this particular vehicle. As the title states, this is German Castrol Syntec (Gold) 0w-30 in a 2008 Infiniti G35 VQ35HR. No makeup oil was used in this UOA. Here's some more info:

Time on oil: ~4 months
Miles on engine: ~36k
Miles on oil: 8,100
Air Filters: OEM original (just changed both with Napa Gold filters)
Oil Filter: Napa Gold - FIL1356 (slightly over sized compared to stock)
Temps seen during operation: mostly 40 deg F - 80 deg F
Driving Pattern: Conservative - 90% Hwy/10% City
Driving frequency: Driven every day (with a few exceptions)
Average trip duration: mostly 60 minute drives
Time spent in traffic: between low and medium on average

The car has had a total of 7 oil changes so far: the first 5 were done before the 20,000 mile mark with Castrol GTX 5w-30 and the last 2 were done with GC 0w-30.

Shell V-Power 93 octane is the only fuel used in this car.

Since I put a pretty decent amount of miles on this car, I would have liked to keep the OCIs around 8k miles, or so. Should I just play it safe and stick with ~7,500 mile intervals though?

Thanks in advance!

Here are the UOA results:

3dcf6279.jpg
 
Sodium is leftover from Castrol GTX.

Sure, some people may nitpick over the wear metals shown, but there is not enough evidence from this report to conclude that the wear pattern is abnormal.
 
Originally Posted By: BobFout
Engine is still wearing-in, why are they concerned about wear metals?


Wear metals are only a concern with the M1 bashing group. Since this isn't M1, no problem.

Looks good with a nice TBN. Nissan and GM engines often show higher metals, but as some know that doesn't translate in higher engine wear. I would shoot for 10K OCI. Vis is still good.
 
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I've been following the Nissan UOAs and this looks excellent.

The engine killed GC in 8k, wow.

Only thing left to do is compare to a run on Rotella Synth, unless you want to to the boutique oil route.
 
Originally Posted By: tig1
Originally Posted By: BobFout
Engine is still wearing-in, why are they concerned about wear metals?


Wear metals are only a concern with the M1 bashing group. Since this isn't M1, no problem.

Looks good with a nice TBN. Nissan and GM engines often show higher metals, but as some know that doesn't translate in higher engine wear. I would shoot for 10K OCI. Vis is still good.


Visco dropped 1.5 cSt from the PDS though.

Is this by design, or from excessive shearing? (it's not from fuel in this case)
 
at 27-35k i don't think this engine should still be "wearing in". most of this looks like a pretty good nissan UOA (they tend to be worrisome looking), except for the lead. the GC appeared to shear some, which i find amazing. i wouldn't take this OCI any further with GC, and i would stay at the max recommended OCI in the manual to preserve your warranty. once you get past that, i might recommend going to M1 TDT or RotellaT6 to try to get the lead down a bit. the TDT did a great job in my VK45 (based on the VQ engine).

nissan makes some interesting engines, but they have had some bottom end problems. the Pb worries me here, but may not be enough to show a serious problem. at 101k, my VK45 is still throwing marginal to just ok UOAs, but it runs fine and uses about a qt in 10k
 
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Originally Posted By: cheetahdriver
at 27-35k i don't think this engine should still be "wearing in". most of this looks like a pretty good nissan UOA (they tend to be worrisome looking), except for the lead. the GC appeared to shear some, which i find amazing. i wouldn't take this OCI any further with GC, and i would stay at the max recommended OCI in the manual to preserve your warranty. once you get past that, i might recommend going to M1 TDT or RotellaT6 to try to get the lead down a bit. the TDT did a great job in my VK45 (based on the VQ engine).

nissan makes some interesting engines, but they have had some bottom end problems. the Pb worries me here, but may not be enough to show a serious problem. at 101k, my VK45 is still throwing marginal to just ok UOAs, but it runs fine and uses about a qt in 10k


I'm used to engines taking 40K to 60K miles to fully break-in. I admit that's only VW/Audi motors, I assumed it was something common
blush.gif
 
Lead is way, way too high to be any kind of 'break in'.....

Si is somewhat high, so it could be abrasive wear, or a combo of that and wear from excessive fuel.

I'd check the air filter, and run much sorter OCI's until this settles down.
 
Originally Posted By: daman
I agree should be done breaking in,how is this car driven??

The car is driven pretty gently; it RARELY sees red line or spirited driving, etc.

Schedule 2 specifies 7,500 mile OCIs so I guess it would be best to stick with that for now...I'm interested in checking out the Rotella T6 in the future though, so I might give that a shot when I run out of GC. How do those diesel oils do with extended OCIs? I noticed that PP gave pretty good UOAs in other examples, so I was considering going that route too.

I checked the air filters during the last oil change and they were filthy (oily, black, etc.), so I changed those out immediately.

Other than that, thanks for the helpful feedback everyone!
 
Originally Posted By: FCobra94

The car is driven pretty gently; it RARELY sees red line or spirited driving, etc.

Schedule 2 specifies 7,500 mile OCIs so I guess it would be best to stick with that for now...I'm interested in checking out the Rotella T6 in the future though, so I might give that a shot when I run out of GC. How do those diesel oils do with extended OCIs? I noticed that PP gave pretty good UOAs in other examples, so I was considering going that route too.

I checked the air filters during the last oil change and they were filthy (oily, black, etc.), so I changed those out immediately.

Other than that, thanks for the helpful feedback everyone!


this is the UOA chain from my VK45 in the FX.

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubb...rue#Post1920864

you can see that i had higher lead (which i found quite worrisome) until i changed to the HDEO oils. this is one of the few engines i have found that wasn't tamed by M1 0w40. the second column from the right is 5k, i cut the OCI in half when i saw the lead, i was afraid the next drain might come out "extra chunky".

however, even though the UOAs are not as good as i would like, at 101k then engine just runs along. the FX gets alot of highway miles, but in town i drive it alot like my miata. i have no mods to it.

i have found the air filters are an issue as well with the black stuff. not sure why (placement or something else) but i watch them. one other thing you need to be aware of is that the nissan transmissions seem to have problems if you don't keep up with fluid changes. i am doing the 3qt every 30k methodology that is detailed in the manual, but if it comes out dark, i would say do a flush right there.
 
Originally Posted By: FCobra94
Originally Posted By: daman
I agree should be done breaking in,how is this car driven??

The car is driven pretty gently; it RARELY sees red line or spirited driving, etc.

Schedule 2 specifies 7,500 mile OCIs so I guess it would be best to stick with that for now...I'm interested in checking out the Rotella T6 in the future though, so I might give that a shot when I run out of GC. How do those diesel oils do with extended OCIs? I noticed that PP gave pretty good UOAs in other examples, so I was considering going that route too.

I checked the air filters during the last oil change and they were filthy (oily, black, etc.), so I changed those out immediately.

Other than that, thanks for the helpful feedback everyone!

A HDEO would probably do well yes as would PP or PU,lots of good choices.
 
The "wear metals" don't seem like that big of a deal IMHO. GC still looks stout and I notice it seems to have a bit more calcium than recent Gold vintage VOAs seem to show. Also, the TBN here seems excellent, which contrasts with a listed, low TBN of about 5.5 indicated in a VOA here...
 
I'm often torn between "breaking in" and just simple removal of left overs. After 7 oil changes any residuals should be long gone.

I too don't care for the higher Pb reading.

As far as silicon ..look at the UA. Right on par.


The difference, for warranty purposes, between 7500 miles and 8000 miles is NONE. I'd backhand the jo service manager that even hinted that it was some ultimate fine line that 0.00000002" beyond means that you're without warranty protection. I'd humiliate the clown.
 
Unrelated to the UOA, I have a question in general: what is it physically, mechanically, etc. that makes these Nissan motors so hard on oil to begin with?

Before choosing what oil, filter, interval, etc. to use I researched every thread found in this forum and others and no one really explained why these engines in particular beat up such stout oils from the get go...
 
Originally Posted By: Gary Allan
I'm often torn between "breaking in" and just simple removal of left overs. After 7 oil changes any residuals should be long gone.

I too don't care for the higher Pb reading.

As far as silicon ..look at the UA. Right on par.


The difference, for warranty purposes, between 7500 miles and 8000 miles is NONE. I'd backhand the jo service manager that even hinted that it was some ultimate fine line that 0.00000002" beyond means that you're without warranty protection. I'd humiliate the clown.


gary, you obviously have never been through a lemon law process.
 
Originally Posted By: FCobra94
Unrelated to the UOA, I have a question in general: what is it physically, mechanically, etc. that makes these Nissan motors so hard on oil to begin with?

Before choosing what oil, filter, interval, etc. to use I researched every thread found in this forum and others and no one really explained why these engines in particular beat up such stout oils from the get go...


i have heard that the bearing surface area is small in relation to the HP. i have also heard that they have some tolerance issues in the bottom end. i know that there were a spate of the VK engines that got replaced for bottom end issues, typically connecting rod bearing failures. OTOH, if they go past 100k, they seem to run forever.

they are not, however, a toyota 4.5L, any one of which will run forever. depending on the car, and the gas pedal, this may not be an advantage...
 
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