02 Xterra V6 3.3 V6 tiny oil capacity.

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Not quite sure as to what the Nissan engineers were thinking when they designed the 3.3 V6 that goes in the Xterra, Pathfinder, etc... My wife's 02 Xterra has a oil capacity of 3 and a half quarts ...with the filter. The filter , I believe is a Fram Ph7317, which looks like it would be better off filtering the oil from a Briggs and Stratton engine. Since we met I have been doing the oil changes on it (currently at 135k miles), my mouth hit the ground when she said she normally had an oil change every 7k or "whenever I remembered" as she said. But to my suprise to this day the Xterra doesn't leak or burn any oil. Even after 4,000 miles it is still full on the dipstick. Pretty stout engine IMO lol... Ive decided to run Mobil Clean 5000 5w30 and a Tough Gard filter with a OCI of 3,500-4k, but im open to what you guys think with an engine that has such a small oil capacity...
 
Originally Posted By: 6lbsoft
Not quite sure as to what the Nissan engineers were thinking when they designed the 3.3 V6 that goes in the Xterra, Pathfinder, etc... My wife's 02 Xterra has a oil capacity of 3 and a half quarts ...with the filter.


I believe they were thinking of keeping the pan up out of the way of things that could poke holes in it. If that's so they seem to have gotten it right. Somehow they also managed to avoid the "rust holes in oil pan" problem that so many other Nissans with a steel pan tended to develop. 3 and a half quarts doesn't sound like much oil to have in the sump + filter, but it's a lot better than 4 and a half on the roadway.
 
Tiny capacity yes. They are very durable engines though. I believe somebody on here ran M1 for 10k with one of those. (No not Tig)
 
Yep, a great engine. You could use a Pure One or M1 filter. I had an '00 X for 4 years in SoCal, ran M1 5W-30 @ 7,000 mile intervals, did drop to about 2/3 between changes. Sump is tall and thin to avoid front diff. Nothing wrong with the 3.5 Q capacity.
 
5 qts was standard - very common - for American V8s.
Now, with engines half the size, why be concerned with a bit less oil?
Proportionately, now many should have even LESS than 3.5 qts.
 
My 1991 Pathfinder with 3.0 V6 only takes 3.25 qts to fill the sump, I added a remote filter kit for easy accessibility and that brought the capacity to 4 qts..
 
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