No Full Synthetic Oil in the Z?

zman1910

A lot of you guys are new to the VQ engines so I'll just say this and let you arrive at your own conclusions.

The reason Nissan people are pushing use of conventional ester oils is bc a lot of their research from the 350Z has led them to believe that early use of synthetic oils are directly responsible for all the oil burning issues they have seen with the VQ. And trust me there are a lot. Anyone that has owned a 350 knows this. Personally, I have owned 2 350's and a G35 coupe. Never once did I use synthetic oils on my N/A Z's. Once turbo'd I immediately made the switch but I also had about 15k on the odo at the time...so I'm sure the piston rings were seated by then. Most good mechanics recommend switching to synthetics around 20k miles for this exact reason.

The VQ is a strange engine so take what you want from this post. There are plenty of threads on "my350Z" to prove this.... specifically of people using royal purple.

The dealer may not be completey bs'ing you on this one. Remember they are in it for the money also so they'd most probably prefer you to get synthetic. Just food for thought.

It sounds as if the guy was trying to honest by saying Nissan engineered the engine that way. It sounds ridiculous but that's probably what Nissan told him to say, so you can't fault him. I have a habit of running conventional oils in my vehicles unless I have some source of FI. People have been using dino oils for a long time now and they are better than ever so I see no reason to change....yet.

kannibul

Well if mine ends up burning oil from it, then so be it - to be honest, I'm skeptical that it will due to the use of synthetic oil, or that it (the use of synthetic) could be proven as the culprit of burning oil.

Many vehicles come with synthetic from the factory. Nissan won't say either way if their factory fill is which or if it's even a blend, so with all honesty, how are we supposed to know if using synthetic is "bad" for the engine? Plus, there's a lot of debating information all over the place (internet) regarding when to switch to synthetic, etc.

I'll use what I use (Mobil1) until something comes up that convinces me otherwise.

davidyan

^^

Nissan's factory fill is the Nissan Ester 5w30 which is a conventional oil base with Ester.

Ester's are typically found in some of the more expensive Group V synthetics but when combined with the conventional oil base, some people call them "blends" which isn't a bad interpretation. It is however, different from the synthetic blends found on the market which don't have Esters.

To touch on the original post, the 370Z can definitely run a synthetic but there is always debate as to when to make the switch. Most people recommend somewhere between 3 - 10K. I'll probably make the switch myself at 7,500 miles. I may be able to do it earlier with no harm to break-in but its not really worth the risk in my opinion. Running the car for the first couple thousand miles on the Nissan Ester "blend" won't hurt it.

Also, many cite that a lot of cars (for ex. the GTR, Corvette, MB cars) come with a synthetic factory fill and therefore come to the conclusion that synthetics are preferred for brand new engines. Keep in mind, that the oil manufacturers negotiated these factory fill contracts with the auto companies. While synthetic in a new engine probably isn't as bad as some claim, this doesn't mean its the best or ideal oil for the first 3-10K. Remember that most drivers don't want to go through all the research and trouble that we do here on oils and break-in so if the manufacturer recommends a synthetic for the long-term use of the car and wants to keep the instructions simple, I can't argue with them for putting it in there from day one.