That was always something I never understood. Nissan touts their Ester oil as being this amazing revolutionary oil containing nanoparticles and unicorn tears but yet it is not recommended or used in the GTR. That alone says it all.

Agreed the standard in the Nissan GTR is Mobil 1 0W40 synthetic motor oil that is due to the plasma sprayed bores and any other weight motor oil could possibly damage the plasma coating. Dealerships I have seen reported using 5W30 and even 5W40 Mobil 1 synthetic motor oil on Nissan GTR oil changes. Bingo this is why I highly recommend taking the time and doing your own oil changes instead of having these places you bring your car to screw it up. I would hope people here would take pride in their Z and do some of their own general maintenance on their Z. If I owned a GTR the only motor oils I would consider using would be Mobil 1 0W40 or Motul 5W40 synthetic motor oils but there are a lot of different motor oil choices out there though.

After all the oil testing I have seen with the VQ37HR engine I highly recommend using a quality API certified synthetic motor oil only and believe it will hold up a lot better due to the high heat temperature the VQ37HR engine produces. Also has been shown to produce less wear on engine bearings over time. Not all motor oil brands protect the same.

Only reason Nissan was recommending the Ester oil, based on the article, is due to the DLC coating in the valve train. I have owned guns with the DLC coating and I used to use grease as a lubricant because the oil would not create a film on the coated parts. Their oil is supposed to bond to the DLC thereby creating less friction. Not sure if the GTR has DLC coated parts but I am guessing that it does not based on the full synthetic recommendation.

^^ Good synthetic oil is PAO Ester which is the same family of molecule that Nissan adds to their dinosaur juice mineral oil for the 370Z.

So just use a PAO Ester oil and you have superior lubrication DLC or no DLC.

Nissan Ester Oil, how it works inside the 370z engine vs other brands
 

Don’t know how it is in Australia but there aren’t many synthetics left in North America that actually use PAO ester base oils. Most use extremely refined petroleum base oils and call it synthetic. The only standout is Pennzoil which uses a base oil derived from natural gas for their Platinum synthetics.

Redline do claim to use PAO base oil but their oils do not meet API certification and therefore should not be used if you have an existing NISSAN warranty.

Amsoil and Royal Purple refuse to divulge their base oil makeup but if you read their MSDS, it is petroleum based.


Oooops.....I really hope I’m not starting another oil thread war. Just stating facts.


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In US, “synthetic” is deemed just a marketing terms. That’s why some people specifically use “German Castrol” or the M1 0w40 Euro (other than the boutique brands of course).

I’ll shut up now.

Yes you're right.. most synthetics are highly cracked dinosaur juice here too.

Penrite (Aussie brand) "10 Tenths Racing" series is PAO/Ester, Nulon (another Aussie brand) has a few oils with PAO/Ester and Motul's 300V is ester-based too. So there's a bit of choice left here.

I just bought a 2019 370Z and Nissan still recommends their ester oil in the owner's manual.

I've done my first early oil change at 700 miles with the ester oil but am still uncertain as to whether there are any better alternatives to this oil nowadays. If this is the same oil as was formulated back in 2009 for the VQ37VHR, does it still stack up as the best choice for this engine, given the r&D that has been going on in the last 10 years with motor oils?