I will add that since the first oil change my car has only seen 220 degrees and that was it and that was during about a 90 degree day and with pretty hard driving breaking the ART pipes in.

That sample was the last one as a daily driver, no oil cooler either. That sample was probably 75% highway miles.

Thanks -- I'll consider that one too.

I wonder if that is the key difference.

Yeesh... then I definitely want to try something that minimizes lead wear.

here's the latest one i have on file.

pennzoil platinum 5w30 w/ oil cooler, "weekend car" status so maybe 50/50 city/highway. I ran this fill for about 5months, 4k miles.

http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/a.../th_E55188.png

^^^ Wow, the German 0W30 is doing a shitty job for me then.

Curious to see how the redline fares.

perfect example of different cars & driving styles turn out different UOA even with same oil. I may try redline on the next fill, either that or go back to the german castrol. Currently running castrol edge 5w30 since it was on sale at wally world.

Shorter OCI, and lo and behold, no more wear metals!

http://www.the370z.com/members/jordo...-uoa4-0w30.jpg

Okay based on my latest UOA and on tranceformer's, I feel pretty confident in concluding that the German Castrol works well only up to about 4K and then after that it doesn't do a very good job on protecting the bearings (also compare lead wear with my first one) -- no idea why.

The TBN drops considerably after another ~1.5K too, which may be related :confused:

Also interesting that the oil was more viscous on the ~1.5K higher OCI -- anyone have any insights on that?

Anyway, this was my last on one the Castrol for now -- next one (at 4Kish) will be Redline 5w30, so we'll see how that compares. If no better, I'll probably go back to the Castrol.

Haven't confirmed this yet, but the Castrol seemed to run a bit cooler, and is definitely cheaper, so if it protects just as well as Redline at 4K, that will be the winner.

i thought the ONLY reason ester oil was "recommended" for our cars was the diamond polished heads, and that group 4 oils wont adhear to the polished heads.... causing them to get hotter and make more noise. other than that our engine runs perfectly fine with group 4 oils....

i was an advocate for redline for my first 24k miles. last two changes have been with a quality group 4 oil and everything sounds and feels fine.

Sort of -- allegedly the DLC coating on the valve train has a greater affinity for ester oils (or at least Nissan's magic blend), but other non-ester oils will still bond, just not as well.

That said, I have a feeling the difference only matters for long term drivetrain wear (and noise) if anything -- meaning if the motor held together for 300K miles, then a head lubed with ester oil would have less wear than one that used another blend.

of course, if the rest of the motor tends to **** the bed 100K before that then it's all academic...

As to temps, at least on a few glances at the oil temps after hard driving, I'd say the Castrol ran about 5* or so cooler than the Redline is (and keep in mind it is finally getting a bit chilly in FL too...), but I won't know for certain unless I can observe it on the dyno which can really heat up the oil in short order, as well as give me a way of evaluating time to cool down for subsequent runs.

I think I'll switch back to the German Castrol on the next one and compare and contrast with Redline after 4K.

German castrol huh? i didnt know there was such a thing.


during the hot summer months here i noticed the redline kept normal operating temps 5-10 degrees cooler. hmmmm

Noice UOA Jordo, heard god things about the German Castro on the oil thread on my350. I thought it was very tough to acquire thou.

German Castrol is only found at Autozone, atleast from what I've observed.

I'm using it again, 3rd or 4th fill, I can't remember any more. I'll get a sample again when I change the oil.

Yep.

Euro (AKA: German) blend Castrol 0w30 synthetic can be found at autozone.

I'm very curious to compare and contrast that to the redline after a 4K interval.

Also worth noting is that if the difference in wear is indeed due to the interval, then Nissan's recommendation of 3750 mi as an OCI for mixed highway/city driving is pretty spot on, which wouldn't be all that a shocking finding considering they built the damn thing.

Maybe, given this kind of driving, the motor is the limiting factor on OCI's, not the oil. That also doesn't seem too far fetched considering any synthetic oil should perform about as well.

Higher OCI's (5K or greater) may only be appropriate on this engine if the majority of driving is on the highway.

That too is in keeping with Nissan's recommendations, and is also not a particularly far-fetched conclusion.

I plan to try redline oil for the engine eventually, depends if I end up raising the revlimiter when I get it tuned. I want to see how it compares to the german castrol too.

Latest UOA with the infamous "unicorn blood": Redline 5W30.

My car seems to like it...

http://www.the370z.com/members/jordo...edline5w30.jpg

Yes, I know the mileage info doesn't add up -- techically this was just under a 4K OCI and I rounded up (also, I recorded lower than actual overall miles by a bit accidentally -- OCI was actually about 3850ish. Close enough.)...

Anyway, wear numbers are lower, suggesting that Redline does as well or better than the German Castrol at 4K.

I'm probably going to let this fill-up remain until about 5.5 - 6K and see what wear materials are like. If they remain low, then I'd say Redline wins both overall, and especially because it will outperform on a longer OCI. If wear materials go up, then I'll compare to the Castrol at similar miles from previous oil change, pick the one with the lowest values, and stick to a 3.7-4.5 OCI.