Yeah the water thing is definitely real. Especially with the oil I use (Motul), failing to boil the water out of the oil regularly is bad. But I hit 220 pretty regularly in the summer, just not always on long smooth highway cruises.

I run motul as well but are you with a oil cooler? I am thinking about going back to Pennzoil platinum since I saw this thread :-\

I use Motul's 300V racing oil, and it's known to be more hygroscopic (water-attracting/trapping) than most consumer oils, as well as low on detergents. It does need to be regularly heated to keep from building up moisture, which will make the oil acidic. In general it's probably really not a good oil to use for normal long change intervals (months), or a car that does short cold trips and/or sits idle for days, or gets parked outside in cold weather (condensation). It's also kind of expensive.

All those negatives aside, it's a very high quality oil, and it's manageable if you're willing to get the oil over the 212 mark regularly, garage the car, and change at 3K like clockwork (or shorter if you're not putting on many miles per week, or the oil gets abused by track conditions).

Right now since their isn't any hard driving on my car should I be worried? Right now I have Redline in my vehicle. My concern is this, I am currently overseas at the moment and once a week my girlfriend starts the car up let's it sit for about 15 mins then takes it for a short spin then parks it. Right now the only reason she is driving it more often is to break the clutch in but she says she hasn't seen it go above 180 yet. Suggestions?

When i drag race the Z .my car make the most power when the oil is betwenn 175 and 180. .It usually hit 196 at the end of the 1/4 mile run , and i have no oil cooler.
I tried a few runs at 194 and the oil hit up to 216 at the end of the run. The car is way quiker at 175 oil temp (80 c).
I use royal purple 5 W 30 race oil.

Z

I wouldn't worry too much about it. It would be better if she'd get the oil temp up higher though. You don't have to drive like an idiot to get the temps up, just stay 1-2 gears lower than you should be in while you cruise the small roads. Even at light throttle on a slow road, just keeping the engine up around 3-4K+ instead of 2K while cruising will raise the temps pretty quick.

Just be sure that oil gets changed out every few months, too.

I would be more worried about the hurricane that is heading right for your house!

Ya tell me about it, she is making sure the car gets in the storage unit after putting on some new RE-11s.

Ya that makes sense to me man, I noticed my Z "felt" more on point when the temps were lower, so I am super excited to try it out when I get home.

read the shop manual, oil temp has no direct impact to timing or fuel. you might have heat soak in your engine that brings the temp up on the IAT

Yes. Running a car up without getting it hot enough will enhance condensation without boiling the water off.

I have no doubt that if Nissan had chosen to use an oil pressure gauge instead of an oil temperature gauge, there would be none of these "EEK! My oil temperature is too high!" threads. We'd see people obsessing over their oil pressure instead of temperature.

So any recommendations on oil in general? I have a 25 row oil cooler, but I have a g37 and that bitch dont come with a temp gauge :(

Hmmm, does anyone know if the 350Z has this problem? I wonder what the oil temps are on the previous model...

300+ on track, but no limp mode to kill you.

oh wow that sucks. Just keep in mind it takes about 15 min, well atleast in my z, for the oil temp to come off of 140, and about another 10 of street driving just to get it to 180. my dad has a 350z that has run 175000 on mobil 1 and no mechanical defects at all. I have the 34 row cooler on my z and am gettin the mocal thermo plate adapter on friday.