josh_0351

UPDATE

Well, I changed out the crappy Pennzoil for Mobil1 5W/20 fully synthetic yesterday (I also changed out the oil on my wifes min-van to Valvoline oil – I heard from several people to RUN SCREAMIN from Pennzoil, as it contains paraffin and causes sludge, among other negative attributes ). We’ll see how she does with the Mobil1. [8D]

I did have my bro-in-law (who is a gear-head and very well versed with cars) get on it while I followed behind and when romping it REALLY hard (prolly to red-line before shifting) , there was a slightly visible puff of dark grey smoke from the exhaust, but that was it. He said that was pretty much normal unless it smokes quite a bit and on startup and doesn’t think that there is anything to worry about. He thinks that driving the car hard in warm weather like I have been can cause some oil to burn off if runing a thin weight. The engine has 39,800 miles on it though, but he still thinks that its still too early to have oil-burning problems usually associated with bad rings. He agreed to stick with the Mobil1, and even suggested going to a heavier weight during the hot, summer months...


Thanks again, All!

Jglisson

Ditto what your brother-in law said...

Your problem is cheap oil in such a light weight. 5w20 is only good for about 85 degrees I think...you are killing your engine with that crap.

josh_0351

Fu<k I know [&o] – I realize that now! I’ve owned nothing but Nissan’s for the last 15 years, and have gotten no less than 115,000 miles outa every one of them by following the same mantra, that being “changing the oil every 3,000 miles or 3 months” religiously (using good ole Pennzoil cause that's just what I've been used to). BUT, those were economy vehicles, from 2 Nissan Hard-body trucks, to an Altima, to Pathfinder, to a Quest minivan. Of course, even though all those responded well to Pennzoil, I’m bettin that the 'Z' probably has slightly higher standards [8D] – Damn me for being ignorant I guess).

Summer is nearly over with so I went with the (Mobil1) 5W20, but will be sure to bump to 5W30+ next summer…