Changed my oil to 300V this evening. I was able to do the change without lifting the car or using ramps, as predicted.

The only snag I ran into is that the magnetic drain plug I ordered had the wrong threads (too coarse, the stock drain plug has finer threads). I didn't end up ordering the Kics one semtex did, but I used the same thread specs when ordering from another place. Either those thread specs are wrong (someone else would have noticed by now I think) or they shipped me the wrong part. So the stock plug went back in for now with a new crush washer. I'm using a FilterMag on the filter anyways, so the magnetic plug isn't that big a deal.

I'm going to take the mag drain plug with the bad threads to Home Depot tomorrow and test it on some nuts there to verify what size they sent me, that should illuminate this issue.

The Nissan Ester Oil that was in the car is bottled up for Blackstone, we'll see what they say about it.

Various pics:

Supplies:

http://www.the370z.com/members/wstar...drain-plug.jpg

The view from above while the oil was draining:

http://www.the370z.com/members/wstar...view-above.jpg

Tried to get a shot of the clearance between the drain pan and the oil pan, but the lighting is pretty bad under there. This was shot while trying to hold a flashlight on it. This was a generic low-profile-looking round black drain pan I found at Wal-Mart, they probably stock the same ones nation-wide:

http://www.the370z.com/members/wstar...ramps-used.jpg

And this is a shot of the inner and outer surfaces of the FilterMag. It's got a bunch of Neodymium magnets set up in rows on a curved plastic surface. You just snap it onto the outside of your oil filter and leave there for the duration, and slide it off and move it to the new filter at each change. Later I'm going to cut open the filter I just took off (which was using the FilterMag) and see how much metal shavings were laying in there from the magnets:

http://www.the370z.com/members/wstar...outer-edge.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/wstar...um-magnets.jpg

Oh and back on the subject of Motul...

Yes, it smells great, you really do want to drink it. The metal cans are retarded. The outside is flimsy and they're completely filled with no real air inside (I guess to preserve the oil better). I made a mess opening and pouring the first one, but I learned quickly and the other cans went fine. Set it down on a flat level surface, don't squeeze the outside, and remove that inner plastic seal very slowly and carefully :)

When I test drove the car on the new oil, it really did feel like the engine was happier and smoother. Then again, given how small the effect could possibly be, and knowing what I know about human psychology, most likely that was all in my head as I prayed for some visible benefit from an oil that's priced like liquid gold.

I would argue I always feel a difference...but like you said, it may be in my head...but I swear it feels smoother!

Well maybe it really is smoother, it certainly felt better. Just no way to really measure that objectively.

The other update is that I'm pretty confident now that the last exhaust gasket replacements I need will be here Friday (thanks to Stillen, DDM, and Berk for working with me on getting them here), so hopefully I'll have my exhaust leaks all sealed up on Saturday, and I can burn in the new gaskets, retorque again on Sunday, and then get some new video clips of the final sound.

Nice work. Yeah, that Motul 300V is pretty expensive. Wouldn't it be nice if we could get a group buy on that stuff? I'd order it by the case if I could get a decent discount.

Update on the drain plug, after reviewing my order confirmation emails, the part numbers, and the mfg website, it's obvious I actually ordered the wrong one. I must have mis-clicked somewhere. I meant to order M12x1.25, but ended up ordering M12x1.5. Oh well they're $10. I ordered the correct one for next time, and now I've got more magnets to play with :)

Hey wstar,

What vendor are you buying your magnetic plug from?

Metric oil drain plugs

The website is atrocious to navigate. The correct size is the ones labelled 1040M and 1040SM on that page. The 1040M is a regular magnet and goes for $3.45, the 1040SM is $10.00 and has a neodymium magnet.

Edit: link for Neodymium info, since I've mentioned it twice here and maybe not everyone's into magnets: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neodymium_magnet

Thanks! What an awesome website, by the way! I feel like I should be partying like it's 1999.

Where did you purchase the Motul 300V?

I didn't see a local vendor stocking it, although I didn't look very hard, so I mail ordered it (and my filters and crush washers) from http://www.mynismo.com

Thanks for that.

Just a question for you... if I select 5W-30, I get "Power Racing" Motul oil, where if I select a different weight of oil, I get "Chrono" or "Power"?

If I do go ahead and purchase the oil, I will obviously get the 5W-30, but I wanted to make sure that the particular "formula" of Motul is solely dependent upon the weight of the oil.

I'm not expert whent it comes to Motul, so bear with me.

Power / Power Racing / Chrono are just names they assign to the different weights of 300V. Each weight has its own name, I suppose what the oil is best designed for in a race engine (the general idea being that super-thin oils will give you a little more power for a quick hot lap like a time trial, whereas a heavier oil will withstand the longer-term heat of a real road race better). I went with 5W-30.

Got the last of my replacement gaskets in today, so the exhaust will get fixed up tomorrow AM. Big thanks to Josh @ Stillen for sorting out some postal mishaps and getting them to me on time :tup:.

Nice - thanks for this.