370Z Engine Failure

billydsz

Exactly. I wasn't referring to some arbitrary cya spec by the manufacturer, who makes those to save themselves from warranty claims. As warmandscsi said above, a properly made modern engine ( when street driving) shouldn't lose oil of any noticeable amount between changes. If it does, you have some sort of defect, or a poor break-in. My 92 explorer loses a quart of oil every 5k miles, and that engine has 170k on it.

WarmAndSCSI

Yep.

To make it as concise as possible - a factory-built VQ37VHR that consumes more than a quart every 3000 miles probably has an oil control defect caused by improper break-in. A Nissan engineer would agree with this, but as said above, Nissan's warranty CYA verbiage screws the consumer in this case.

I'm SO glad my wife trusted my engine-building experience and let me break our Z in quick and hard.

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Jordo!

Dude, that's just over 3,500 miles... no properly built engine should burn up over 3 qts of oil in that short an interval

You are a fan of the "hard break-in" approach?

I'm really not sure what to believe, especially given that there is probably some break-in done by Nissan before assembly... can you detail your break-in method?

Also, is this for new cars (that might receive some factory break-in first) or newly built motors (done by you or a shop)?

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sonic370

Ok i guess i am going to give away my age here.But i can remember the time when checking your oil was a part of taking care of your ride. Most people now can't even find the dip stick (not talking about anyone here) With spark plugs lasting 100,000 mile or say they will tell you.And most all new engines lasting that long or longer checking your oil is a lost art form.

nolan1016

This is true. I know it is proper maintenance to check your dip stick once every couple hundred miles I guarantee more than 90% of the moms driving mini vans don't even know where a dip stick is.

I think 3 Quartz is super ridiculous. I would say the max for me would be 1 quart and I have never even seen anything above that.

VCuomo

Dude, read Modshack's comment and do the math:

3,500 miles X (1qt / 1,000 miles) = 3.5 quarts

And then factor in that a new car during its break-in period can burn even more...

daisuke149

just as an added thought, aroudn the forum it seems everyone is finding low oil in their cars during their first oil change time. In my car the oil was slightly low too for the first change?

Any thoughts to perhaps they are originally being sold / delivered with slightly less oil? If any of the dealers here can perhaps just do a simple check would cross that out.

Zsteve

drive em hard so all the seals seal good in the beginning and this wont happen.

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2010 LS3 C6 Silver coupe corvette

SoCal 370Z

Not the case with our 370Z. Oil was fine, and had only gone down approximately an 1/8" on the dipstick before first oil change; oil consistently checked—same place in garage, and the same allotted time before checking oil level.

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WarmAndSCSI

I advocate breaking in any new or rebuilt engine hard. It's not so much necessary with a new OEM engine or a block that has been properly plateau honed, but every engine with cylinder walls and piston rings needs a bit of break-in. Yes, rings come pre-lapped and cylinders plateau honed, but a "perfect seal" between the compression rings and the cylinder walls doesn't exist until x number of revolutions have been completed by the engine. It takes much longer on a rebuilt engine with rough cylinder walls and raw-faced rings.

I won't go into the specifics of the procedure on a rebuilt or new race engine, but for a new car it's best to take it for some hard pulls with lots of engine braking as soon as you have the opportunity to drive off the lot without dealer supervision. Our Z had 23 miles on it on the lot - probably one or two test-drives - but not too late to do a proper break-in!

We declined a test-drive and took it straight to a nice strip of private road to do a few pulls through the gears. You should start out at about 1/2 throttle, up to 5000 rpm or so, then start getting more aggressive with each set of pulls. Always downshift and use engine braking to slow the car down during this phase. It helps keep the cylinder walls from getting glazed by keeping oil from sitting on the cylinder walls during combustion @ idle. The engine braking action actually forces the piston rings out and scrapes as much oil as possible off the cylinder walls. Never let oil temperature get too high during this phase - you must let the engine cool off if too much heat accumulates. It should only take a few sets of pulls to establish a good ring seal... it's most important not to let your engine idle or sit at the same load or rpm for a long time. For the first few heat cycles of the new engine, you should make sure to do some aggressive pulls.

The purpose of this is to basically file down the peaks of the cross-hatching on the cylinder walls (some decent info and illustrations here: Stealth 316 - Engine Break-In) and create a proper surface finish on the rings. The depth of the cross-hatch "valleys" must be correct to allow proper oil retention without causing glazing (where oil ends up getting coked to the cylinder walls by the extreme heat of combustion).

Anyway, that's some basic info for you and how it applies to a new OEM engine. It's not critical to do this to a new OEM engine, but it definitely will ensure a better seal than if you hadn't done a similar break-in procedure. And contrary to popular belief, the only thing done to a car similar to the Z at the factory is a brief idle and "safety" run up/test to make sure all of the critical components of the car are in order. They do not stick every engine on an engine dyno to measure its performance or to break it in. This is done for most sport bike engines AFAIK, but not many car engines.

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Matt

Enough about break-ins, let's talk about which engine oil is best to lube up our flimsy doors!

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"Any man who can drive a 370z while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the Z the attention it deserves." Albert Einstein....modified.

Lug

90% of people's mom's here know where my dipstick is. Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week, don't forget to tip your waitress or bartender.

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Zsteve

yea I think they said it was up your own arse tranny style. jk.

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2010 LS3 C6 Silver coupe corvette

Matt

I have a 72 VW Bug and it burns AND leaks oil, and I've still never had to put 3 quarts of oil in it between changes.

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"Any man who can drive a 370z while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the Z the attention it deserves." Albert Einstein....modified.

Z-Guy

I know the feeling, I've owned over 29 cars, most new and never had to put oil in. I used to change my oil every 1k miles but now I do mostly freeway driving so I what until 2500- 3000 miles. I use nothing but Castrol Oil and Chevron gas. I was a 1/2 qt low on my new Z with less than 600 miles on it. Sure hope this isn't a problem, I am very particular and meticulious about break in procedures etc. Sounds like I'll have to find another good synthetic oil like Red Line or Royal Purple etc according to some of the threads due to oil temps.