Oil temps: 335 comparitive observation.

Mitco39

By an engineering standpoint as long as you have a good conductive paste between the oil pan and the fins this would actually work quite well. No different than an electrical heat sink.

I should also point out that before my trip in the mountians I had the plastic undershroud off the car and it would run down in the 180s that way. I might pull it back off to see if there is a correlation between running with it off and cooler temps. I would imagine there would be significantly more airflow around the engine with it removed.

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b15

Yeah, that's why I'm not in a huge rush to get one. Just waiting for a good sale. With the 19 row and a thermostatic plate, I won't need to worry about oil temps when flogging it hard or about the oil not heating up enough.

Pelican170

Mine usually sits at exactly the same or a little higher, usually the 220 mark. This is regardless of what the ambient temp is but of course if I start driving it hard or am in a lot of traffic, it will rise higher. At first I was concerned about oil temps when I bought my car 4 years ago. After reading a bunch and keeping an eye on how high it gets (never seen it get over 250), I dont worry anymore and consider it normal. Ive also never noticed any loss in power. Maybe when the ambient temp is 95 with 90% humidity, but thats not due to oil temps...

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Jordo!

Well, perhaps JDM Home Depot

But, thermodynamics predicts that the extra surface area of metal fins will extract and disperse heat, and lo and behold, they do.

For the ARC fins, which are, after all, only stuck on, the key is surely the heat conductive adhesive -- any old regular 3M trim adhesive tape would presumably not work very well.

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kenchan

hahaha, yah, i saw that it's by the real ARC. so how many of the 10x9cm or watnot sized fins did you mount on your oil pan?

Jordo!

I thought about adding a vent to the undershroud (and I believe there is a modshack DIY for that on here), but I don't remember what the final verdict was on what other effects occur -- poorer MPG by being a bit less slippery to air under the car or changing how air flows over the radiator, for example.

I think it remains an open question without further testing...

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Jordo!

I think 2-3. You can get some shears and snip the fins and the adhesive pads to fit tight spaces. I might try and add a few more segments of fin on my next oil change -- can't recall if I have any open space left. I'll try to get a pic next time too.

You can definitely fit at least two on the diff -- a cheap-o alternative to the Nismo finned cover. Not as flashy, but same principal

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kenchan

that's cool, good info. thanks

Mitco39

The only ill-effect I noticed was that the front bumper wasn't as rigid as it was before. Next time I change my oil ill leave it off again just to observe the oil temps.

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juld0zer

It's a shame that our cars cant operate normally at the same oil temps as other modern performance or everyday cars. embarassing even. but there isn't much we can do aside from prolonging our enjoyment by investing in oil to air oil coolers.

I've had my belly shield off for a while before and to be honest, if there was a difference it wasn't noticeable. The front bumper is definitely not as rigidly held in place but i've gone for months with no shield and i spend a fair amount of time on motorways. Ever since i realised i could do any oil change just by popping the rear screws off the shield and folding it back, i havent removed the shield except when it had to come off.

Thanks for the heads up about the stick on heatsinks. You can buy Arctic Silver thermal compound adhesive from computer parts shops. It's an epoxy type glue. You can also buy the adhesive pads from some computer parts suppliers but i haven't seen any that would hold up to the elements. Speaking of which, computer heatsinks are really cheap.

juld0zer

I need to get a windows laptop or netbook to do some extended datalogging to see what exactly happens when the lag hits.
It does feel like the timing is being pulled because the sensation is the same as when i used to get extreme heatsoak.

I am running 5w40 oil at the moment. Here in Australia, Nissan sells their own oil and i've used it for most of the time i've had my car (about 3 oil changes). I've used Castrol Edge 5w30 (with titanium fluid strength tech - we don't have any other Castrol Edge on the retail shelves here) and i noticed the oil temps were generally cooler by 6*c compared to the Nissan oil.
My most recent change i used Nulon 5w40 and it actually takes effort to get the oil temps up to 90 and beyond. Oil temps are cooler than with Castrol Edge. Most of you guys haven't heard of Nulon before as it's an Australian brand but i'm unsure if they export it.

I dont have any datalogs to prove a difference but i was getting hesitation around 3500-4000rpm (felt unwilling to go beyond unless the pedal was pressed further). Now i get a seamless pull all the way to redline. It felt like the CVTC system wasnt getting enough oil pressure with the Nissan oil so it wasn't functioning properly. Below 3500rpm the car ran fine. I'm very happy with the Nulon oil. I might try their Euro formula 5w30 to see if running the correct viscosity oil will still keep it happy. It does amaze me that Nissan specs 5w30 worldwide. I feel for all those folks who live in the hotter regions of the world like the UAE etc.

Thanks for all your replies guys Really appreciate your input! I wonder if there is any function in Uprev to disable the oil temp related lag......

Jordo!

One other thing to consider: There is actually a coating on the valves that appears to work especially well with Ester based oils -- strictly from a mechanical standpoint, we've seen no clear evidence of better power or less wear using non-ester oils, though the system does tend to be a good bit more chattery with non-ester oils. Arguably, less chatter could be indicative of better lubrication (allegedly the coating reduces friction by being more slippery at the molecular level when lubed with Ester based oil).

All of this is a bit controversial, hotly debated, etc., but if nothing else, the system is clearly tuned to err on the side of self-preservation, so little things like that might manifest in small hiccups like that here and there.

Beyond that -- the OEM throttle maps are notorious for being rather laggy -- check out the smooth throttle for uprev thread for discussion on this issue.

As a final note, I ran a (0 weight) Castrol oil at one point and thought temps tended to run a bit cooler -- buuut much more chattery and some evidence of extra engine wear in UOA's relative to what I found using Redline 5W30 (an Ester blend, BTW), which what I have switched to and stuck with (see further the "Oil Nerd's thread").

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juld0zer

I've read heaps about the DLC and it's relationship with ester based oils. It must be a Nissan USA thing to mandate ester oil for the earlier model 370z (up until 2010 model iirc). In Australia, you will get a wtf response from the guy at the parts counter if you asked to buy Nissan ester oil. The stuff doesnt exist here. We have no idea which company makes the genuine oils but based on the bottle design i concluded it most resembled a Shell Helix oil bottle. There doesn't seem to be much noise being made here about noisy valvetrains in cars filled with non-ester based oil, even in the 09 models - but i might be wrong and just not read much about them on the Aussie forums. The TSB that Nissan USA issued about a software update to hush the valvetrain does not exist here.

Dealers here use whatever oil is most profitable and suitable for most models. I have an unused bottle of the Aussie Nissan oil which i might send for a virgin oil analysis for curiosity's sake. I do agree that less noise and less heat would indicate less friction. Less noise could also indicate a thicker oil film acting as a cushion. Some virgin oil samples did show a high moly content in the Nissan ester oil.

It's interesting that you got worse wear using an 0w30 vs 5w30 because there's heaps of positive results from folks running Mobil 1 0w40 in their G37 and 370z so the viscosity itself probably isnt the determining factor but the unique chemistry of each brand that makes the difference. Then there's debate about Brand A 5w30 being lighter/heavier than Brand B 5w30. But just like oil every other oil debate, let's not turn this into one of those threads.

I just did the smooth throttle table last night. The car does seem more peppy from 2000rpm upwards. i did have a bizarre issue tonight just then where i got almost zero throttle response in 1st and 2nd gear as i pulled into a parking lot. The issue didnt reappear on the drive home.

2011 Nismo#91

How many Toyota Camrys or Honda Civics come with an oil temp gauge? These cars can and do overheat their oil when driving under severe conditions (city driving, spirited driving, etc). The only difference is they don't know they are doing it, ignorance is bliss.

Please don't start gluing computer heatsinks to the car.

kenchan