2002 Maxima, VQ35DE = Fail...Oil problem?

[NHHEMI]

I am not an Amsoil fan or user but I would say without pause that the Amsoil did not cause your failure. It is a very good oil. You could run it again and be fine.

If you just don't want to run it again because of what happened( that too is 100% okay and don't let anyone tell you otherwise )then pick any quality oil you like. Royal Purple, Redline, Penzoil Platinum, Mobil1, Quaker State Horsepower, Valvoline Synpower, etc... I assume you wish to run synthetic as you were before?

You could also run one of the high mileage engine oils. I like the Valvoline MaxLife version but most all of the other name brand oil mfg's offer one. Your replacement engine has 79K on it so one of these oils would make a lot of sense. I actually would recommend you run MaxLife.

 

[AndyM]

UOA IN!

Sorry it's a picture, I couldn't find a pdf to jpg converter so I could host it on my image site. Looks like oil was not the culprit.

Andy

 

[Johnny]

Originally Posted By: AndyM
Originally Posted By: Pablo
I'm confused. But I've been really busy lately. I tried to follow this - can you please type a simple stacked time line, oldest to now.

You are on your third engine in this same car?

The tick of death video, that's not the current engine with Amsoil SSO?


LOL! Am I confusing everyone?!

1st and original motor with car:
Had exactly 96K on it when it died. It ran Amsoil SSO for 20k miles. At moment of failure the oil had approx 2500 miles on it. The PREVIOUS oil interval had exactly 8128 miles on the oil change (I'm just showing how far apart my OCI's are).

2nd motor (salvage yard):

Salvage yard claimed it had 39k on it, they lied lied lied. It had no less than 120k on it or it was maintained very poorly. I installed it with the help of my brother anyway.
Oreilly's was running a special so we put valvoline in it for the first 30 minute warm up, it didn't make it that long, bent a rod.

3rd and final motor:

This one was claiming to be a 79k motor, it actually looked like it. Good maintenance, very little wear. We kroil treated this motor over night to loosen the piston rings and prevent hydrolock, I poured a quart of Peak 5w30 on top of each head/cam. Primed the system by turning the motor with the ignition systems plugged in, drained that oil. Put in Halvoline 5w30, ran for thirty minute, drained that oil, installed more Halvoline.


I don't want anyone to get confused here. All I'm talking about is the ORIGINAL motor. Nothing else.


Okay, great. I think I'm on top of it now. Now you have the third motor with 79K running Havoline 5w30 and as of right now you have no issues. If that's the case, continue what you are doing, although I might disagree with Bob (whoever that is) about the add pack in Havoline being the best. But it's good oil.

But to get back to your original post, your question is what was or caused the ticking in the first (original) engine.

 

[AndyM]

Originally Posted By: Pablo
How many miles do you drive per year?

How do you drive? What style and type of driving?


20-25k. I drive casually with a very occasional dogging to get around a slow interstate driver or something.

35%/65% city/highway. I live in Missouri.

 

[Merkava_4]

If you ever decide to go with a fresh rebuild, go here:

Will's Automotive Machine Shop
112 N Centre Street, Poplar Bluff, MO 63901

He's the best in the whole state of Missouri.

As for the oil, I'd run Maxlife 10W-40 in that Nissan motor.

 

[J. A. Rizzo]

Amsoil is so bad, it hosed the first engine and then caused the rod to bend in the first replacement engine! It was probably the lack of a starburst API symbol on the bottle that did it...

 

[Johnny]

No Rizzo, you wrong. The first replacement engine had Valvoline in it. That much I have figured out.

 

[JohnBrowning]

It was not the Amsoil! This almost smells like troll bait!!! I suppose that Amsoil caused the first replacement to bend a rod? If it had problems and you truly took good care of it then that can only mean one of two things!!!! Either the first owner did not take care of it as he told you he did or the engine had some internal manufactures defect.

Since you have no idea how that engine has been maintained I would use Rotella 10W30 until you see how it is going to do. If it has any leaks or burns oil stay with dino if it seema like a sound well maintained engine use synthetic viscosity of your choice. It really does not matter what brand of oil you use as long as it is name brand and SL or better and you change it often enough to keep the engine clean and lubed.

Seriously I know people that might change their oil 3-4 times in the course of 120,000 miles they just keep toping up and they always make it to 120,000 miles then sell the vechile and get another one. So for yours to fail at 96K is suspect to say the least!

 

[Andrew]

I find it a little frustrating to read posts such as this. Engines don't fail early because of oil and as been well established in this forum, virtually any oil that is regularly changed will do the job. Engines fail because of mechanical breakage, abuse, design faults, lack of maintenance etc

Poor logic ...

 

[buster]

Quote:
Engines fail because of mechanical breakage, abuse, design faults, lack of maintenance etc


Yup.

Look at that UOA.

 

[jmsbntz]

Originally Posted By: AndyM
I put kroil on top of the cylinders over night, unplugged the ignition before we started it and primed the oil for 180 seconds and then let it idle 30 minutes before we changed the oil.

Would you explain the steps you took to do this including starting the engine? Also did you do it to all three engines?

 

[Drivebelt]

The only thing I've learned from this thread so far -- is not to buy used VQ motors from junkyards.

 

[AndyM]

Originally Posted By: Andrew
I find it a little frustrating to read posts such as this. Engines don't fail early because of oil and as been well established in this forum, virtually any oil that is regularly changed will do the job. Engines fail because of mechanical breakage, abuse, design faults, lack of maintenance etc

Poor logic ...

Originally Posted By: JohnBrowning
It was not the Amsoil! This almost smells like troll bait!!! I suppose that Amsoil caused the first replacement to bend a rod? If it had problems and you truly took good care of it then that can only mean one of two things!!!! Either the first owner did not take care of it as he told you he did or the engine had some internal manufactures defect.

Since you have no idea how that engine has been maintained I would use Rotella 10W30 until you see how it is going to do. If it has any leaks or burns oil stay with dino if it seema like a sound well maintained engine use synthetic viscosity of your choice. It really does not matter what brand of oil you use as long as it is name brand and SL or better and you change it often enough to keep the engine clean and lubed.

Seriously I know people that might change their oil 3-4 times in the course of 120,000 miles they just keep toping up and they always make it to 120,000 miles then sell the vechile and get another one. So for yours to fail at 96K is suspect to say the least!

Originally Posted By: J. A. Rizzo
Amsoil is so bad, it hosed the first engine and then caused the rod to bend in the first replacement engine! It was probably the lack of a starburst API symbol on the bottle that did it...

What I find frustrating is people jumping on someone without reading the entire thread and posts.

I've given a UOA and at the conclusion of the UOA admitted that it does not appear that the oil was the problem.

Can you all please lighten up on me a little, I researched vehicles and bought this specific one because of the very rare mechanical failures and maintenance required associated with them, I knew in the future that I would not be able to afford a 2-4,000.00 dollar repair job and did my best to maintain to prevent that. Now I'm spending a wad to get a running again, can you see how frustrated and upset I've been??!? Any one of you would have felt the same going into this situation.

I came in this forum for advice and have spent half my time defending myself like I'm some kind of juvenile on a gamers forum talking about what gun I should use in Halo. Please don't flame me anymore, if you have something intelligent to add please do so, if not, go hammer someone else.

 

[AndyM]

Originally Posted By: Drivebelt
The only thing I've learned from this thread so far -- is not to buy used VQ motors from junkyards.

Seriously....

 

[AndyM]

Originally Posted By: jmsbntz
Originally Posted By: AndyM
I put kroil on top of the cylinders over night, unplugged the ignition before we started it and primed the oil for 180 seconds and then let it idle 30 minutes before we changed the oil.

Would you explain the steps you took to do this including starting the engine? Also did you do it to all three engines?


That's a pretty good explanation of what I did, I don't know how to say it better.

There were only TWO replacement engines...the first one of course came with the car....

 

[AndyM]

Also I want to add again I did not give a blanket statement saying Amsoil was bad, I was simply curious if Amsoil...specifically Amsoil 0w30 has a detrimental effect on my application.

 

[aquariuscsm]

Don`t know about VQ`s,but VG`s love the thicker oils. All of the VG30DE(TT) owners I know (in person and on Nissan forums) either run 15W50 or 20W50. I have no experience with VQ`s though.

You should do some extensive searching/reading on some of the Nissan VQ forums. That would be a great way to gain some good insight on those motors. But reading your posts,you must know your way around those motors pretty well since you`ve torn them down and rebuilt them. Only motors I`ve ever rebuilt were 2 stroke Honda/Kawasaki dirt bike motors.

Anyway,hope all goes well!

 

[jmsbntz]

Originally Posted By: AndyM
Originally Posted By: jmsbntz
Originally Posted By: AndyM
I put kroil on top of the cylinders over night, unplugged the ignition before we started it and primed the oil for 180 seconds and then let it idle 30 minutes before we changed the oil.

Would you explain the steps you took to do this including starting the engine? Also did you do it to all three engines?


That's a pretty good explanation of what I did, I don't know how to say it better.

There were only TWO replacement engines...the first one of course came with the car....

Sorry, I was also asking about the original engine, so just one engine was kroiled?
Did you use the spray can or liquid form?
Pull the plugs and spray or pour it in?
Use a vacuum line while while the engine was running?
Crank it over several times with the starter and the plugs out before installing them and trying to start it?

Just trying to crunch all the details to help me sort out what might have happened...

 

[pickled]

Originally Posted By: AndyM
The previous owner left 26 oil change receipts in the dashboard, that comes to about 2884 miles per oil change. And his daily commute was 5 miles. The car was meticulously maintained and stealer serviced.
There was noticeable wear on the rod bushings and the cam lobes have noticeable hot spots on the tips.

The oil has NEVER been off the the dipstick or below the low mark not under my watch and I'm about 99% sure that it didn't happen under the previous owners watch either.


I'm pretty sure that the severe service commute (<5 miles a day) combined with probably a lifetime of low grade oil and occasional missed filter changes by the dealer techs (this is typical) didn't help this car out. If I here a vehicle was short tripped for it's entire life I walk away. Did you find any sludge, what did the oil pickup look like? If everything was hunky dory in it's service life you wouldn't have seen that type of camshaft wear. I'm sorry for your loss my friend...it sure sucks playing musical train. SSO is a solid oil, but if you are paranoid about running it again use a fleet type diesel oil with a nice add pack. Good luck Sir...by the way your UOA didn't appear that abnormal! Maybe a drop of coolant or two was evident, but nothing that screams A-HA!!!!!

 

[MolaKule]

Quote:
These motors are known to be oil burners though I didn't notice it in my previous motor, maybe 1-1.5 quarts every 3k miles.


I have a similar, if not the same engine in my 2003 PathFinder (111,000 miles) and find that even though 5W30's are specified, it seems to like the higher viscosity 10W30's best. I ran a synthetic 0W30 dring the winter and it lossed a quart within 2300 miles. However, it had no losses with bio-synthetic 5W30.

These are tough engines generally and seem to get good gas mileage.