'96 Nissan Maxima / Castrol Edge EP 5w-20 / 6k miles

[92saturnsl2]

UOA is from my '96 Nissan Maxima GLE V6 auto (VQ30DE). Oil used was Castrol Edge Extended Protection 5w-20, ran from January to April, just shy of 6k miles. Added 1/2 quart of top-up, oil filter used was a Purolator Gold.

Nothing unusual worth nothing about this OCI other than oil consumption went up a bit. (My last UOAs were a few thousand miles longer and I did not need any top up.)

This OCI was shorter than I usually do; with the weather getting into the 80's I was a bit apprehensive about keeping the 5w-20 in there. I did notice a decrease in wear metals overall, I might stick with 7500 mile intervals to see if the lead stays low, as lead was flagged in my first UOA which had a 10k interval.

The OCI before this one, I didn't get a UOA for, so there's a gap in the mileage. The previous UOA before this was using Castrol Edge 5w-50, the one before that was Pennzoil Ultra Platinum 0w-40 SRT branded oil. I changed the oil to Chevron Delo 5w-40 for the next run.

Was pleased with the UOA results, so much so that I gave the car a thorough wash and wax for a reward!

 

[oil_film_movies]

Originally Posted by 92saturnsl2
oil filter used was a Purolator Gold.

PurolatorBOSS®
PurolatorONEâ„¢
Purolator red-can
are the only ones they make. Maybe you mean NAPAGold?

 

[92saturnsl2]

Originally Posted by oil_film_movies
PurolatorBOSS®
PurolatorONEâ„¢
Purolator red-can
are the only ones they make. Maybe you mean NAPAGold?


Purolator Pure-One, color was gold.

 

[oil_film_movies]

Old-stock PureOne, I see. Should be fine if it looked good when you put it on.
You've seen the Purolator Tearolator spreadsheet, right? These things are too risky to use. The Purolator Boss is OK though. Just not as good as a Fram Ultra though.
Tears In Purolator Filters Click to Check the Infamy

Great car. I think that was the year Nissan started using DLC on the cam lobes. Not certain. VQ V6s are awesome though.

I like your approach of going a little thick in the summer, and thinner in the winter. I'd probably just use Valvoline MaxLife full-synthetic in that all year around, dexos1 Gen2 oil there. Or Mobil1 0w40 from walmart for cheap and lot of performance.

 

[92saturnsl2]

I cut open the filter after this OCI and noticed nothing unusual. Looked like a sturdy filter element with no tears or anything of the sort. Was the Gold (Pure One) filters afflicted with the tearing issue as well? I thought it was just the cheapo white can filters.

 

[oil_film_movies]

"Nissan VQ, which set a record with 14 consecutive Ward's 10 Best Engines wins from 1995 to 2008." --- WardsAuto

Originally Posted by 92saturnsl2
I cut open the filter after this OCI and noticed nothing unusual. Looked like a sturdy filter element with no tears or anything of the sort. Was the Gold (Pure One) filters afflicted with the tearing issue as well? I thought it was just the cheapo white can filters.
PureOnes were the most on the spreadsheet. They had problems. Yours didn't, good thing.

 

[zorobabel]

Thank you for yet another UOA on the old Max! Looking sharp!
It didn't blow up on 5W-20

I'm happy that the Lead went down, pretty good for a VQ30. The Titanium must be doing something...
Did you have injector issues around 220-230k?

 

[aquariuscsm]

Your latest uoa is by far the best one. I wonder if it's because of the oil used,or the shorter oci? I'm leaning towards the shorter oci. A 10K oci is WAY too long for this car. Did Nissan spec a 3/3K oci like it did in my 96 300ZX?

 

[dnewton3]

Our departed 1995 Villager (same as a Quest; same 3.0L v-6) easily ran 10k and 15k mile OFCIs on dino oil. Historical UOAs on this site. That engine was spec'd for 5k mile "normal" OCI and 3k mile "severe". Our soccer mom minivan saw about as much severe use as anyone could imagine. And yet UOAs never flinched.

The engine in this thread can easily do 10k miles.

 

[92saturnsl2]

Originally Posted by dnewton3
Our departed 1995 Villager (same as a Quest; same 3.0L v-6) easily ran 10k and 15k mile OFCIs on dino oil. Historical UOAs on this site. That engine was spec'd for 5k mile "normal" OCI and 3k mile "severe". Our soccer mom minivan saw about as much severe use as anyone could imagine. And yet UOAs never flinched.

The engine in this thread can easily do 10k miles.


The Quest/Villager used Nissan's VG33E- The VQ was a new DOHC engine first released in North America with the 4th Gen Maxima.

That said, there's nothing about the 3.0L VQ that makes it inherently hard on oil - I can't imagine it being much worse in that regard than the older VG engines.

If I had to throw a wild guess out there, perhaps the high miles is contributing to excessive blow-by that affects the oil in extended drain intervals. Not sure, I'll try 7.5k this next run and see how things look then. Because of the mileage I put on the car, 10k intervals would be nice, but I'll let future UOAs make that determination.

 

[dnewton3]

The engine in our van was the VG30E, not the 33. And I apologize in that I was stating the Villager and Quest were essentially twins when I said "same 3.0L v-6". The Villager/Quest were branded twins. They actually used the entire front drive-train from the Maxima including engine, trans, struts, etc. I was trying to tie the Village and Quest together; many folks don't know that they were twins. The VQ engine in the Maxima is more of a "cousin" for a lack of a better analogy. I do understand that there was a top-end change; DOHC versus the SOHC. But both designs were easy on oil, overall. The DOHC head did not cause, in and of itself, a lot of heat or shearing. If I understand the engines, VG vs VQ, the short block was the same? It was only a top-end DOCH change; isn't that correct? From all the data I have on those engine series, there's not any appreciable difference in wear rates. So while I didn't own one of the DOHC versions, my experiences with the SOHC version is anecdotally valid.

I am always an advocate of testing and then inching forward. Run some 5k mile UOAs. Then 7.5k miles. Then 10k miles ...
I've successfully run 15k miles OCIs with very good UOA wear data in my Nissan VG30E and I see no reason that the engine in this thread can't do the same. 10k miles is a no-brainer as long as contamination stays in check.

It appears that this engine in this thread had a particle streak that affected Fe and Pb at 241k miles, but that was not a continuing problem but rather a one-time event. The wear metals are dropping back to normal. I don't know of the history of this one example other than to say I suspect it's been well cared for since new (typical of first owners). There's only 3 UOAs here, so it's hard to say what history the engine has exhibited. All we can do it compare/contrast these results to Macro data. Generally, this engine is performing "normally".

 

[92saturnsl2]

VG33 was a typo, owned one in a Nissan pickup, always first thing that pops in my head when I think VG engine

The VQ series was an entirely new design, the VG series dates back to the early 80's I believe. The VG had some DOHC variants but they would have been named VGxxDE(T/R) per Nissan's naming convention.

I'm not disagreeing with you, even though they are two completely different engines, there is nothing about the VQ30 that makes it hard on oil. I'll keep up with the UOAs and eventually I'll find an interval to settle in on that's a good compromise between mileage and wear. I'm not averse to changing oil more frequently so if high wear numbers seem to correlate with extended drains, I can fix that!

 

[zorobabel]

Originally Posted by 92saturnsl2
...there is nothing about the VQ30 that makes it hard on oil.

Maybe the 3 timing chains?

 

[dnewton3]

Originally Posted by 92saturnsl2
... The VQ series was an entirely new design, the VG series dates back to the early 80's I believe. The VG had some DOHC variants but they would have been named VGxxDE(T/R) per Nissan's naming convention.

I stand corrected!