Oil recommendation

[Zu Zu]

okay - hopefully an easy question for a Saturday. Just got my 260z and am going to change the oil today. Not sure how long the current oil has been in there. Looks ok and full but who knows. What type/brand do you all recommend? Will be light weekend driving in decent weather. Currently COLD here in the midwest Will change again in the late Spring.

Thanks all!

[SteveJ]

Nissan says 10w30. Some suggest using oil for diesel engines since it contains ZDDP, an additive no longer put into typical motor oil. Oh, the engine needs 5 quarts.

Edited February 23, 2013 by SteveJ

[Zu Zu]

Thanks Steve

[siteunseen]

After the spring oil change I'd use Valvoline VR1 10W30 Racing Oil, not for street use because of the converters, from O'rielly's. Seems like they had the best price and not all of them stock it, but can get it overnight. It's kinda expensive is why I say not for the 1st change.

Edited February 23, 2013 by siteunseen

[Dr. 240Z]

Hi,

Please learn from my costly mistake from last October. Do not use synthetic oil. Use a quality 10-30 regular like Castrol GTX.

Important: Always supplement your choice of oil with ZDDP - Especially if you are breaking in a new cam.

ZDDP is cheap - $6 to $8 per oil change - On sale right now at Eastwoods

Cheers,

George

[LeonV]

I've been using Mobil1 10W-30 full synthetic with no issues for 2.5 years.

[Mike W]

So I just put in a stage 2 cam from Isky and they only recommend 2 brands of oils for higher performance engines mainly due to the inclusion of Zinc and other additives.

Their number one recommendation is a brand call Brad Penn. Apparently this company purchased an older refinery from I believe Castrrol and continue to make oil with high zinc content and ZDDP. I believe that the refinery is in Brad Pennsylvania, which is where they get their name. I use 20W-50 and have had no issues with the Brad Penn oil. It is a little unusual as it is green in color but I suspect that is due to all of the additives. It is also on the expensive side as oil goes although probably not as much as synthetic. The only other brand they recommended was Valvoline VR1 racing, which I have also used with good success in the past.

Hope this helps.

Mike.

[grannyknot]

15/40 diesel oil, lots of ZDDP, lots of detergents, dirt cheap.

[Arne]

So I just put in a stage 2 cam from Isky and they only recommend 2 brands of oils for higher performance engines mainly due to the inclusion of Zinc and other additives.

Their number one recommendation is a brand call Brad Penn. Apparently this company purchased an older refinery from I believe Castrrol and continue to make oil with high zinc content and ZDDP. I believe that the refinery is in Brad Pennsylvania, which is where they get their name. I use 20W-50 and have had no issues with the Brad Penn oil. It is a little unusual as it is green in color but I suspect that is due to all of the additives. It is also on the expensive side as oil goes although probably not as much as synthetic. The only other brand they recommended was Valvoline VR1 racing, which I have also used with good success in the past.

Brad Penn is from the former Kendall Oil plant. Story goes that when Kendall was purchased by Exxon-Mobil, they sold this one refinery and the original Kendall GT-1 formula to one of their long-time engineers. The Kendall name went to Exxon-Mobil, but in general, Brad Penn is the old Kendall GT-1 formula, well-fortified with ZDDP. It is by far the favored oil in the USA by owners of air-cooled Porsches. (At $5-10k or more for a full rebuild of a 911 motor, you don't take too many chances with sub-standard oil.) Valvoline VR-1 is considered acceptable too. For full synthetics, some people run Mobil 1 V-twin (designed for Harleys) as it also contains good amounts of ZDDP. Some of the high-ZDDP oils are only available in thicker viscosities, which may be fine for my 911, but not as good in an L-series Z engine. I used to use 10W-30 year-round in the 240Z.

15/40 diesel oil, lots of ZDDP, lots of detergents, dirt cheap.

Check the formulas carefully, as that is not always the case anymore. Many modern diesels now have catalytic converters and so ZDDP is now being phased out of diesel oil as well. There are now (I've been told) two different formulas for Shell Rotella, for example. As time goes on, I suspect the only oils that will contain reasonable amounts of ZDDP will be categorized as racing oils.

[Jeff G 78]

I run VR1 40wt in my 260Z race car. We run endurance races, so we are racing for up to 25.5 hours straight. I will gladly pay $6 per quart to finish a race and not have to rebuild the motor very often.

[doradox]

I've been using Mobil1 10W-30 full synthetic with no issues for 2.5 years.

That's a good choice. I use Valvoline SynPower 10-30 in the Z and 5-30 in my other cars. My '81 Ford pickup gets the cheapest oil I can find and miraculously hasn't wiped its flat tappet cam yet despite all the "evidence" that says it should have. I took my 240SX (flat tappet) to 249,000 miles on SynPower and when I sold it it was running as well as the day I bought it. My 03 Suburban has 253,000 miles and is still running perfectly. ZDDP is cheap and effective. Other antiwear agents that replaced ZDDP in modern oils are effective as well just not as inexpensive. I don't see the need to pay more for a less expensive product, or to play chemical engineer and roll my own formulation, but to each his own.

Here is a link to the flat tappet cam test that modern oils have to pass.

SwRI: Sequence IVA Test Method for ILSAC GF-3/GF-4 and API SL/SM

Steve

[John Coffey]

Shell Rotella T Triple Protection has all the stuff you need and is designed for 2006 and earlier diesel engines. API CJ4. But oil selection doesn't matter much for a street engine that spends 95% of its time under light load.