In everyone's experience, what would be the better choices for: oil, oil filter and an "oil flush"? Just before I started driving my Z32, I went to a local oil change station in my home town of Grayling. They had a difficult time finding a suitable oil filter. They had to get it from NAPA... wasn't happy about that but anyways, I bought my own oil (Castrol Syntec 10W-30). Just before I drove off they suggested an oil flush... within 200 miles have three oil changes with cheap oil just to get all the bad oil out. Were these guys blowing smoke up my skirt or what?

 

You should use the oil that is stated in the owners manual. Also... lube shops will take you for whatever they can. Three oil changes in 200 miles is one thing... a pure waste of money and oil.

PS... they prolly charged a nice commission and transportation fee to pick up that filter from NAPA. What was a $5 filter prolly became a $15 filter.

 

When the car has super-high mileage (and you don't know how it was taken care of previously), it might be a good idea to do it twice (change oil, drive for a couple days, change it again) to clean it out a little, but three times is pointless.

What a lot of guys on tt.net recommend is changing your oil with ATF (auto trans fluid), run the engine for a few minutes, and then change it out with regular oil. Apparently ATF has additional cleaning properties that oil does not have, and this will help clean it out. (Do research before doing this though - I have never done it and am only citing what I remember reading on tt.net.)

I just run Mobil Clean 5000 oil though... has extra cleaning additives for high mileage engines.

 

royal purple 0-30 full synthetic with the mobil one filter..

 

i have heard less than stellar things about castrol. i use Mobil Clean 5000 and a K&N Gold filter, no problems.

 

DON'T use a zero weight oil in the Z. If you live in a HOT climate you might consider a 20w50 oil during the hot months and a 10w30 during the cool months. From personal observation, higher mileage Z'z are prone to spinning rod bearings. Running light weight oils will only hasten this condition. The brand to choose is up to you and your preferences. Beyond the marketing hype, there is most likely minimal to no measurable differences between the brands.

I've never heard of running straight ATF, but adding a quart to the oil just before the oil change will help clean things out. Marvel Mystery Oil and maybe Seafoam will also do the same thing.

I agree that multiple flushes is a waste.

 

That might be what I was thinking of.

2nd

 

agreed. the weather around here is fairly mild most of the time, so i run 10w30 year round.

 

mmmm... no i know quite a few guys that build cars graduated UTI all the shizzle on cars, (sept now one is a cummins desiel tech) and they build their DSM's and crap, they really know there stuff, anyways, i do believe its just straight ATF and it does a really good job. second, Mobil oil FTW and third... its easy as pie to find oil filters for the Z32, use nissan if its easily available to you or i enjoy mobil again, just dont use fram.

but do a search on teh ATF method before you do it, and that oil change 3 times in 200 miles or w/e thats just wastefull

 

DSM'rs who know stuff... isn't that an oxymoron? oh snaps! jus playin!

 

DSMrs know stuff, ans long as "stuff" refers to exploding engines .

 

lol, yeah, bret and john must be very un-knowledgale people... you know haveing the fastes 4 banger in the world and fastes AWD car also, non nitrous on top of that... well over 1000 hp non nitrous and stock block design. you guys are mizing honduh owners with DSM'ers. even though the fastest honda is right here in IL and this HOT biotch owns and drives it...

 

I HIGHLY doubt that they're actually the fastest anything in the world. Fastest in the area, perhaps... but the world is a LONG shot. There's always someone faster.

 

well... could be a stretch since we never know whats out there for sure, but she is very very fast, i do believe it is the fastest (or at least one of in a competing arena) civic thats still FWD and using a honda block all that sorta crap but its full drag tubed frame anti-squat bar the chute, all that jazz. look it up. she's got a myspace lol. not my friend but my few honda friends have pointed her out.

 

my climate is nothing but hot, ive been running nothing but strait oil in all of my cars that beat on hard and have yet to have any sort of problems, my friends race car has used nothing but strait oil since we assembled it, plus alot of the people that i associate with in the automotive world have used strait oil with no problems..

edit* now that i think about it i really should get a new oil cooler instead of this crappy napa brand one..

 

No doubt, newer motors with newer materials technology and tighter maunfacturing tolerances can run lighter weight oils.

I've also worked on some race motors that are purposely built to specific tolerances (not necessarily tighter tolerances), that we have run 0w oils in. These motors get torn down after a certain number of running hours.

The average Z motor doesn't fall into either of the above categories. Therefore I would highly recommend against running a 0w oil. Especially in Palm Desert right now.

 

check out the oil filter comparison on my Link Page.

Oil is oil is oil for the most part.
change synthetic less often blah blah blah...
flush with this that or the other....
don't use frams craptacular products...
anyone else feel deja vu' over this topic? lol

 

another old mechanics trick i learned was running a 1/2 cup of diesel fuel in the oil for a short time to knock out carbon build up and get at some of that nearly solid sludge in the engine to liquify again. Downside is it will eat seals,some gasket material and the sludge that it clears out of one part of the engine can clog other parts, like the oil pick up strainer and small journals. Not sure I would ever do this in a turbo charged vehicle but probably an NA (as a last resort). Either do something like that or do a full rebuild or, both.

 

I'm gunna go ahead and say ATF is a bit more safe than diesel. Fuel is never good in oil (minus 2 cycle motors... but we're not talking about that). It prevents oil from lubricating & you know what happens when the internals don't get lubed.

 

the biggest thing about diesel is that it eats up organic stuff that most oil will just coat. I haven't ever tried ATF except when Rotary engines lose compression you can squirt ATF into the spark plug holes (then put the plugs back in) and then start the engine and it will start instead of just spin (it'll smoke a bunch) but it will start.

 

I used a quart of ATF in the oil of Amy's Acura Legend a couple years ago. I drove the car for about 500 miles and changed the oil. It had over 200k miles on it. I really didn't notice a difference positive or negative). We sold the car about 6 months after that, so we never saw any long term effects.

 

So there is a general consensus that Mobile Clean 5000 and any filter than Fram is the better way to go. I have heard of using ATF fluid, but only putting in a quart in running it for about 10 miles and then changing it in a hurry. I might try that myself. Only one problem, I have ramps and as everyone probably already knows... there isn't enough ground clearance for the car to get onto them. lol I appreciate everybody's input, thank you.

 

napa isnt cheap... its actually better than a lot of other stuff out there

 

they make low profile ramps that will work with the z32. i have to drive on to 2x4s to get the jack under my car.

 

Have you put a lowered suspension on you car?