I was talking with a mechanic at my local "Z-shop" and he made the suggestion that I run a conventional petrolium based oil in my engine instead of the much hyped synthetic. I was amazed at that advice. In the world of turbo-charged engines I thought you would want to use a synthetic hands down due to its higher viscosity tolerances. I have a slight ticking noise in my engine. He recommended the petrolium conventional oil as a possible fix for the problem. He said that over time the seals in your engine get accustom to the special additives in conventional oils to keep them soft. Synthetics do not contain these same additives and therefore the seals will become hardened and begin to fail. So next week im switching back to a conventional 10W 30 to see how it runs. Ill keep yall updated.

Adam
1996 300Z TT

 

Just wanted to say that he might be right with that advice. I bought my '91 a few years ago with no problems and after a year decided I should be using synthetic to lengthen it's life. Within a year after that I started hearing the ticking and started burning oil and was told my valve seals were leaking. Could be related to the synthetic oil, I have no idea but I thought what you said was interesting.