Thread: thinking about oil change, what grade can I use?

You're getting good local advice about the dip stick popping out problem. For more information and diagrams regarding that problem, see here: Crank Case Ventilation fully explained. (Naturally aspirated edition.)

As for the oil, the thinner stuff is recommended by OEMs for fuel economy reasons only. Thicker is going to be better for the engine life, regardless of tolerances. For cost reasons (and because I'm in a hot climate), I like a good 10W-40 or thereabouts.

Here is the 540 RAT BLOG version of oil that he tests. I go from his list. (the list begins about halfway down this blog.) Long read, but good. Engineer that does his own tests on various oils.

I use Valvoline 5W-30 High Mileage in either semi-synthetic blend or full synthetic in damn near everything.

I inherited Rotella T6 40weight in the first oil change of the LS2 pushrod bald eagle machine and did not like that. I previously tried some Mobil 1 10W-40 weight in my first P10 and I am positive that is partial to the reason why my only failure of an SR20 engine rod knocked on me in less than 1,200 miles of ownership (and one Convention).

I have tried Pennzoil, Quaker State and Castrol in various other engines in my fleet, I always come back to good old Valvoline. If I had unlimited money, I would use Amsoil every damn time.

Agreed. And since I can afford it, I use Amsoil.

I change to Mobil-1 5W-20 for track events, which I have Pocono raceway this Thursday. I usually only run 5W-20 for the track and maybe another 1,000 miles before switching back.

https://www.bobistheoilguy.com

Read all of that site. Very informative and dont listen to most people here, that will cause issues with your engine in the long run.

What will?

BTW my brother's '14 GT-R uses 0W-40 Mobil-1 synthetic. I looked at auto stores and the closest I could find to that was 0W-20, lol. He has to take it to the Nissan dealer and have a "certified GT-R tech" do the change, apparently there are a bunch of underbody spoilers or something that need to be removed so he doesn't bother trying himself, and Nissan ONLY uses Mobil-1 synthetic for the GT-R. So if it's good enough for the GT-R, it's good enough for the G20 :)

BTW Nissan charges him $140 and he changes it every 2,500 miles. :(

Nissan Egg is a certified Nissan master tech. Dropping down to 20w for racing will probably damage your engine, Jordan. That is likely the basis for NissanEggs comment.

Never had a problem in 8-9 track events, the DE has 220k on it - but then again my motors have been NA

I doubt NissanEgg will elaborate just to avoid conflict.

To be on topic, I trust the mechanical engineer in the 540 Rat Blog testing the various new and long-standing oils on the market. Higher WPF (wear protection factor) is the best thing to achieve to protecting an engine and he has those values posted for his oil samples. I even offered to send him more oil to test but he claimed he was too busy and not accepting anymore samples at that time.