mikead_99

iTrader: (5)

That's my biggest issue with a lot of the theories out there. Again, so far so good for me, but I still have concerns here. I like the bad batch of parts theory better, but I'm not convinced this has been clearly correlated to manufacturing dates either. Doesn't seems like rings if you aren't finding anything in the catch can, but could believe something with the valve stems or the guide area was out of tolerance in a batch. Maybe a combo of sloppy tolerances plus the timing?

97supratt

iTrader: (61)

I honestly don't think I have a oil consumption problem. If you race your car, you should expect it to lose a quart or two quarts by 3k miles, especially synthetic oil.

My car runs strong, and is very healthy. I have checked and replaced my plugs and the original ones had no oil residue or any implication of oil burn-off. Even the honda B-series motors lose oil, when an engine is being used in the upper rpm's you can literally smell the oil being burned if you are behind them. It's a normal thing, especially on high compression or forced induction motors.

So the 1 qt every 1k mile thing is actually correct, if its less than that it could be caused by high rpm use and some oil being sucked in through the stem seals.

350Z_LMS

good for you my friend. in the meantime, my fellow italian 35th anniv owner has had his motor opened up by nissan and surprise surprise piston heads are coved by a thick layer of black muck. never really raced and 56k kms on the clock. bad batch of valves? dunno, just want the problem solved. would like some feedback from someone there in the US that has actually managed to solve this problem. and it is a pretty bad one too

350Z_LMS

need something official from nissan. now how many Z owners have gone to nissan techline complaining? I don't know, but would be nice to find out wouldn't it?

97supratt

iTrader: (61)

The top of the piston being "black" is normal, usually when you run a bit rich but its normal. The cylinder temps are very high inside a internal combustion engine, so expect sut on the top of the piston and the bottom of the heads, valves. If you found signs of oil then that is a different story.

I would definitely try the catch can approch and find out if the catch can even caught any oil in the form of a liquid. If it doesn't then it is definitely coming from the stem seals.

350Z_LMS

friend has ARC oil catch can...empty. black muck is "thick" (1mm approx). friend also has an S14 silvia with 160k kms on the clock and an open engine. cilinders are "clean" in comparison. stem seals I suppose, nissan hopefully will look into that too...we'll see. no sign of oil burning from the exhaust though. weird stuff

alrific

I have not personally dealt w/an oil burner yet. I'll ask the guys who have what the results were.

alrific

I've seen this question answered, and its probably in the top 100, but plz humor me. What do you mean by REVUP??? I pay very little attention to new model info, hell I don't pay attention to product info at all. I'm all about fixing and diagnosing.

350zex

I've got an 06 burning oil and it's good to hear that Nissan actually knows about the problem, and is trying to do something about it. My question is though I've heard a number of people having their cams scorched because lack of oil, I have suspicions that it's happened to me and how would I go about it getting checked out by Nissan, and know if they're telling the truth or not if they say they haven't been scorched?

350Z_LMS

@alrific: the revup is the 300HP motor with VVT, surely you must know about different versions of the VQ! please let us know any additional info you might source on the issue, thanks so much

Brocken

iTrader: (3)

I strongly disagree with your last statement. Actually, pretty much all of what you said about consumption being normal. That's the same bs that Nissan is trying to sell.
If you think 1 quart per 1k miles is normal then how come there are thousands of Z's that are driven hard and hardly consume anything? This is not even a forced induction car or ridiculously high compression. I've had chipped turbo charged cars that I beat the crap out of and didn't consume more than a thimble full of oil every 4k-5k miles. And the Z I've actually driven very conservatively. I didn't have it long enough to really drive hard before I noticed the consumption(at 2200 miles).
So why then would a car that rarely sees full throttle and usually driven at 25%-50% be consuming that much oil?
How many other high performance cars burn that much oil when driven hard?
We're talking about modern cars, not something designed in the 50's. Car engines are way more precisely manufactured than they were even 10 years ago.

The worst part about this problem is nobody really knows for sure why this is happening and until they have something "official" Nissan is just blowing smoke up everybodys' you know what.

97supratt

iTrader: (61)

No I didn't mean its normal as in normal for our engine, its normal for nissan to say we have to replace your engine. Because if you lose 1qt per 1k miles, thats not coming from valve stem seals, that is a problem with piston rings. Basically a whole new shortblock. If its less than that, lets say 1 quart per 3k miles then it could be caused by something smaller like high rpm usage or the valve opening duration.

I think you misunderstood my statement, I should have worded it differently.

aren21

iTrader: (3)

I finally got a normal reading from the dipstick. I checked it after the car sat overnight, and in about 900 miles of pretty hard driving, it only burned about 1/4 quart. IMO this still isnt acceptable, but its going to be difficult convincing nissan that its a problem. So this would be 3/4 quart in 3k miles. I was beating on it so it would consume a little more than usual durring the consumption test but it didnt work out. There has to be more than 1 flaw with this motor. Some people are consuming A LOT of oil, yet my car consumes a lot less. Or maybe its just 1 flaw, but the severity varies. For example maybe on some motors, the rings seat better than others??

350Z_LMS

The last part is what I was trying to say all the way. After driving the car for 450kms on a motorway at normal speeds such as 150km/h, I really shouldn't be measuring oil in fear of consumption. I should really forget about oil for a while, in normal driving conditions I mean. ANd I really shouldn't be happy because I'm getting a projected 1liter in 2000kms instead of the "usual" 1200-1500! How do we get hold of someone at the techline?

350Z_LMS

just realised this was on:

https://my350z.com/forum/maintenance-and-repair/233542-06-oil-burning-question-please-lookie-all-you-wiz-z-guys.html

alrific

Thanks for clearing that up. I do know about the different versions,
REVUP is just not a term we use in da shop.

350Z_LMS

if people want to solve this problem, we need info from other owners and from nissan techline. from the feedback on this thread and other threads, looks like a large number have problems. keep the info coming please

alrific

You guys are never gonna believe this. I've spent the last several days asking around the shop to see who has done what about consumption and trying to get my shop foreman to pry some info out of his contacts at Nissan. And I've gotten next to nothing. The guys who have dealt w/oil burners have not been able to get their customers to return for follow ups and Nissan ain't talking. Was about to let it go when a tech pulled me aside and told me he had one. This car came in 2mths ago, less than 800mi on it and 3qts low on oil. Techline had the tech start an oil consumption test and told the cust to return in 700mi. That was the last we saw of him. Customer has since put on 2000mi and was 3qts low(again). This time Techline was all over the problem. They wanted to know everything about his driving habits, daily driven, driven hard or babied, short or long trips, everything. Long story short Nissan told us to put a long block in it. More importantly they were very specific about wanting the entire engine back, most especially they don't want us to remove the VVT solenoids. I'm guessing that soon as this thing gets back to Nissan its going on the engine dyno for some serious testing. Read into this what you want, but it looks like Nissan doesn't know if its a hardware or software problem.

alrific

P.S.- I would really appreciate some feedback from everyone thats been following this thread. If your dealers do a reprogram and it works plz tell me, if you get a long block plz tell me.

I don't wanna get a rep for spreading bad info, and I'm very curious to know how things are working worldwide.

doctorshumes

iTrader: (1)

Appreciate all the info you are providing. Continue to do so and keep probing as much as possible. The service reps here in Richmond, VA did not have a clue about oil burning issues with the 06 MT Zs. Mine burns 1/2 qt per 1,000 miles and the tail pipes, right at the bottom, do turn black, like oil or soot is being burned. Just like my diesel VW did. I may have them do an oil consumption test the next time it is time to have the oil changed just to document it, but I do not want a new engine or reprograming until they figure it out. Hopefully it is a software issue but fixing it will likely decrease the cars HP output.