Nissan ZD30 Service Intervals

Interested in your before and after Dtronic EGT's? Also what's the highest you have seen and how long does it take to come back to normal ofter hard driving?

Leroy

The most I have seen prior to Dtronic was about 850F. Normal running has been around the 550-650F area. In general I reckon I am about 50F less with the Dtronic. My probe is just after the cat so reading may be lower than some others fitted closer to the turbo but this does not of course affect the relativity. Temp comes back to the 400F area within a couple of minutes of idle.

Hi Outback (or should I call you 'Mr Tourer'?),

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I think having your EGT probe "just after the cat" is about as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike. The reason is that catalytic converters are generators of heat when they're working properly. After they get heated to a certain extent by the exhaust gas, the catalyst begins to make the constituents of the exhaust gas react together to form less nasty compounds that those exiting non-cat engine - and these chemical reactions release heat. No doubt there's some chemists out there who can explain this better?

So, until it reaches operating temperature it acts as a big heat sink, vastly lowering the EGT. Then, once operating properly, it's a net heat generator. So it would be very difficult to make any correlation between EGT after the cat and the 'real' EGT exiting your engine (and that's the one that matters).

That's not to say your Ditronic doesn't give lower EGTs but to really know what's going on, I'd suggest you relocate your probe to the turbo outlet above the cat or, even better, to the exhaust manifold near the turbo inlet.

Thanks for that Ian, I'll take it up with the 4WD specialist shop that installed it for me!!!

Hi there Leroy, intereset in getting my oil tested by one of the testing companies, who and how do I go avbout doing this and cost involved. I live in the western suburbs of Sydney. Regards Steve M

Here is a URL for oil testing. Oil Testing There are others I believe

Regards

Paul

I haven't looked into it that closely but the major oil companies do them as well as private labs like the one Paul above posted.

Leroy

Hi Stephen
Gulf Western Oil in Coombes drive Penrith do the testing.
They are my supplier.
All you need to do is contact them and get an analysis jar off them and drop it in.
If you want their number just holla.
120scruiser

Thanks 120, will call in tomorrow on way home from work. Just work around corner on castlereigh st. Thankyou Regards Steve M

that's a pretty big service interval!!

Leroy

Russel

I have heard of some of the large modern truck engines only requiring a oil change every 20,000km some even 30,000km, but they are also using some fairly tricky onboard oil-filtration and oil-monitoring equipment. Working with a number of very large gearboxes, bearings and other bits that take in excess of a 100L of oil at a oil change as part of my job, my reccomendation would be that even if you don't do any other form of maintenace to your engine, gearbox diffs etc, changing the oil regularly is essential, and its only a suggestion but 76,000km's between oil changes might be a bit much. Certainly there is still oil in there but is it still able to effectively lubricate and not full of contaminents?

Regards

Snowy

Snowy,
I have now done over 25,000klm since my last oil change. I am having my oil analysed every 5000klm by Castrol Laboratory and it is still in excellent condition. I am using 100% synthetic AMSOIL as well as that company's by-pass filtration system. This system utilises a remote-mounted dual head unit which has 2 filters mounted on it. One of these is similar to a normal filter, whilst the other is quite a bit larger and filters down to 1 micron. This dual head unit is connected to the donk via a screw-on adaptor that takes the place of one of the Patrol's standard filters.
So, I actually have 3 filters on the Patrol. The system works very very well.

I had always been most meticulous about my oil changes.

Cheers

Roachie

Roachie
Onto your post, am interested in the warranty side of things from Nissan in useing this sort of filtration. Is it really cost effective, or is it just something else that can go wrong ?.
Also I seem to remember a hose working its way loose in the Simpson Desert, and causing some grief, albeit only momentarily. 50 cent hose clamps I bet.
Cheers Mate
Bucky,,,, Go Nissan

G'day Bucky,
I believe it is cost effective, cos I should get 6 times the use out of the oil as I was getting before. The whole unit only cost me $200- (it was superseded stock the bloke had lying around) and the filters are about $40- and have to be changed about every 15,000klm. The oil is expensive @ $80- for 10 litres.
There is no reason why the oil could not last over 50,000klm if the filters are changed regularly.

The drama on the Simpson was all of my own making and actually had nothing to do with the oil filtration system as it turned out. It was a total comedy of errors which boiled down to a short in a wire which had routed across the top of the rear spring hanger; sandwiched between it and the body. With compression of the body mounts under all the weight, the wire bared and shorted out...starting a chain reaction that I still have trouble explaining to people!!!!! hahahaha However, you are correct that I did have a very slight oil weep, which has now been fixed. It related to my inability to do up the adaptor plate and associated hoses sufficiently to get a good seal.

Cheers mate

Roachie

Did you say 3 filters or 3 liters Roachie?

Bonz,

Definitely "filters" mate..........definitely NOT "litres"....hahahaha