Changing All of The Oils On My 350Z

Winter is coming to an end in Utah. Well, it’s bipolar BUT racing season is about to start. Now is a good time to freshen up the fluids in my 350Z. I plan on changing the engine oil, transmission oil, the diff oil, cleaning the air filter and lastly using Seafoam in the intake.

So first off, what do I do with my car? Good maintenance is always a must but some other factors should be taken into consideration like what does the car do? In my case I track, autocross and drift the car. Oh and daily it.

To start things off, I use Mobil 1 0W40 for the engine oil. There are two reasons. First, it is easily available where ever you go. I can almost gaurantee every auto parts store will stock it. This is important for when I am out of town at a track event. Sometimes cars burn oil through there PCV system under high G loads. If I ever need some or I forgot to bring some I can find it easier than any of the rarer boutique oils. Second, it has an extremely high film strength, shear resistance and a high volatile temperature. Also the GT-R R35 is filled with it from the factory and I think Nissan engineers know a thing or two about oil.

My 350Z calls for a GL4 rated gear oil. Almost everything you can get at your local auto parts store is GL5 rated (regions vary). You have to be careful because there are some additives in GL5 oil that can damage the synchros in a GL4 rated transmission. Not wanting to take risks, I got Redline MT90. It is GL4 rated and makes my transmission feel buttery smooth when I shift.

For my differential, I went with Mobil 1 again. I still have the factory Viscous LSD in my Z. The factory VLSD doesn’t need anything fancy like a clutch type LSD would. Fluids for a VLSD are treated like fluids for an open differential. Being a broke boi I got this from my local auto parts store. Ironically I felt like my VLSD locked a little faster after changing the fluid. The differential can take a GL5 rated gear oil, this Mobil 1 is.

While doing all of this I cleaned my drop in air filter. First you are supposed to take it out and clean it with the cleaning spray and wash it out with water. Then you wait for it to dry. I start with this, do all of my oils, and once I am done this will be dry enough for the filter oil. I put a layer of filter on, let it dry for 30 minutes and put it back in the car. E Z

Lastly I made large white clouds come to fruition. This Seafoam is designed to be sprayed in through your throttle body or through a vacuum port on the intake manifold. Follow the directions and spray the entire bottle in. Afterwards you can make your neighbors hate you for all the white smoke that comes out. This is one of the best ways to clean your combustion chamber. ChrisFix has a great video showing the before and after of a combustion chamber he used this on.

Thanks for reading guys, I also have a vlog style video of me changing these all and going through the motions. If you guys enjoyed this article please check out my video as well. Thanks guys!