Just rolled over 83k on the Maxima and I've put just shy of 2k on it since I've owned it.

It isn't burning oil yet, so what are my options as far as precautions/preventions to keep it from doing it?

remove cats?

 

If it hasn't started just keep up on oil change and maintenance

The Maxima I have has like 130,000 miles and no burning oil so if yours hasn't started yet maybe you will get lucky ?

 

If you have cats/pre-cats still intact and you are able to gut them. I have heard that will help with the oil burn or before long you will be like me. 1.5 Qts every 1000 mile

 

^
holy crap

 

how do I gut them...and how do I keep the downstream o2's happy and not give me and engine light?

 

Get headers....

 

I don't feel like doing the work....and I don't pay others to work on my cars.

 

^
But you want to gut the precats?

 

how hard are headers to put on?

 

Hmm,

research tells me that oil burning issue is due to the engine itself. Headers/pre-cats won't do anything to prevent oil burning issue.

 

I've heard from some Altima guys that it is the pre-cats.

Does anyone have any good info besides pure speculation?

 

^ Search more. There is a general consensus on this subject. People say the interior of the precats deteriorate and suck up into the engine and destroy piston rings. Almost everyone with oil burning issues do not see progressively worse oil burning. And I do not remember reading about anyone suddenly burning oil after 80k miles. Both my maximas burn a quart every 1.5k-2k and have never gotten worse.

From reading ONLY. Headers is a very straight forward job. Rust is what makes it suck. You have to remove the exhaust (in a tight space) and deal with a lot of rusty bolts. I guess gutting the precats is almost the same difficulty but you don't have to buy anything except new bolts/gaskets maybe.

If burning a little oil isn't a big deal to you then don't do anything. If you want performance then do headers. If you want peace of mind then gut precats. Keep in mind headers and precats will almost definitely require O2 sims.

 

I'm not going for performance. Just piece of mind.

The rusty bolt thing is what concerns me the most. The body and frame of my car are fine, but the bolts are horrible.

I had to torch the LCA bolts nearly orange to get them to come loose to do the ES bushings. The front subframe mounts were the same when I put the subframe collars on. So frustrating.

 

Since you're not looking for performance I would leave the cats alone. At 83k they should be fine.. I put headers on my car at 130k and the precats looked perfectly fine and I burn oil..
If anyone is burning oil I strongly suggest trying a 40 weight oil and see if that helps. It cut my consumption by half! Which leads me to believe its the piston rings or valve stem seals. The thicker oil is helping the rings seal better, probably improving compression. Just my thoughts.

I ran a compression test on my motor a while ago with not so good results. I ran a dry test first with the engine hot and got low readings. I then did a wet test (adding oil into cylinders) and compression shot up greatly which also leads me to believe its the rings.

 

hmmm, interesting. Thanks for that informative post.

I am currently running Rotella T6 5w-40. It has really good reviews and I know a lot of sport bike guys like it as well.

 

Yeah I used to run pennsoil ultra 5w 30 and the engine ate that oil up so quickly.. You might not be burning oil because you are using that oil tbh lol. Im running that same oil too. GREAT UOAs for the vq

 

I've never done an oil analysis. Are they expensive? Who do you use?

 

I personally have never done a UOA i'm just going by other UOAs. I believe there is a company called blackstone labs they do them.

 

I used to burn a quart every 400 miles. Now I dont burn any. I threw in an 04 engine.

 

If you gut cats, which is easy, run nonfoulers they are cheap only like $3. 2 hours of your time adn job is done. Peace of mind and yes there are massive threads about the precats ruining a engine.

 

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Just keep up with the regular maintenance, including regular oil changes, and leave the cats alone. There's no reason to invite problems or complications where none exist.