Engine and Oil Usage

[PiGFoetus]

Hi all, had a search around and found various bits and bobs on this issue, but nothing definitive. If there's a thread that's answered this one before (and I can't possibly be the first), please feel free to direct me its way.

 

Car is a 2005 350Z Roadster.

 

Firstly, what version of the VQ35DE engine am I likely to have, i.e. "up rev"/"rev up" or not? Is there an easy way to visually tell? Internal redline on the dash is 6500 revs, if that helps?

 

Just answering that will give me some sort of answer, but the background to it is this:

 

Had the car a year. Complete oil change back in November 2013 (due another now and will do so soon). Since then and up until about 6 weeks ago, the oil level dropped from max to just below half, which seems fair enough in my book. My usage was only about 150 miles a month on average.

 

Then recently, I've taken a contract where I'm driving the Z a fair bit more (about 500 miles a week) so I've put on about 1500 miles in the last 3 weeks! Ought to use another car, I know, but top down z on sunny day = good stress relief. Made a mental note to check oil more regularly than I had been because of this ... then kept forgetting (bad man) until yesterday, when I pinned the mental note to the forefront of my brain. Result was that the oil level was down below minimum by a fair bit. Quick litre or so later and it was back up to midway. There's no real evidence of smoking or leakage and the engine's running fine.

 

So, question is: normal or something to explore further? I know the rev up engine is reportedly prone to using more oil, but don't know which I have (hence first silly question).

 

Cheers.

[mouthwash]

I can at least tell you that you have a DE engine. I can't really comment on the oil consumption but I guess if you've been ragging it for 1500 miles it might use some oil, if you've driven 1500 well mannered miles then you might have a problem?