New to imports of any sort. Been working on boats with 502 SC and trucks with 454's and 460's. All my BB engines have a filter the size of a giant beer mug. Just got a new to me X with 3.3 and I pulled the skid plate to trace AT cooler lines. I saw the oil filter and could no believe how small it was. Many of the BBC's call for a short filter but you can always use a longer one to get more filtration media. More filter is better. Why is the filter for the X so small? Is there a longer one that can be used in its place? Way I see it the 3.3 is likely cycling more oil than a BBC because of RPM.

its japanese, everything them people make is small, including japanese people.

If that bothers ya', how about the 3.5 quarts it requires for an oil change with filter!

Maybe since the Nissans have such a good rep for the engines the other filters dont need to be that big.

I suppose, my BBC with SC gets a full rebuild every 600 hours top to bottom. Valve springs, lifters and rockers at 300 hours. Oil change at 25 hours and gear lube change every 25 hours. However to be fair it is operating at 3500 to 4500 most of this time while producing 600 ft.lb of torque. In a boat it is sort of like dragging a Winnebago up hill at WFO for hours on end.

I still think a remote oil filter with a large element is in order.

The 5.6 liter Titan uses the same filter but 6.5 qts of oil

The first time I saw that filter it looked like it belonged on a lawn mower.

If you go out to the Titan forums you will see they have been running oil analysis on their motors with the standard filter. They are getting good results so the filter works well even if it is a tiny little bugger.

It is kind of odd how different the filter sizes can be... the filter on my 2.0L 4 cylinder Honda is huge (granted - it is a sportscar that revs to 9000rpm)

Oh - you'll get mixed emotions from the word "import" around here... The Xterra was designed in California and built in Tennessee. I'd say that's as American made as you can get these days.

Yeah, but it has the old japanese designed VG engine series.

It doesn't matter what the size is, it is how you use it.

Oil reserve capacity has nothing to do with the filter. Filter size is dependant on oil flow rates in the engine and filtration rates of the filter. Before anyone gets all crazy about it, you won't "free up" any horse power by adapting it to accept a filter from a semi-truck.

So much for that mod.

Whoa! Could not agree with everyone more. Just went to do my first oil change and almost fainted when I saw the size of that filter. Reassuring words in this forum tell me not to be too concerned. Thanks once again, XOC.
PK

I found out a little while back that it's actually the same filter as my woman's 2000 mitsubisti eclipse 4 cyl., but of course her's holds more oil. But this engine has been tested by time by Nissan, so it's fine with me.

I agree nissan more than likely knows what they are doing so I won't complain. Althgouh I still wouldn't mind findign a way to add more oil, especially since my samurai holds 1qt more oil than the X, and it has a 1.3L. Of course I wonder if that is because the 1.3L engine revs more

Just completed first oil change, and the tip about using a bit of anti-seize on those tiny bolts that hold the bash guard on is excellent. Thanks for that. Had to go and buy a "teeny" oil filter wrench just for the truck, but it is some easy job to do, given that you don't even need to put the truck on stands or in the air.