The Nissan Path

2001 LE. Started it yesterday afternoon and a big cloud came from the exhaust. Smelled funny too. Smoke was blue like oil smoke. Shut it off and checked oil level. There was barely any on the tip of the dipstick. There's still about 1200 miles left before scheduled oil change (I stay on top of this on all my cars). No oil on the ground or on anything under the car. Wasn't ticking or running rough or anything. This engine has about 60,000 miles on it. What could be going on? Am I screwed? Please help!

Search for "Valve cover baffles"

This could be your issue, and maybe PCV valve.

Could also be piston rings. The VQ35DE engine was made with cylinder bore that have a slight taper. The lower rings on the piston sometimes get to the point where they fail to seal and the engine starts to burn oil. The fix is to re-ring the engine with the updated ring set, but of course this means tearing the engine all apart to remove the pistons.

OK, now I'm baffled. Went home and checked it on my lunch break. The oil on the dipstick is now a little over full (from what I added yesterday). Started up fine with no smoke. Could something have gotten blocked or something? It seriously had a drop on the tip of the dipstick yesterday when it was doing all this.

Well, one should wait about 30 minutes after shutting off a VQ engine to get a accurate oil level reading, but that wouldn't account for that much of a difference. Any chance the dipstick didn't get all the way into the tube? Other than that, I got no ideas!

It was all the way down. And when it did all the smoking and everything that was the first start for the day. Then when I checked it and it was full it was cold also. Very weird!

doesn't sound like rings to me,
I still say PCV and or baffle in valve cover.

just to be clear, you were down 2 quarts ? in how many miles ?

Somewhere around that. Its been about 1800 miles since last oil change.

Ok, Well let me say when mine was lower mileage it would use a lot more Oil if I drove it fast on the freeway. This improved over the years. Even with the small leaks it now has, Oil cooler ( fixed once already) and maybe valve covers, its still better at 105K than at 25K when I purchased it.

Others have carefully documented Oil consumption on the VQ35 engine from new and it continued to drop ie get better, as the engine went over 60K miles. ( that's as far as the record went for that guy.)

So although 2 quarts is a lot in 1800 miles If you have been driving it harder and faster that would account for some of your consumption.

Time to check for Oil in the intake behind the PCV connection I think.