Track Day oil surge/starvation
Discussion
At a recent track day on my last lap I got a loud ticking (tappety type noise) from the engine. This was just after hard braking followed by a pair of fast right handers, a short burst of hard acceleration followed by hard braking.
I shut down as soon as the noise started. After cooling down for 30 mins ran it up and no noise, and its behaved fine ever since.
Opinion seems to be oil surge or starvation due to hard cornering and braking. If this is the case what do people generally do to solve it ? Baffled sump maybe ?
I shut down as soon as the noise started. After cooling down for 30 mins ran it up and no noise, and its behaved fine ever since.
Opinion seems to be oil surge or starvation due to hard cornering and braking. If this is the case what do people generally do to solve it ? Baffled sump maybe ?
If you are going on track often, I would suggest Accusump. Its probably the cheapest way. I looked at dry sump for the G33 as I wasn't convinced that baffled would be enough. If I had carried on hill climbing I would have gone for accusump as installation is quite straightforward and cost much less than dry sumping.
Some RV8 track cars have dry sumnps
Some RV8 track cars have dry sumnps
It could have been 2 things.
It sounds like your followers were bleeding down, I've had this a few dozen times.
Instantly back off the throttle and in a couple of seconds all is back to normal.
Following a tip by someone, (can't remember who) make sure your oil is topped up over the full mark, about 6mm.
This seems to cure it.
It may have been oil starvation, again I have suffered from this in the past but have always noticed it by being paranoid having had a pal go through this before me.
The cause is aggressive driving, track tyres, a hot engine causing thin oil and a sump like a washing up bowl!
The cure.
Smoother technique
An oil cooler
A change of oil, (royal purple is very good)
A baffled sump, (I modded mine myself)
All this is a guaranteed fix.
It sounds like your followers were bleeding down, I've had this a few dozen times.
Instantly back off the throttle and in a couple of seconds all is back to normal.
Following a tip by someone, (can't remember who) make sure your oil is topped up over the full mark, about 6mm.
This seems to cure it.
It may have been oil starvation, again I have suffered from this in the past but have always noticed it by being paranoid having had a pal go through this before me.
The cause is aggressive driving, track tyres, a hot engine causing thin oil and a sump like a washing up bowl!
The cure.
Smoother technique
An oil cooler
A change of oil, (royal purple is very good)
A baffled sump, (I modded mine myself)
All this is a guaranteed fix.
haircutmike said:
It sounds like your followers were bleeding down, I've had this a few dozen times.
This sounds likely. I stopped within a few seconds of the noise starting. When I restarted later there was some quiet ticking for a few seconds that quickly went away.I think a baffled sump for peace of mind anyway and an overfill before next time on track will probably be enough. I'm only likely to do 1 a year so need to try and remove the risk of damage without spending a fortune.
Maybe I need to keep the track times down too, this happened at the end of a 2 hour non stop session. No signs of overheating or any problems, car still pulling well but I dont have an oil temp gauge so who knows what was really going on.
Thanks for the advice
Worth remembering that as you improve the brakes, suspension, tyres even your driving ability you will be slopping that oil further up the sides of the sump. I know from bitter experience, ran a big end at Bedford on my second lap! Needed a new crank and rebuild, total bill £2500 so be warned. I now have a baffled sump supplied by Rob at V8D.
By the way there is no way you can just watch the oil light in the hope that you could shut off in time. By the time it comes on the damage will have been done.
By the way there is no way you can just watch the oil light in the hope that you could shut off in time. By the time it comes on the damage will have been done.
haircutmike said:
It could have been 2 things.
It sounds like your followers were bleeding down, I've had this a few dozen times.
Instantly back off the throttle and in a couple of seconds all is back to normal.
Following a tip by someone, (can't remember who) make sure your oil is topped up over the full mark, about 6mm.
This seems to cure it.
It may have been oil starvation, again I have suffered from this in the past but have always noticed it by being paranoid having had a pal go through this before me.
The cause is aggressive driving, track tyres, a hot engine causing thin oil and a sump like a washing up bowl!
The cure.
Smoother technique
An oil cooler
A change of oil, (royal purple is very good)
A baffled sump, (I modded mine myself)
All this is a guaranteed fix.
I've had the same in non-TVR cars.It sounds like your followers were bleeding down, I've had this a few dozen times.
Instantly back off the throttle and in a couple of seconds all is back to normal.
Following a tip by someone, (can't remember who) make sure your oil is topped up over the full mark, about 6mm.
This seems to cure it.
It may have been oil starvation, again I have suffered from this in the past but have always noticed it by being paranoid having had a pal go through this before me.
The cause is aggressive driving, track tyres, a hot engine causing thin oil and a sump like a washing up bowl!
The cure.
Smoother technique
An oil cooler
A change of oil, (royal purple is very good)
A baffled sump, (I modded mine myself)
All this is a guaranteed fix.
1x beemer, 1x MG Rover, 1x Ford.
Each the same, as ^^^^^^^^ says, off the throttle, give it 30seconds to a minute. Normallity resumes.
Only the E36 beemer required a top-up, the others self fixed
(apologise for intruding on TVR ground, but as planning a track-car build of baby beemer variety, was intrigued for left-field suggestions, and ideas on how to prevent oil starvation.
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