Track day oil change frequency.
Discussion
old topic, but i'll raise it again for a specific car: a lowly 1.6 Eunos, no engine mods. Beefed up suspension, stripped and 1.8 brakes.
Search "track day oil changes" and a lot of Pork content comes up. My new track rat is 24yrs old and 140k.
So clearly i'm slower and lighter than a lot of stuff blasting wot down the straights. I also often use the straights to change to top gear and cool the car, but stay out longer. Bedford is ideal for this and at Brands i'll be the one at 60mph in 5th on rhs along the pit straight not braking for Paddock ;-)
So, my thinking is to use quality full synth oil, and change every 5 days. When i learn how long pads last on this car i may combine the activities.
Reasoning: this is a low power engine that will be regularly cooled within sessions.
5 days = 1000 miles approx. some people use basic ratio of 1 track mile to 10 road. Again, i'd lower that ratio for a Eunos.
I may also leave the filter on for 10 days and siphon every other 5 days. I really can't see how a filter would clog with so few cold starts and constant running? It's the oil that will suffer. I'll ask on Nutz too.
Opinions?
Search "track day oil changes" and a lot of Pork content comes up. My new track rat is 24yrs old and 140k.
So clearly i'm slower and lighter than a lot of stuff blasting wot down the straights. I also often use the straights to change to top gear and cool the car, but stay out longer. Bedford is ideal for this and at Brands i'll be the one at 60mph in 5th on rhs along the pit straight not braking for Paddock ;-)
So, my thinking is to use quality full synth oil, and change every 5 days. When i learn how long pads last on this car i may combine the activities.
Reasoning: this is a low power engine that will be regularly cooled within sessions.
5 days = 1000 miles approx. some people use basic ratio of 1 track mile to 10 road. Again, i'd lower that ratio for a Eunos.
I may also leave the filter on for 10 days and siphon every other 5 days. I really can't see how a filter would clog with so few cold starts and constant running? It's the oil that will suffer. I'll ask on Nutz too.
Opinions?
My toy gets a reasonable amount of road use, so I change the oil on 6 dry track days or 5000 miles (whichever is soonest). If it chucks it down all day like the Silverstone day I did last year I don't count it though (oil temp lower than driving in traffic and short shifting to manage traction isn't anything like normal track stress).
TooMany2cvs said:
Migawd... How expensive are MX5 oil filters?
car will be stored in a tight place away from home, proper servicing means collecting and driving car somewhere else. i'm a fan of these siphons to refresh oil between filter&oil changes.At this age of car and for this usage, isn't the issue oil breaking down and getting chemically contaminated rather than solids clogging the filter?
My TVR Chimaera, which is about the same weight as an MX, does about 8 track days a year and about 10,000 road miles.
Normal service interval is 6,000 miles. In the TD season I shorten this to 3,000 miles, so change the oil twice in a TD season.
I use fully synth Shell Racing 10 w 60, and have an extended baffled sump, so am inserting 9.5 litres of oil into a 5 litre V8 Range Rover engine.
So far it seems to work fine. I too take it easy down the straights, which are few and far between at my favourite circuit, Cadwell Park. OP, if you haven't been there, you should. 15 bends in 2.1 miles.
Normal service interval is 6,000 miles. In the TD season I shorten this to 3,000 miles, so change the oil twice in a TD season.
I use fully synth Shell Racing 10 w 60, and have an extended baffled sump, so am inserting 9.5 litres of oil into a 5 litre V8 Range Rover engine.
So far it seems to work fine. I too take it easy down the straights, which are few and far between at my favourite circuit, Cadwell Park. OP, if you haven't been there, you should. 15 bends in 2.1 miles.
There are plenty of US forums where folks are changing good quality oil on Ford Crown Victorias and the like at 3k miles like we all did in the 60s, which I think is nuts. The oil in my 2009 Ford Focus RS is a long-life oil, i.e. 12.5k miles intervals. I've never given a thought to changing it earlier and it gets well used on road and track. Use good oil and halve the milage between changes if you must but more than that you're wasting money. Most engines are designed to reach their red lines (the 1970's v4 ford engine was probably not, in my personal experience) so why not drive them that way.
QBee said:
My TVR Chimaera, which is about the same weight as an MX, does about 8 track days a year and about 10,000 road miles.
Normal service interval is 6,000 miles. In the TD season I shorten this to 3,000 miles, so change the oil twice in a TD season.
I use fully synth Shell Racing 10 w 60, and have an extended baffled sump, so am inserting 9.5 litres of oil into a 5 litre V8 Range Rover engine.
So far it seems to work fine. I too take it easy down the straights, which are few and far between at my favourite circuit, Cadwell Park. OP, if you haven't been there, you should. 15 bends in 2.1 miles.
that seems reasonable.Normal service interval is 6,000 miles. In the TD season I shorten this to 3,000 miles, so change the oil twice in a TD season.
I use fully synth Shell Racing 10 w 60, and have an extended baffled sump, so am inserting 9.5 litres of oil into a 5 litre V8 Range Rover engine.
So far it seems to work fine. I too take it easy down the straights, which are few and far between at my favourite circuit, Cadwell Park. OP, if you haven't been there, you should. 15 bends in 2.1 miles.
i live in London and so am very familiar with combe, brands, snett and (oh god not again) bedford. But i'll be at cadwell on march 9th ;-) looking forward to that. Oulton and anglesey beckon later in the year.
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