2019 Ontario Time Attack Season

[CrowsFeast]

Talked with the dealership and XIII yesterday after work.

Dealership: car does have a recall notice for the valve springs which has not been performed; however it's unlikely that the issue was caused by a completely failed valve spring so it's unlikely to be covered by Subaru. Subaru Mississauga is also so backed up with recall/service work that they are actually turning people away at this point and I would have to take the car back to the original dealership (Whitby).

XIII: pushed the car into the shop, up on the lift, and drained the oil; spun bearing appears to be the likely culprit. Definitely not covered under recall. Used engine ordered and should be installed in a couple of days. Comes with a 1 yr warranty including labour.

[wparsons]

Originally Posted by CrowsFeast

Talked with the dealership and XIII yesterday after work.

Dealership: car does have a recall notice for the valve springs which has not been performed; however it's unlikely that the issue was caused by a completely failed valve spring so it's unlikely to be covered by Subaru. Subaru Mississauga is also so backed up with recall/service work that they are actually turning people away at this point and I would have to take the car back to the original dealership (Whitby).

XIII: pushed the car into the shop, up on the lift, and drained the oil; spun bearing appears to be the likely culprit. Definitely not covered under recall. Used engine ordered and should be installed in a couple of days. Comes with a 1 yr warranty including labour.

Get an oil cooler ASAP too! These cars like to heat up the oil fast on track, spun bearings aren't uncommon without thicker oil and/or good oil coolers.

[icybrzzz]

Originally Posted by CrowsFeast

Talked with the dealership and XIII yesterday after work.

Dealership: car does have a recall notice for the valve springs which has not been performed; however it's unlikely that the issue was caused by a completely failed valve spring so it's unlikely to be covered by Subaru. Subaru Mississauga is also so backed up with recall/service work that they are actually turning people away at this point and I would have to take the car back to the original dealership (Whitby).

XIII: pushed the car into the shop, up on the lift, and drained the oil; spun bearing appears to be the likely culprit. Definitely not covered under recall. Used engine ordered and should be installed in a couple of days. Comes with a 1 yr warranty including labour.

What oil were you running on this engine?

[Jordanwolf]

Originally Posted by wparsons

Get an oil cooler ASAP too! These cars like to heat up the oil fast on track, spun bearings aren't uncommon without thicker oil and/or good oil coolers.

Oil cooler on stock car?

[Frost]

Originally Posted by Jordanwolf

Oil cooler on stock car?

Yep. The FRZ runs really hot oil.

[Jordanwolf]

Originally Posted by Frost

Yep. The FRZ runs really hot oil.

I'm interested. Is there a recommended oil cooler that could be daily driven?


Edit: Reading and seeing this "Forester solution"...

[wparsons]

Originally Posted by Jordanwolf

I'm interested. Is there a recommended oil cooler that could be daily driven?


Edit: Reading and seeing this "Forester solution"...

Forester solution isn't good for track use, can't keep up with the heat generated.


I've got a mishimoto with thermostatic plate, it's been on the car for ~5 year now (well, replaced the core last year because it was leaking). Any of the quality ones with a thermostatic plate will be fine to daily drive (my car has ~185k kms on it).


IIRC there was a Perrin one for sale in the GTA (either here or on FB, can't remember). That's a good option if it's still available.

[v1beeee]

Originally Posted by wparsons

Forester solution isn't good for track use, can't keep up with the heat generated.


I've got a mishimoto with thermostatic plate, it's been on the car for ~5 year now (well, replaced the core last year because it was leaking). Any of the quality ones with a thermostatic plate will be fine to daily drive (my car has ~185k kms on it).


IIRC there was a Perrin one for sale in the GTA (either here or on FB, can't remember). That's a good option if it's still available.

Do you drive it through the winter with the cooler?

[wparsons]

Originally Posted by v1beeee

Do you drive it through the winter with the cooler?

Yep. I run my front plate lower than the factory mount so it mostly blocks the core daily, and pull the plate at any track days leaving the airflow wide open to it.

[Jordanwolf]

Originally Posted by wparsons

Yep. I run my front plate lower than the factory mount so it mostly blocks the core daily, and pull the plate at any track days leaving the airflow wide open to it.

Don't have this option on my 2017 unless I get the ugly drilled holes repaired, but good to know you can run it year round.

No issues starting at like -25 and lower? Because my car is basically a literal daily car, driven almost every single day since purchase lol.

[wparsons]

Originally Posted by Jordanwolf

Don't have this option on my 2017 unless I get the ugly drilled holes repaired, but good to know you can run it year round.

No issues starting at like -25 and lower? Because my car is basically a literal daily car, driven almost every single day since purchase lol.

How would it make starting any more difficult in cold temperatures? It doesn't change oil temperature at all when not moving, so cold starting won't be any different.


It will take slightly longer for the oil to get up to temperature if you get on the highway right away after starting it up, but with low airflow situations it's not really different at all. If your commute is super short the oil wouldn't be getting up to temperature without it either.

[Jordanwolf]

Originally Posted by wparsons

How would it make starting any more difficult in cold temperatures? It doesn't change oil temperature at all when not moving, so cold starting won't be any different.


It will take slightly longer for the oil to get up to temperature if you get on the highway right away after starting it up, but with low airflow situations it's not really different at all. If your commute is super short the oil wouldn't be getting up to temperature without it either.

Oil coolers in cold temperatures seem to be a concern thrown around basically everywhere you read, which is why I asked.

Surely there are negatives? Because right now it mostly seems too good to be true, besides the price, unless that is the main negative.

[wparsons]

Originally Posted by Jordanwolf

Oil coolers in cold temperatures seem to be a concern thrown around basically everywhere you read, which is why I asked.

Surely there are negatives? Because right now it mostly seems too good to be true, besides the price, unless that is the main negative.

The concerns are about oil ever getting hot enough in the winter to burn off any moisture in the oil, not about how it affects the car starting in really cold temperatures.



Depending on how long your drives are it might not be getting hot enough even without any sort of oil cooler. You need oil temperatures to hit at least 100C to burn off any moisture. If you're really concerned about that part, I'd suggest logging it stock to see how hot the oil is getting on your daily usage to see if it's actually going to make any difference or not. Even the liquid to liquid setups like the OEM forester one won't get the oil up above 100C since the coolant is ideally never that hot.



I can tell you this much, a 15 minute drive through town in the middle of the winter didn't get the oil hot enough even without the cooler. Mine would need a good spirited drive to get the oil that hot in the winter, even bone stock.



Some other negatives...



Potential huge failure point if something punctures the core. If you were to have a big hole put it in at WOT it wouldn't take long at all for pressure to drop low enough to be catastrophic to the engine. I was lucky that when my core developed a leak it was small enough that I noticed the puddle long before it was bad enough to ruin the engine.



You can't drain the oil out, so there's always some old oil left. If that really bugs you then you can drain, fill, run for a couple minutes, drain, refill and it'll do a better job of flushing the old oil.


Like I said, I've had it on my car for ~5 years now and it's daily driven all year. 185k kms, original engine, easily 50 track days on it. YMMV, but I have zero regrets putting one on.

[Jordanwolf]

Originally Posted by wparsons

The concerns are about oil ever getting hot enough in the winter to burn off any moisture in the oil, not about how it affects the car starting in really cold temperatures.



Depending on how long your drives are it might not be getting hot enough even without any sort of oil cooler. You need oil temperatures to hit at least 100C to burn off any moisture. If you're really concerned about that part, I'd suggest logging it stock to see how hot the oil is getting on your daily usage to see if it's actually going to make any difference or not. Even the liquid to liquid setups like the OEM forester one won't get the oil up above 100C since the coolant is ideally never that hot.



I can tell you this much, a 15 minute drive through town in the middle of the winter didn't get the oil hot enough even without the cooler. Mine would need a good spirited drive to get the oil that hot in the winter, even bone stock.



Some other negatives...



Potential huge failure point if something punctures the core. If you were to have a big hole put it in at WOT it wouldn't take long at all for pressure to drop low enough to be catastrophic to the engine. I was lucky that when my core developed a leak it was small enough that I noticed the puddle long before it was bad enough to ruin the engine.



You can't drain the oil out, so there's always some old oil left. If that really bugs you then you can drain, fill, run for a couple minutes, drain, refill and it'll do a better job of flushing the old oil.


Like I said, I've had it on my car for ~5 years now and it's daily driven all year. 185k kms, original engine, easily 50 track days on it. YMMV, but I have zero regrets putting one on.

Scary. I just worry about warranty as I'm good under the powertrain warranty for a while, but I also worry about that one day where I decide to produce too much heat.. I've already done it to my brakes lol..

Either way I'll end up getting one, just not sure when. Researching continues.