What oil do you run for track?
 

I've been interested in doing some high-speed autocross events and track days and wondering if anyone runs thicker oil for the track? The stock oil for the BRZ is 0W-20 which is pretty thin. I plan on changing the oil a lot more often while I'm tracking the car, and probably switch it back to 0W-20 for the winter months.

I've seen some people saying to get an oil pressure gauge so I can keep an eye on it (any good recommendations? Id like it to sit where the analog speedometer is).

And I've also heard suggestions for getting an oil cooler as well (in particular I was suggested the Jackson Racing - Dual Radiator/Oil Cooler). What are your thoughts?

Please search. This has been discussed ad nauseam.

My take is that unless you are going to do some REAL HEAVY tracking, that the 0W-20 oil would be just fine and that the oil will stay cool enough.

As far as an oil pressure gauge, my opinion is that's just another thing to watch and "worry" about. If your car loses oil pressure during heavy track use ..... it will tell you ...... by ...... stopping ...... :(

On the track, if you should happen to notice it dropping to "0" ....... it will be too late anyway.


humfrz

Yep. Same oil you use now. Oil cooler/gauge.. It's nice to have but not needed. If you are going to be on the track for an hour or endurance thingy, yeah you might want to get those.

People are so paranoid about taking the car out to the track. As long as your car is in perfect running condition, the only thing you have to worry about is you screwing up and kissing the wall.

I seen more paranoid 86 owners than 914 owners.

I guess the reason I am paranoid about it now is I just destroyed and engine with rod knock. I was driving it kinda hard on a mountain highway for the first time with some ups and downs. Warranty is covering it, but Im pretty sure it was a result of oil starvation. What Ive heard was if it drops below 40psi at higher rpms to ease off it. My engine broke on the highway doing something it should be able to handle, if that had happened on a track, I doubt they would cover it on warranty.

Well, that's a shame your first engine "broke".

I have run my FR-S up and down some pretty hairy mountains for many miles ........ just as spirited as mrs humfrz will put up with ...... with no problems.

A properly functioning engine should supply enough oil to itself under spirited driving even on mountain roads.

You shouldn't have to "ease off" ....... unless you are going downhill and overrunning the rev limit.

Someone said that 10psi of oil pressure for every 1,000 rpm is healthy.


humfrz

I think it'd be very difficult to generate the sustained G forces needed to oil starve the engine on a public mountain pass. For example, Element Tuning ran into this problem but only on a heavily tracked car with ~1000 lbs. downforce, 325 width Pirelli slicks and a 9000 RPM redline (making 390 whp). Short of a build like that, lots of guys are tracking this car without any oil-related issues.

If you're just starting out, you should be fine with a quality 0w20 or 0w30 synthetic. If you track often, an external oil cooler and a quality 0w30 or 0w40 synthetic would be plenty.

What mods did you have?
It's very rare for an engine to starve oil these days. Unless it's manufacture failure.

I dont have any mods at all, completely stock engine. I did redline it, but it should have been totally fine. Probably was a defect in the engine.

And yeah I heard the same rule about 10psi per 1000 rpm. But I cant keep an eye on that without a gauge.

Did you only use 0w20 oil all its life or did you switch up the weight to 0w30 or something else? If so did the dealer say anything about using different viscosity regarding the warranty?

The reason I'm asking is that my engine just took a dump, I heard a knock and now it won't even turn on. I used either eneos sustina or motul 300 0w20 most it's life and just this last oil change I decided to try out amsoil 0w30. I changed the oil before due intervals and after the car died the oil still looked fine. Now I'm paranoid that the dealer might use the 0w30 oil against me to screw me from covering the engine which I'm fairly positive isn't my fault, especially at barely 49k miles. If you have any input I would appreciate it

Just curious what oil brands and types do you guys run?

I bought mine used back in December so I've only done 1 oil change using Mobile 1 0W-20. When I reported the warranty claim, Subaru of America did ask me for my oil change records and they also looked up the entire oil change history from the prior owner too. So they will definitely ask about it, but I dont know if they will say anything about it. I've been wondering the same thing.

It does sound like your engine had a very similar problem as mine. On the highway and I heard a repetitive knocking sound when I had my foot on the gas. It would go away when I lifted my foot off the gas. Got really bad by the time I pulled over.

Motul 300V 5w30.