oil change/fluid maintenance intervals for track car?
 

I'm hoping some of the more experienced track guys can offer some input on oil change/diff & tranny fluid replacement intervals, and brake fluid flushes?


The car sees ~75 miles street driving to the track, 100-250 miles at-speed on-track, then ~75 miles on the street back home. Then it pretty much gets tucked in until the next time, or maybe the odd Saturday cruise for 50 miles or so.


What kind of intervals should I be using? Oil & filter in there now have 3 days on them. Tranny & diff fluid just changed. Brakes about to be flushed and refilled with RBF600.

I generally change engine oil after any track event. Same with brake fluid. Tranny fluid is more of an "increased frequency" thing, even on dedicated race cars I've owned.

As a result of changes after every track event, I tend to use the least expensive, reasonable quality fluid which gets the job done. If I can maintain quality braking for the whole event using Motul 600 instead of 660, I'll go that route because any benefits from the higher wet boiling point of the 660 aren't likely to apply to my use of the car. Hopefully you get the idea...

Oil analysis is your friend.

I change oil every 4 track days. Trans, diff and brake fluid at the start of season. I use Castrol SRF brake fluid and it easily lasts 20 track days (my typical season) without needing to bleed it; great stuff.

I daily my car. I also do track days. I sent my engine oil to Blackstone labs and it was perfectly fine after 1 track day. Didn't show any kind of breakdown, so I ran another day. I posted a thread on brake fluid and never got a really good answer.

Drive my car daily, and it sees some heavy abuse on the track. I typically change my oil every two track days or 3k whatever comes first. Change the trans and diff every season, and the brake fluid depending on the conditions of the track days and how it feels.

I use motul fluids for everything, also run a catch can, oil cooler, and ap bbk. Car has 70k and *knock on wood* never had an issue.

@CSG Mike, have you done UOA on your FT86 track car? If so what interval did it end up suggesting?

I'm running Motul 300V 5W-30 and probably going to start out by changing every 4 track days and work up or down depending what UOA suggests.

I change oil every 3 hpde weekends (works out to 2,500-3,000 miles), rear diff and tranny once a year but should probably switch to twice a year for a peace of mind. Brake fluid as needed (Castrol SRF).

Normal API SN Oil (Castrol Edge 0W20), 3 events and a full 7500 mi interval + 1000 mi on top. Still has more to give even after that. Confirmed via analysis (valid both before and after I got an oil cooler, and running e85 90% of the time these days)

Wow, are you suggesting that the oil analysis showed no difference in results pre/post oil cooler? That would be good info to have.

FWIW I change oil with 5w30 or 10w30 full synthetic after every 2-3 events or 4-6 track days (4x 15-minute sessions per track day). I change back to 0w20 after track season.
I only just had the trans and diff fluid changed from the factory fills to Redline, at 50k miles on the clock and ~30 track days.
For brake fluid I do a flush with name-brand (Castrol, Pennzoil, Wagner, etc) DOT4 or DOT5.1 from the parts store once at beginning of season and then again mid-season (after 3-4 events). Have never had any issues running "normal" off-the-shelf DOT4 or 5.1 at the track in any cars I've tracked including ~550hp LS3 FD (with bbk).

Thanks for the info. We have discussed oil coolers in past threads and my preference is not to introduce failure points if I don't have to. I have seen many on this forum reporting no issues after repeated track visits without a cooler. I finally brought my car to the track a couple weekends ago and saw oil temps slightly above 130C (about 270F) at which point, I backed off. Took about 7-8 mins of hard driving to get there. I am using 5-30 Pennzoil Ultra Platinum. Likely I will do a couple more track days this season and do a UOA afterwards to see how my oil/bearings faired before deciding on the cooler.

I used ATE Type 200 along with Hawk DTC 30 front and rear and no brake fade throughout my 5x10ish mins session. This car is easier on brakes than my 8th gen SI though I do have front and rear pads on this car.

I am running both amsoil in both trans and diff.

I don't think I suggested that there are no difference in results.



I stated that the provided interval has been generally achieved in my case, and justifies that the oil can go a long way (with or without a cooler)