scottdh20

on signature series i would do once a season 4-5 track weekends, if i use castrol edge(my second fav) i do two events or 1 or 2 changes. price wise it comes out the same in the end, castrol is just more work, but also available at walmart while im grochery shopping vs having to make a trip to the other end of town to the only place in town that stocks amsoil (not a big deal but 20-30min each way with traffic). i just turbo'd my car and plan to just do castrol changes after each event. i use wix or k&n filters

Nate Tempest

Last year was my first year doing significant track days; did about six plus around 10 autocrosses, and changed the oil halfway through the season. Was planning to change it again after a year, but maybe I'll shift that sooner a bit. Either way, was definitely going to send it to Blackstone.

DanielB

Attached is the Blackstone analysis of oil from my MY00 with 88k miles after 5 track days and 4k miles. At least for my motor, I can't see any reason to change the oil more often. I am running an oil cooler - I imagine that might help extend the oil life.

I am going to switch to 10W40 after I use up the rest of this batch I bought on sale as the 10W30 seems a bit thin.

HawkeyeGeoff

Last year I was doing 3 events per change (about 3 hours total basically), 5w-30 Pennzoil Plat Euro. The UOAs came back fine no problem; no external cooler. Typically I see 275-285°F Peak/sustained oil temps at the pan, so it's giving it the business. Instead of introducing a new oil leak source I think I'm going to continue to do this method or something similar to @Dead Serious because it's pretty obvious this engine has no problem doing short intervals with the elevated oil temps. @Dead Serious you know what kind of oil temps you're hitting? You're definitely sending it so I'm sure it's up there. My sanity limit is about 300F.

Dead Serious

Nope. My engine is stock and my tune is mild. I never assumed the need to modify the cooling system in any way. stock rad, stock oil cooler, cheap oil. I run full length sessions up to 30 min of wot times 8 sessions per weekend event. Ive always assumed guys with ****ed up engines have bad tunes or abuse the engine needlessly with their driving technique. That being said i also have a MY05 which is the most reliable year of the car. My story belongs in a Honda commercial. I live in south florida so my car sees heat without question. So many events over the years. The S2000 may be the most reliable track car ever.

HawkeyeGeoff

I have similar conversations with @roel03 being from Florida; he thinks I'm insane for even considering an oil cooler.

Bullwings

I agree with the sentiments on having an oil cooler as well - extra failure point.

I am running a dual-pass radiator though - mrsideways radiator - OEM plastic one cracked. If you control your water temps, your oil will be fine. No need for an oil cooler, unless you're FI.

anorexicpoodle has logged a ton of data on oil temps - no need for an oil cooler, aside from the OEM water-based one that's already in place.

SlowTeg

I agree it's another failure point, but it's nice for peace of mind for me that the oil won't be running super hot. I forget what I logged my temps at before but it was in the 280's. On top of that I am running a canton pan (which has worse cooling than oem). Are you guys running a baffled pan? I just swapped out my MrSideways radiator the other day because of a tiny leak in it and threw back in the oem radiator. I'll be interested to see if the oem radiator results in slightly higher coolant temps, I'd guess it would.

Dead Serious

OEM oil pan here. If i were to do any additional mods affecting power and or heat managment i would invest in data logging.

THMotorsports

Autocross is a little different than track days though, short runs, no sustained high RPM. So this isn't an unusual result.

A single HPDE session is 20 minutes, and I've done 8 in a single day. That said, I've run UOA after 6 events and Blackstone still said it looked fine. I have a Koyo and an oil cooler which both help to keep temps down. Though there are plenty of people who run without an oil cooler, it's no surprise that keeping the oil cooler (and increasing capacity slightly) is beneficial.