Given that I change my oil (Mobil 1) every 3K and I'm nearly there, and have an upcoming track day, should I change oil before or after the track day?

I guess another way to look at it is : which is worse on the car - running with clean but track-ridden oil for the next 3000, or running on the track with [ relatively ] old / dirty oil then changing it just after the track day.

I posted here instead of racing forum as it might be of general interest to anyone planning hard driving also.

 

Both. Change it before and after.

Since most track events that I attend allow me to put on about 200 miles of track time, I make sure that I have changed the oil within 500 miles of the track event. After I run, I try to make sure that I change the oil again within another couple hundred miles.

For your situation, I'd personally recommend changing the oil before you go, and then accelerate your schedule for your next oil change a bit... like maybe schedule it for 1000 miles, instead of 3K.

That's just my personal recommendation, with no hard data to support it.

 

I assume you are running fully sythetic oil? If so, its not going to be degraded to any noticeable extent before your track day after 3k road miles so change it after (some European makers stipulate 20k oil changes on synth - OK the S will be doing double the revs but...)!

 

i would definately at least change it before. its a good idea to have fresh oil in before you tarck the car, the engine will be under lots of stress and the extra protection from new oil would be important.

 

If you are getting close to your oil change appointment, might as well do it before the track day.

I did 26 track days on the N

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by mxt_77
Both.