Which is worse, oil consumption, or oil which leads to mode engine wear?

It depends. All it takes is one time, just once, you don't check oil and redline when its low, to kill one of these engines. Often it doesn't die right away, but a few k, or even a couple 10k miles later, sudden death. Oddly, seems to die when driving normally, taking it easy.

I think many would prefer the oil that protects slightly better, but is consumed faster. Thinking, I just gotta stay on top of keeping it above L on dipstick. But I'd argue that is playing with fire, too easy get burned.

Better to deal with an engine that only lasts 400k miles instead of 450k, rather than one that dies suddenly at 200k that ONE TIME you forgot to check.

 

^ You are exactly right, my car's engine died on a leisurely drive down a side road, with no advance notice, it likely suffered oil starvation long before that date. Lead spiked to 15 on one analysis and then the engine died a few months later.

 

im hearing you say both. Which side of the fence are you on? VR1 or GTX?

 

People think they're taking it easy at low RPM and low throttle load, they're not. Max BMEP is around 2,500-3,500 rpm, right where people think they're taking it easy. That's where max load is on the crank and rod bearings. The worst detonation your engine can have happens in that RPM range.

 

the regular Valvoline Synthetic is plenty good now, you don't have to use VR1 to get a nice additive package now.

 

I'm saying its better to have enough of a great oil than not enough of an awesome oil. Same for even just a good oil, or a merely adequate oil.

Quantity beats quality here.

You get more protection from having enough oil than from having better oil.

 

Welp,

my engine apparently loves the VR1. It’s drinking it like Koolaid on a summer day, OH YEAH!!!

I checked between sessions at Daytona and I didn’t see any radical consumption oil marks stayed consistent. I did 103 miles at Daytona.

in my logbook I noted 129,300 miles when I put the VR1 in. I’m at 129,770 and I was down 1qt.

im sure my oil rings could do with a refresh but oil consumption with the synthetic blend Castrol GTX was much better.

I was happy with the VR1, good price, good additives, and the old but dyno was feeling a 1/4hp increase. Seriously, engine was revving and pulling really nicely. It even smells like good oil. But I can’t live with that kind of consumption. This is back to the state when I had 2 bad leaks and I was leaving spots everywhere I went.

im leaning towards going back to the GTX and start putting some money aside for some new rings.

 

Re-ringing or any bottom end work typically leads to way more issues than you started with

There's probably nothing wrong with your engine.

Do a leakdown test at the very least, before you let someone open up and ruin a perfectly good, very expensive engine.

During track use, these cars tend to oil slosh when turning left. You may be experiencing oil burning due to sloshing into the breather, not oil burning through the bottom end.

Look up "S2000 smoke screen"

For any tracked car (not just a S2000), you should always check your oil on a FLAT surface after each session.

You can also try a synthetic, shear stable oil. Castrol Edge 0W40, for example.

 

Yep, AP1s like to blow oil out the PCV the most on track. Watch your rearview after a long hard right hand sweeper ... you may see you are crop dusting RainH8r mod is one solution to that. You can run a catch can but will not fix it, just keep it from going back into the intake and creating the smoke screen. Charlie Moua also will do a custom baffle which is the same as the RainH8r mod for the most part. For mine, I went from having to empty my small catch can mid event, to almost seeing nothing in it after an event. I did Charlies baffle in an AP2 V1 (must be the V1 since the V2 is different) valve cover with an acura PCV. You should be able to find plenty of info on that but if not I can provide more. You can do the mod on the AP1 cover though. AP2 V1 has a slighly better layout and he happened to have one all modded, re-powder coated and ready to go so it was just the easy button to buy that one from him.

Granted, it could be burning oil for other reasons, but more likely that is a big part of it since you are tracking it. Compression test as mentioned above will give you better info on if the engine is healthy. Otherwise as he said, dont tear it down unless compression is low enough to warrant it. If the engine has good compression but is still burning some oil, keep it topped up and send it.

When I leave the track after a session, I roll into paddock, shut the car off and leave it in gear (no parking brake, that can cause issues on super hot rotors), open the hood and check the oil. Then a quick look/walk around the car to make sure nothing looks awry. That is the routine after each and every session. And before the baffle mod, checking the catch can, since I have forgotten that and ended up filling it and then REALLY creating a smoke screen when it started sucking oil directly from the can

 

Explore every single option before even thinking of opening this engine. Save the money you don't spend on this (or shipping your car from FL to CA and back for for mere "EB" carbon fiber bling as pretty as that is) for tires and track time. BTW, it's wonderful to see someone actually tracking their car and telling us about their experiences.

-- Chuck