Oil change after track day

[James D]

In short is general consensus to change both oil and filter after a track day session, say sub 100 miles worth, or await routine servicing please?

 

Kind regards James

[DJ.]

I always change my oil and filter after a track day. It doesn't cost much doing myself and seems a good idea to prolong engine life.

Duncan

[thompster]

Sounds like overkill to me.  Whether the oil needs changing will depend on the quality of your oil and its ability to cope with whatever temperature it reached.  Assuming you're running something half decent that hasn't burnt itself into a thick brown mess I'm sure it will be fine. Changing it won't do any harm but I doubt you'll gain from it either.   As to the filter, a single trackday on a run in engine shouldn't generate any significant amount of debris to clog it.

Worth adding that for engines that share gearbox and engine oil - minis and motorbikes etc -  the story is different because shear forces in the gear train will break down the polymer chains in the oil, and you'll generally have far more swarf from the geartrain in the filter..

[TomB]

Wouldn’t it be better to change it before the track day, so that the engine has the nice clean oil while it’s being worked hard in the track? 

[James D]

Thank you for your responses, I had changed the oil and filter prior to the track day which was yesterday and covered 100 miles.  Appreciating that the oil remains clean as a whistle and used circa half a cup of oil, I had such a great experience and was ever so lucky with the weather.

It quashed my thoughts over possible upgrading but thought I would put the query out there as to change of oil and filter, I know my oil temperature was reaching circa 95 degrees or so on track, on the road it is usually 70-75 degrees.

 

Kind regards,

 

James

[TomB]

There is a rule of thumb that 1 track mile = X road miles.  But I cant remember off hand what X is!  Find this in the archives if you can, and work out accordingly and help inform your choice.  eg if its 10 miles (which is probably high), would you change your oil after 1000 road miles?  I wouldn't, and would probably just bring the next oil change forward to compensate.  Is your engine anything special or is a fairly standard one?  

 

[rj]

The X factor is somewhere between 10 and 50.

I change oil before every single trackday. (I hardly use the car on the road - if I did I'd change just after the trackday)
 

[James D]

My engine is a k1600 supersport. It did some 70 miles on track. Oil had been changed up to circa 300 miles prior as main use is on the road. I saw the mention online of track use calculator as 1 track miles equals 10 road miles. I would either change oil each track day which appears overkill to a degree or reduce / bring forward the scheduled service to compensate as indicated. This is quite a subjective matter I appreciate.

[rj]

I have today had the joy of overkilling oilchanges: A stripped thread for the sump plug. Fortunately the welder was not far away. Six oil changes last year. This oil will be changed in less than two weeks as I have two trackdays within seven days.

IMO you can't change oil to often.

[Oysterman]

Cosworth will recommend an oil change after 1000 track miles on the Duratec.

[Bottrill]

Providing you are using a good quality oil and your engine is in good health, you shouldn't need to change the oil and filter after one track day covering 70 miles. 95 degrees is quite a cool operating temp for track driving. It won't do it any harm obviously, but really isn't necessary in my opinion. 

[Slipper man]

I remember when I asked Roger Swift (aka ECR) how often he changed the oil, he said "every time the engine comes out". Mind you, as it was a Vauxhall, that was quite often...

For a standard production engine, which is durability tested to last 150,000 or more miles, the engine is likely to well outlast the car., so long as you are using the best quality oil. I would use the 10x rule and even on my R500 that meant an oil change only every 5 or six trackdays. In practice that meant I changed it at the end of every season (to ensure the oil in the car over winter was fresh and not contaminated with acids).

On rebuild, the engine showed only the wear you would expect.