Track day oil advice please
 

Looks like i'm hitting up a track late October.

currently I'm running 5w30 RP which was put in the car late May. The engine's running well but I know from seeing UOA's on BITOG that this oil is prone to thinning... It's fine for normal driving use I feel but a bit worried about it for tracking.

I don't go hard on the car on public roads and every 2nd week it sits in the garage because i'm away on business... I do about 8,000km in 6 months.

So... do i stay with the current oil, and change the oil after the track day? This is preferred as it'll be time for the 6 months service after the track day anyway... but i fear ruining the engine...

or change the oil (same) before the track day and stay with it for 6 months...

do i put in a thicker oil before the track day? if so how thick? and do i change it after or is it ok to stick with it for 6 months?

Considering 10w40 Motul 300v for the track day but not sure if i should go even higher in weight...

thanks in advance

Not sure if you all have them available there, but 2 off-the-shelf oils will serve you well:

Castrol Syntec 0W-30 (make sure it's the European car formula and made in Germany)
Mobil 1 0W-40

Both of these oils have superior HTHS (High Temperature High Shear) ratings to other "synthetics" and will work well for a track day.

Honestly, I would drain and fill the oil (you can retain the filter) soon after your track day event.

If you have a Red Line dealer, I would opt for Red Line 5W-30 or 10W-30. It's the bomb (WAY better than RP), but pricey.

You feel that sticking to Xw30 is ok when running at the high temps?

I'm pretty sure we don't get Syntec here but will look for the Mobile...

its expensive, but I just stick with the nissan ester oil. they didn't go through all the trouble of patenting their own oil for this engine for no reason. I figure with hotel, gas, brakes, registration, and average track weekend cost 1000-1500, so what is another 70 for the proper oil. I change it every two events.

I had 45K miles on my 2004 that had at least 30 track days on it, it always ran 5w30 or 5w40 amsoil, never had engine failure. I am not sure why you need to spend so much money on a car doing non racing track days

Umm, just checking, you DO have an oil cooler right? If you don't, dont waste your time. You need at the very least a racing one from one of the vendors if you want to make it through a full session.

It might just be me, but I'm definitely not a fan of this Nissan oil. I wish the oil was comparable to Ford's Motorcraft line that was actually good. I personally would be hesitant to use the Nissan Ester at a track day. My recent UOA showed its viscosity was on the low side.

Royal purple XPR 10W40 That is all I run in the heat. Or 20W50 if it is really hot

I don't have an oil cooler =(... I'm resigned to resting the car every time it goes into limp mode and then going again...

Depending on your experience, traffic, and the ambient temperature you may make it all day without a problem. October is early spring yet so it's probably still fairly cool, right?

I didn't have a problem until the ambient temperature got over 80/90F (~25/35C) and I had run a few sessions already.

I agree. $20-$30 more per oil change over the life of the car is nothing when you factor in other ownership cost.

which track are u heading to?

I havent got an oil cooler (yet) and I've only had issues with limp mode towards the end of the day, for the 15min+ sessions at wakefield. Eastern creek was a little worse as they ran longer sessions and it has longer straights where you're flat out.

Even then one cooldown lap every 2-3 laps seemed to bring it down to acceptable levels.

Thanks for the heads up mate, It's not wakefield, starts with M, really bad with these things sorry...

Really good to hear that taking it easy on a lap will significantly help things...

so what temp was it averaging for the day and what oil did you put in it?

Australia's weather is a but sucky... Oct can be very hot if you're unlucky... and it can be 15*C. all luck really...

You are tracking and not going into limp mode? Are you sunday cruising around?