How often to change coolant when tracking
 

Not sure if this is in the right area or not, but anyways a topic came up recently about someone's car overheating at the track. The person who was tracking his car before had mentioned that he has been to 20 track sessions and never had his oil temps go above 240, but within the last 2 sessions his oil temps have shot up by about 20 degrees. What i was wondering aside from doing an oil change and getting better cooling systems in place.....is it possible and or needed that the engine coolant be replaced more often when tracking the car in order to help in getting engine temperatures down thus helping to cool the engine oil or do you not need to mess with the engine coolant besides the regular scheduled coolant flushes that you do when driving the car normally? I know it's a long shot that the engine coolant would have anything to do with oil temperatures, but just trying to figure out why all of the sudden this persons oul temperatures would spike like that. Thanks to anyone that can chime in on this and look forward to any information i can get out of this.

I would say that coolant isn't going to be replaced on any other than normal schedule. It doesn't really wear...it just ages.

Tracy Ramsey

It could be your just getting better and driving harder?
As said above your coolant should be fine with normal changes. You could switch to a water+water wetter mix if you want to drop your temps a little.

Ok cool, only reason i asked is since i know that things like brake fluid, oil, etc. need to be replaced more often when tracking the car then why not the coolant? Lol

Are you using actual coolant or Water/Water wetter. I know many tracks dont even allow "coolant" to be in your system. Water and water wetter keeps the car cooler, and does not need to be changed very often at all. I normally do mine about once a season if its not drained for other reasons.

Havent actually been out to the track with my Z yet, was asking for future reference for myself and another person on one of the facebook groups. Right now my car is just on regular nissan coolant, didnt even know about some tracks not allowing it though as the last time i was out there was no mention of it, good thing to keep in mind though, thanks :)

Change your radiator cap, make sure you have the blue fluid, and you're gold

Care to elaborate on this? What cap and why? What is the 'blue fluid'?

BuckeyeZ

Well, I know a higher pressure radiator cap will raise the boiling point, which is a good thing. Not sure what the blue fluid is...

Tracy Ramsey

Probably a case of getting better and faster over time. The only thing that will really fix oil temps is an oil cooler. With my 34-row cooler, I stay under 260 in 100 degree SoCal heat, and at Laguna Seca (70F ambient) I was right at 220.

Will do the first change next yr.

Hoses leaking i take it?

The only time to change coolant is if you;
1. Change the radiator, or
2. Change the hoses.
3. If the track you go to has a policy of requiring water instead of coolant.
4. Schedule maintenance.



Changing the radiator cap to a higher pressure will increase the boiling point of the water/coolant. Sometime it helps, sometimes you find the weak spot in the cooling system. Usually it's a hose clamp or 2. In an older system. It could be a core.