Alludc

for those of you with dual duty vettes that daily drive and autox or road race....

how often are you changing your oil?

what type of oil temps does your car see?

what type of oil are you using?

c5 guys, do you recommend a larger filter?

c4cruiser

With my '87, I'll change oil each season but at this point, the car only sees 6-8 autocross events and a few track days. It's not really a daily driver although I do put 500-800 miles on the car each year. It is trailered to events.

I use Mobil-1 5W-30 and the filter is an AC-Delco PF-1218 which is a larger filter as used in SBC pickups. It holds nearly a full quart.

For trakc days, I usually see oil temps around 190 for autocross events and around 230 for track days; but that depends on the coolant temps. Coolant temps will run 10-20 degrees below oil temp. When the ambient air temps are high (90 to 100 degrees) coolant and oil temps will be a few degrees higher. Full synthetics like Mobil-1 can handle high oil temps.

AU N EGL

change every 2 events ~ 500 miles
see DIC degrade from 100% --> 70% after 1 event ---> 30% after 2nd event.

M1 15w50

stock GM filter

temps 220-260

Alludc

Wow Au N EGL. This was the reasoning behind my question, I knew that it broke down quite a bit faster when the car was tracked, although I only autox and havent seen higher than 226oil temp yet. 15w50? really?>

SteveC68

I use Mobil 1 0w-40 European Car Formula in my 2006 Z51. It's the best of the Mobil 1 synthetics. Auto-x and street driven. Hot lapping at the last practice event saw temps of 260F.

PA Z06

Tom is it ok to just use the DIC oil life meter

bags142

Before any trackday. Even if I only have 1 hpde weekend and 500 miles on the oil.

I am willing to spend the $70 for peace of mind.

waddisme

I usually change mine once a year. But I did 12 track days last year, added 12 qts of oil during the year. Would that be equivalent to an oil change? Maybe at least change filter? Car takes 11 1/2 qts incl oil cooler and 3 qt accusump. Using Amsoil 10w040. Sending second sample to Blackstone this week.

Oil temps only get in the mid 250s after installing the 40 row Setrab. Rarely above 180 on the street.

Painrace

Good info. I use Amsoil 15W50. My car holds 11 quarts with ARE Stage III system and Katech oil pump and piston squirters. I also use a remote filter and a ACDelco PF1218 or NAPA 1060.

Jim

VetteDrmr

The DIC does a pretty good job of figuring out when to change the oil for a dual-use car. I usually change mine out at some convenient date when the DIC gets below 25%. I've gotten my oil analyzed by Blackstone labs for years, and the trends have stayed happy.

As far as oil temps go I ran an external oil cooler and kept my temps below 275, which usually never happened unless I was competing in a 1st gear autocross event, where you put a lot of demand on the engine but have little airflow for cooling. DEs never was an issue.

HTH, and have a good one,
Mike

travisnd

Every 3-4 race weekends. Run Amsoil 5w40. I reset the DIC when I change the oil and have never seen it move more than a couple % over 3-4 weekends. My current C5Z is a track-only car. Not sure how some are seeing 30% drops each weekend. I've had four C5s and never found the DIC to accurately reflect track use. I always followed it for street change intervals though and found it to be quite accurate.

hungryhippo

My DIC only dropped 2% after my last 2 day open track weekend. That included driving 600 miles on the highway to and from.

Alludc

id like more info on this.

I see no noticeable difference in my 99 frc wether im driving normal, or had a track day. I thought it simply worked off mileage. IF our cars are capable of predicting/estimating oil breakdown by altering that percentage everytime the car is pushed harder than daily driving id like to know that it had that ability. If this is an option in certain yrs. which years?

travisnd

All C5s have the same OLM system. It estimates oil life based on the engine parameters it can monitor: RPM, oil temp, coolant temp, throttle position, injector duty cycle etc. etc. I've never found it to be accurate for true trackday use in that after 3-4 track weekends it barely moves. However, I always used it for normal street driving and it'd always tell me to change the oil around 7000-8000 miles which is perfectly acceptable for good synthetic oil.

John Shiels

No clue while no one or near no one here ever does oil analysis for 30-40 bucks Sitting here guessing and feeling good about an oil change is a waste. You don't even have to drain your oil to test it. Testing showed I could easily go over 3,000 TRACK miles.

John Shiels

when you add oil you are adding new oil additives which extends your change intervals.

autoxer6

For Autocross, I run 0w-30 Mobil 1. Oil temps only get up to about 260 deg.
For Track use, I run 15w-50 Mobil 1. Oil temps get just over 300 deg.

I will only change the oil 2 or 3 times per year. I believe changing the filter is just as or more important than changing the oil.

I will even drain the 50w save it, then put it back in for the next track day. Yes, I'm cheap, and fresh oil doesn't make me go faster.

VGLNTE1

200-215 on the street. 260-270 on track

0-40 mobil 1

jcsperson

I've only done one event.

I saw 245 at the end of the session. I was too busy to look down before that. I'm typically around 205-215 on the street. It's a 418 LS3 stroker so this might be apples to oranges.

I'm using Royal Purple 5W-30, but only because the car came with a case of it. It's due for a change here in the next month or so. My next event is the NCM HPDE at VIR in June.

I'm open to suggestions.

C66 Racing

Mine is not a daily driver, track only, but adding to your data bank.

I run AMSOIL Dominator Synthetic 10w30 Racing Motor Oil (Product Code RD30QT).

My car has a DRM aluminum racing radiator, and an external 19 row oil cooler.

With this setup and running the 10w30, I have been seeing 245-255F oil temps, which is right near at the top of where I feel comfortable with a 30 grade oil.

I change my oil about every 4th track day.