freaknbigpanda

Hey Guys,

I getting low oil pressure warnings on a long left hander yesterday, I was really surprised because I am still running street tires with 300tw and only pulling like 1.1gs according to the g meter.. the dry sump system in my 2009 z06 should be totally fine with that right? Maybe I need to add more oil or something? Is this normal?

Cheers,
-Benjamin

Cap'n Pete

Welcome to the club. Hopefully nothing was damaged (yet).

Have you checked your oil level pre/post tracking? Any issues (yet) with your guides, that you're aware of?

I believe a "band-aid" solution is to run with a little extra oil in the system, prior to going on-track. However, the better solutions are something along the lines of the Aviaid pan baffle and oil reservoir insert. I believe by '09, the cars already had the bigger reservoir?

Unfortunately, when I got the low oil pressure warning in my '06, it was already too late - the damage was done - wiped a pair of main crank bearings. However, the root cause of my engine failure was (IMO) bad guides, leading to excessive oil consumption that I didn't stay on top of (...sadly, was unaware of the issue) and ran the engine low on oil during a track session (...I had the Aviaid parts, but they couldn't compensate for being ~2qts low).

Sorry, I can't offer more assistance/advice than that, but even on streets, these cars pull incredible cornering forces, and that's more than enough to starve the engine. I'd be leery of doing more track time, without getting the engine checked out for damage.

_BlueZ06_

There is a known issue with C6Zs for long left hand turns. As mentioned, installing aviaid baffles in the dry sump and engine oil pan seems to help. I haven't seen this issue when I installed the baffles and check after track days on my data logger. If you're tearing it apart, upgrading the oil pump won't hurt either. I tend to check my oil levels every other session.

If you saw this on your gauges, that is a delayed response that may not have shown how low it was. I would check the engine as a safety precaution.

96CollectorSport

I had a customer who tracked his 09 for over a year before I saw the car. He was getting low oil pressure at idle - when I popped the valve covers off he was missing 3 valve seals - the seals were ground up inside the engine and pretty much clogged the screen at the bottom of the dry sump tank. It doesn't take much time to pop off the valve covers and have a look around.

freaknbigpanda

Thanks for the info! What you recommend I do to check the engine? Is there something that could have been damaged? I will definitely check my oil levels, but beyond that I am not sure what to check.

Also what type of tires were you using / how many gs were you pulling when you ran into problems?

_BlueZ06_

If you won't want to tear the entire top end off to look, I would at least look at taking the valve covers off and send an oil sample to Blackstone labs. This will at least give a slight indication of the metals in the oil.

I upgraded everything before going to any tracks that meet the criteria for oil starvation so I don't have any information. The lowest I have seen on MPSS is 32 psi on track in summer heat.

Andrie

How long is the long left hander? Cause I just went to Laguna where the majority of turns are left hander with one long left hander but don't see problems with my oil pressure. Mine is 2008 with original tank.

Andrie

As you can see, the oil pressure is directly related to RPM, which is expected. The speed, RPM, and oil pressure all behave as expected.

_BlueZ06_

What tires are you running? Is this one of your first lap or two and what does the data show as you have been on track for 20-30 minutes?

The main requirements are a LH sweeping turns over 4 seconds and on sticky tires. An example on where I have driven would be Texas World Speedway since it is a high speed long LH turn. I upgraded everything before going to MPSS (not a sticky tire either) as a precaution for myself though.

Andrie

That particular lap is lap 3. But it doesn’t matter as my other laps showed the same. I run Nitto NT01 which is much stickier than MPSS. That being said I am not in 4 seconds corner. In your case, TWS is an oval. When driving in oval even at prolonged left turn it is banked and no significan g force. I just find my finding interesting and thought I share it. I also have the old tank sitting here waiting to install. However, I’m gonna wait and collect more data after this finding.

TrackAire

Can somebody pleases confirm if the readings from the OBD II computer are going to be accurate enough?.....I've been told by engine builders and tuners that the danger in using the stock oil pressure sensor to the pcm is the sampling rate is too slow to react to the actual extremes. In other words, you may show 30 psi on the graph but the pressure may have dropped to 7 or 8 psi for a couple of seconds.

Any input or thoughts about this potential issue??

Nowanker

Search function here is almost useless!
I know I've seen some posts about it, suggesting that is indeed the case. I think it overlayed data from the stock sender with one from real data aq.
IIRC 'mikeymu' might have posted it in his 'GT Transformation' thread. It's long, but makes a pretty good read even if that data wasn't posted there...

PRE-Z06

Just to be clear turn 1 at TWS is not banked as it's after you come off the old NASCAR track.

Glowing Rotors

On my 2008 Z06 track car I added both the Aviad baffle AND the Lingenfelter 2006-2008 Z06 High Volume Oil Tank. I run with slicks and have had no oil starvation issues. Lingenfelter modifies the 2006 to 2008 OEM oil tank by adding a 3 quart "bump" on the side of the tank which increases the system oil capacity from 8 to 11 quarts. The 2009 to 2013 ZO6's already have a larger OEM oil tank. Here's a link to their site.....

https://www.lingenfelter.com/mm5/mer...earch=Oil+tank

Andrie

I have the lingenfelter tank in the box waiting to be installed. So far I’ve done 4 track days and I have no oil issue. Since I have the tank I will install it eventually. However this makes me think that there actually no issue if the oil level is monitored closely. I could be wrong.

Redefined

Good info so far. What's the ideal solution to this 'issue'? I think I'd like to address this before it happens, another pump? Another pickup in the tank? Bigger tank? Would love to see some specific links to solutions.

Thanks!

freaknbigpanda

So I haven't been back to the track yet so I haven't been able to test it but my oil level *was* low, it was near the bottom of the accepted range which could have easily been the problem. I have a feeling that this is a non-issue if you watch your oil level like Andrie mentioned

Dirk Miller

Thanks Joel for your idea to check under the valve covers. I recently acquired an '06 ZO6 that had a few improvements done to it prior to my getting it. The heads valve stems were fixed, a Katech larger dry sump reservoir was added the oil pump was replaced with one of the Katech high pressure race pumps. Yet sometimes I too notice the oil pressures dropping into the low 30s at idle. Not sure if the valve stems were replaced but I'll take a look to make sure they are all still there. Remedial 101 question here... when I take off the valve covers, I'll plan on installing new gaskets. That is the best thing to do, isn't it? If gaskets are missing, is there a brand that you suggest for an LS7? Again if missing, I'll dive into the screen of the sump, but am also wondering about other small oil orifices through out the engine? Wonder if detergents found in today's oils help open these up? Now that I think of it, probably not or many of the elastomeric seals between various dissimilar metals found in the engine would be eaten up.

Andrie

The stock sensor itself is capable or log at 10Hz, which is 10 sample per seconds. So it is fast enough. The dash gauge on the other hand it is not fast enough. It has additional filter to prevent the gauge going up and down to quick and confused people.

TrackAire

Hi Andrie,
Thanks for the clarification. Since the pressure switch is up to the task, what would you recommend to mount to the dash so as a driver I can get a visual of what the oil pressure is and possibly an audio "low oil" alert that can be set by me?

Are aftermarket gauges such as Autometer able to react fast enough to meet this challenge using the stock oil pressure switch? I run an Edge CTS 2 monitor plugged into the OBD II port to keep tabs on coolant temps, etc but it does not have a PID for oil pressure.