How many track sessions between oil changes?

[MikeR397]

As an extra data point, I changed my oil every 4-10 running hours (depended on the weekend) over the course of last year. Engine had 43 hours on it. The engine oil at 10 hours had substantial more breakdown than the 4 hour oil. Blackstone recommended that be the longest I run the oil if I could help it. Guess what, I never touched the computer the whole year and it still said I had over 60% oil life even after 6 oil changes.

I'd consider your approach very carefully. Personally, I plan to continue to change the oil regularly. Just because I can wear my underwear for a week straight doesn't mean I want to or should.

Are you saying 10 running hours on track or including highway cruising? I consider a full track day 5 20 min sessions, so 1hr 40min on track. I drive my car about 2 hrs each way to half events and the other half about 20 min ; and did about 20 events last year. My computer suggested and I did 3 oil changes last year, never earlier than 14% left and never later than 7% left. My car has 8200 miles (2017) and I’ve done 5 oil changes total iirc.

so I’d agree somewhere around 10 -12 hours of track time (7 full days of 5 20 min sessions) is about where you can run it, but I don’t include the 4 hours cruising on the highway to/from the event (nor Does the computer which drops quite a few percent after a track day but not at all after 4 hours of highway cruise).

Btw, one of your YouTube videos helped me out last weekend regarding a p0020 harness failing related code. Thanks very much for that!

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[Hack]

Oil change when the computer says so, which accounts for revs and time better than the “it’s cheap insurance” group. Otherwise, I have a 8 year warranty and am not interested in dumping hundreds down the drain and using more oil than need be.

not Trying to be an ass, but the computer accts for revs and use and has told me to change as early as 4 months and as late at 10 months depending on my usage.people are free to spend their own money how they see fit, it’d just rather put it toward tires since those those don’t last more than a few track days and you can’t argue with chords.

When I owned my GT350 I changed the fluids per what the manual says (oil change after EVERY event). I didn't want to cheap out and then end up in a situation where Ford wouldn't honor the warranty.

I didn't change the accessory drive belts after every event like the manual says, though. I only did that once per season. I would only have 3 or 4 events per season so I felt it wasn't stretching out that maintenance too much. I realize a worn belt can damage other components under the hood, but that is more expensive maintenance. I also hadn't heard of a lot of issues with thrown belts on here. I worried more about an engine failure warranty issue than a belt failure warranty issue.

 

[honeybadger]

Are you saying 10 running hours on track or including highway cruising? I consider a full track day 5 20 min sessions, so 1hr 40min on track. I drive my car about 2 hrs each way to half events and the other half about 20 min ; and did about 20 events last year. My computer suggested and I did 3 oil changes last year, never earlier than 14% left and never later than 7% left. My car has 8200 miles (2017) and I’ve done 5 oil changes total iirc.

so I’d agree somewhere around 10 -12 hours of track time (7 full days of 5 20 min sessions) is about where you can run it, but I don’t include the 4 hours cruising on the highway to/from the event (nor Does the computer which drops quite a few percent after a track day but not at all after 4 hours of highway cruise).

Btw, one of your YouTube videos helped me out last weekend regarding a p0020 harness failing related code. Thanks very much for that!

Track only. Car isn't street legal, so I trailer it. And 10 hours came from a trip where I had 3 days of track time. Depending on the event, I typically get 2-4 hours of track time a day. But I changed after every weekend regardless (except for the trip one). So 43.5 hours of this abuse and the computer never told me I needed to change oil. Not entirely sure how they have the algorithm setup, but I definitely would be cautious about following it.



And nice! that harness fault is so common. Ford really should recall the harness. I've gone through 3!

 

[JAJ]

I'm with the "go with the OLM" crowd. I ran mine down from 100% in April to to 5% in August last year after 6 or 7 track days and then had an oil analysis from Caterpillar Labs. Results were stellar. Oil was in excellent condition. MC, by the way. The new stuff in the big-mouth bottle.

 

[Narwaniec594]

I ran 6-8 track days a year ( 3-5 session per event) and change oil after every 3-4 sessions.

 

[jmn444]

If under warranty and you don't care about matching numbers or anything, then there's really no reason not to just follow the manual and oil life meter. I'm in that camp mostly, but also would prefer to not have the downtime if something breaks so am a bit more proactive on changes and if I did the math am probably in the roughly 10 hours of track use range. I used blackstone last year and will test again this year with a bit more hours than last years test to see how it looks. testing is really the only way to know as some guys kill a set of tires or brake pads in 1 or 2 days, and others can run an entire season on them so clearly the abuse a car takes can vary wildly.

don't forget the other fluids if you track heavily, they take abuse too and while the manual has extremely long intervals, I think same theory applies...

 

[Hack]

don't forget the other fluids if you track heavily, they take abuse too and while the manual has extremely long intervals, I think same theory applies...

I think the manual says to change the transmission and rear diff fluid after every event. I didn't change them that frequently myself. But I did change them more than once per year.

 

[MikeR397]

I’m at 46% on the oil monitor now. Am driving 2hrs each way to Grattan for 5 or 6 20 min sessions and drive home tomorrow and see how the oil life readout changes.

I had my oil done at 6900 miles early last fall, currently 8300 and has 4 full track days since I am pretty sure to get to the 46% left. I’m not positive but I think it said 60% before my last track day at grattan, so will see if I get another 14% life drop after tomorrow.

The car was at the dealer getting the harness relaxed under warranty and my service rep thought I was nuts asking about my last oil change which was “only” 1400 miles ago. Obviously try not to scream track car there but based on tire changes I think they know...

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