Lost oil pressure after braking at 0.9g and turning right at 1.1g. 2018 GT PP1.

[Dana Pants]

I autocross a 2018 Mustang GT in SCCA F Street Class. Car is stock except for shocks/struts, tires, alignment and a rear sway bar.

Today while taking a right hand turn I lost oil pressure long enough for the car to go into limp mode.

Here is the video where I lose oil pressure around the 46 second mark:

(Limp mode does NOT go away for a long time after this happens. Basically the car had to coast all the way back to grid and go through a key cycle to come back to life.)

As soon as I looked at the gauge after limp mode, oil pressure was fine. Oil level looked good. Reving in grid the oil pressure was fine. Taking the car out for another run the oil pressure was fine.

When I got home and checked the oil level on flat ground it was very close to the upper dot. I added a splash of oil to bring it all the way to the upper dot, but have trouble believing that it would really make a difference. The total capacity is 10 qts!

I attached a pic of the dipstick oil level while parked on my level garage floor.

I run Penzoil Ultra 5w30, but that's not really relevant to the pickup sucking air.

I guess my questions are:
1) Has anyone else experienced such nonsense and was there a confirmed root cause and fix?
2) Is this really a thing with our cars?
3) If so, are people running their cars intentionally with too much oil? I know this is a thing with at least some C5 corvettes on track.

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[fatbillybob]

I guess you could do the C5 corvette trick and add a qt of oil. I raced C5 vette for over a decade doing nothing more than +1qt on dot-R hoosiers. I have not heard the S550 being an issue and have not seen problems in long RH sweepers like T2 at WSIR or Riverside at BRP on my s550 racer on DotR hoosier A7's.

 

[db252]

Road course, autocross and even drag racing have their issues with oil control with stock oil pans especially the faster and more lateral grip we make the car capable of. This is the reason I added the 2020 GT500 oil pan kit that comes with a high volume oil pump as well. While you had the advantage of 10 qts over my stock 8 qts, volume isn’t always the save all from oil starvation and I’m now at 11.5 qts. Any true motor sports oil pan needs oil control within the pan during excessive braking/acceleration/lateral inertia. Loosing oil pressure is baaaaad as I’m sure you are aware. My world is road course but the concern is the same. I don’t know what a stock 18 and up oil pan looks like inside but here is my stock pan to GT500 oil pan comparison along with associated parts. The new pan has trap door control to prevent oil slosh. It’s pure awesome.

 

[DB83]

Was the GT500 pan a direct swap? Also, it looks considerably heavier than the stock one...is it?

 

[db252]

It is a direct swap and all new hardware is included. The only thing you have to do is extend the wire harness (2 wires) to the other side of the pan since the oil sensor is on the opposite side which is very easy. I did add a billet opg to the new oil pump as well.
The new pan is very robust and is heavier as it’s no tin can like the stock pan.

 

[Ewheels]

There may be something else going on, or possibly an electrical fluke. I've never heard of 2018+ oil starve issues. I know someone who hit 1.6 lateral G on a 2018 GT and I believe he is on stock oil pan, no issues

 

[PaddyPrix]

There may be something else going on, or possibly an electrical fluke. I've never heard of 2018+ oil starve issues. I know someone who hit 1.6 lateral G on a 2018 GT and I believe he is on stock oil pan, no issues

I tend to agree. I'm consistently 1.6-1.9, and I'm on a stock oil pan, haven't had any oil issues that I've logged. Fuel is a different story, especially on banked turns. I don't know the accuracy of the dipstick, but if you're visibly low, then you need to at least get back up to your proper level, and yeah, adding a touch more probably wouldn't hurt, although there is an upper limit.

I can't mention him by name, but a long time ago, my friend bought a car and drove it a distance back home, and back then, with long tubes, the owner didn't properly relocate the dipstick which meant that it wasn't giving an accurate measurement because it wasn't going to the depth it needed to. My friend not really knowing/understanding that put more in, and kept driving, and again put more in. He finally made it back here, but his temperature problems got worse, and worse. So yeah, when we took things apart, he had 17 quarts of oil, which is just a tad too much.

 

[JohnD]

I thought I had no oil pressure issues until I went to 100 TW tires and the g's were getting up to 1.6 on my data. On a hunch I had my gf ride with me and watch the gauge continuously, I was getting drops to 25 psi in a particular right hand corner. That's not good, maybe not instant motor death but not good. Put a Moroso 10 quart baffled pan in and so far no more problems.

 

[Dana Pants]

I thought I had no oil pressure issues until I went to 100 TW tires and the g's were getting up to 1.6 on my data. On a hunch I had my gf ride with me and watch the gauge continuously, I was getting drops to 25 psi in a particular right hand corner. That's not good, maybe not instant motor death but not good. Put a Moroso 10 quart baffled pan in and so far no more problems.

thanks for providing supporting info that I’m not crazy.

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