Oil Temps tracking car in TX heat

[zsommer79]

Took the car out to the track yesterday and with afternoon temps in high 90s the oil temps would jump to 270 degrees after a couple laps.

Curious what others who track in the heat have done to help with temps and what kinda "max" oil temp everyone tries to stay below.

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[UXXR]

Haven't tracked the car but in LA heat, while spirited road driving, I'm seeing 225.

 

[Venom52]

mine was at 265 mid session yesterday

 

[zsommer79]

mine was at 265 mid session yesterday

Which 350 where you? I was the black R.

 

[raiderjatt02]

I just did a 101F degree track day at Thunderhill a couple weeks ago and my oil temp got up to 285F. I took it a little easy at that point. It's never been higher than that but I stopped pushing as hard and short shifted a little bit to keep it manageable. I had no trouble keeping it at and below 280F. That's still really high but I just came home and changed my oil again to be safe. It had fresh oil before that track day with only 500 street miles but I figured the oil was probably trash after that hot of a heavy track day.

 

[Chris Barnes]

How hot were your CHT's and ECT's?

 

[460Fred]

I googled your question.
Short answer is above 275F things start to happen as far a breakdown of the oil.
Also read that 300-350 is not uncommon in racing engines. That seems scary to me but then again I’m no racer.
Maybe someone with extensive racing with their GT350 in the heat can chime in. I’m thinking under 300 you’ll be fine with fresh oil to start and dump it afterwards.


Added
Your gauge shows to worry after 300 right?

 

[zsommer79]

I just did a 101F degree track day at Thunderhill a couple weeks ago and my oil temp got up to 285F. I took it a little easy at that point. It's never been higher than that but I stopped pushing as hard and short shifted a little bit to keep it manageable. I had no trouble keeping it at and below 280F. That's still really high but I just came home and changed my oil again to be safe. It had fresh oil before that track day with only 500 street miles but I figured the oil was probably trash after that hot of a heavy track day.

Good to know you saw 285 without any issues, I really don't know what is ok with a voodoo so maybe next time out I won't pull back as early.

Want to hit up Thunderhill in the future, a buddy of mine was out there in a red RS5 same weekend as you, hopefully you passed him a couple times...lol

 

[zsommer79]

How hot were your CHT's and ECT's?

Honestly only focused on the oil temps, once it started to spike my ocd only worried about it. If I should be focused on other metrics please feel free to school me.

 

[honeybadger]

You'll overheat the car pushing hard in TX during the summer. I hit limp mode my first time at COTA. The car seems to have some fairly complex logic that bases limp mode on CHTs, oil temps, coolant, etc. No specific one seems to trigger it until wildly out of control.

That said, I wouldn't worry until you hit 290 oil and 240+ CHTs. That's not enough to panic, but it's when I'd back off.

If you routinely start hitting those numbers, you'll need additional cooling.

 

[460Fred]

HB
Thank you for that. I live in a desert that is traditionally 100+ for many days in the summer.
The good news is I’m not crazy about the heat and won’t ride my motorcycle either during that time. Nothing good comes out of excessive heat in any engine.

 

[meterman]

I did my first track day on Monday in my R and oil temps were 270+. The car ran great, air temps started at 75 but late in the afternoon was 83 degrees.

 

[zsommer79]

Di

You'll overheat the car pushing hard in TX during the summer. I hit limp mode my first time at COTA. The car seems to have some fairly complex logic that bases limp mode on CHTs, oil temps, coolant, etc. No specific one seems to trigger it until wildly out of control.

That said, I wouldn't worry until you hit 290 oil and 240+ CHTs. That's not enough to panic, but it's when I'd back off.

If you routinely start hitting those numbers, you'll need additional cooling.

Thanks for chiming in, that makes me way more comfortable pushing harder next time out. I want to run COTA in the fall, what groups do you instruct for and are you available to by request?

 

[Venom52]

Which 350 where you? I was the black R.

I was in the white one with the flag on the roof and i miss typed i hit 275 not 265. I mean't to come find you.

 

[Tomster]

I just did a 101F degree track day at Thunderhill a couple weeks ago and my oil temp got up to 285F. I took it a little easy at that point. It's never been higher than that but I stopped pushing as hard and short shifted a little bit to keep it manageable. I had no trouble keeping it at and below 280F. That's still really high but I just came home and changed my oil again to be safe. It had fresh oil before that track day with only 500 street miles but I figured the oil was probably trash after that hot of a heavy track day.

I see those kind of temps after a track weekend. The oil analysis always comes back ok with no shearing.

Its always good to change the oil after the track.

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