Track days and Oil Changes
 

Last year I did a couple track days and had a plethora of Nissan Ester Oil that I had ordered on hand. Since I wanted to get on to Redline synthetic, I changed the oil before and after the track days.

This year, I'd prefer not to become a large percentage of Redline's profits by changing the oil before AND after every track day.

What do you guys do with regard to the oil changes?

Seeing that I'm coming onto about 5k mi on the current oil and it's a bit sludgy looking, I'm definitely changing the oil before my first track day on April 3. Hopefully I can run that fill for 3k mi or so after the track day?

1000 track miles or 3750 street miles is what I go by. After the track day just check if it needs toping off and you should be able to go another 2500 or so. I wouldn't change directly after the event unless it was particularly hardcore, e.g. 2 days of continuous open track, but I would shorten the change interval accordingly.

I have always changed oil before every track day. I never run 2 track days on the same oil. If I hit 3k miles before the next track event, I change it then.

No science behind my logic, but here is what I do....

Recommended change (3 month or 3750) or 2 track events. So the summer meant ~4-5 changes and the winter was 1 change.

I go 2-3 track events between changes.

All sound reasonable along a spectrum. I figure I'll get the winter fill out before the first event, see how the mileage piles up over the summer and probably do a second change mid-summer, then definitely change prior to Road America in October. That fill should survive the winter again.

We change our oil after every track weekend, but this is simply out of habit. Our engines and transmissions look like brand new after hundreds of hours of race use, and part of that is the very frequent fluid changes we prescribe.

On street cars, I change my oil every 5000 miles. Our diesel truck...every 10,000 miles. :) We use Motul, for what it's worth. :)

Quick note: Don't go by the "sludgy-looking" thing on engine oil; fresh oil becomes dark in there real quick 'cause it's doing its job. Go by miles and/or a time frame, old buddy.

On our track and street driven car (05 Legacy GT Turbo) we change it about every 7500miles for street miles. When we throw in track days in the summer we reduce it down to 3500-5000 miles. We run Amsoil Full Synthetic and Amsoil Extended Life Oil Filters.

-mike

On another note. Swapped tranny and diff oil for redline today. 6500 miles, at least 2500 on track and the diff oil had a lot of muddy like metallic sludge on the drain plug

Yeah this is prone to happen with the Z. 2500 track miles is a lot to ask of one diff fluid change. It's only 2 liters of fluid and it takes a pounding all the time. We usually change out our diff fluids after two track weekends.

The rear diff fluid is so easy to change, I'm going to make it an annual spring event.

It will probably be either every or every other track event from now on. I will go two and see how it looks.

I'm changing synthetic at 5k anyways. With a track weekend every quarter at the most I'm sure it won't effect much

What fluid are you using, and weight?