Oil recommendation for light track use-but hot weather.
 

What type of oil/filter and what Oil weight would you recommend I use if I track my car once a month in SoCal-mainly willow springs etc. It rarely gets below 60F here is usually above 75 F? This is my daily driver and first season of track, but can already see how hot the car gets. Now that the summer months are in, I expect it to be hot out there soon.

Also, any feedback/comments on the 2012 Oil Cooler? How effective is that thing? It does not appear to be huge, but at least it is something.


TX guys.

Amsoil signtature series. 5W30. You asked about weight the starting weight is just the beginning weight the 2nd number is what it goes to after its warmed up so the weight would be the recommended oil 5w30 unless you have a turbo on there then a heavier weight may be needed (I.e 5w40)
I run the K&N oil filter it has a hex head so when you take it off its super easy. I coupled that with a magnetic add on that clips to the filter to keep all metal shavings in the filter and a Greddy magnetic drain plug.

Amsoil is the first in synthetics and I use in all my cars engines, transmissions and differentials. Google amsoil vs *any oil brand* and you will see it annihilates the competition.

As for the oil cooler, I have a 2013 and its great for street use BUT I'm not sure if it could sustain heavy tracking so you could run another cooler on top of it to be safe if you are worried.

Lastly, I used to live in Rancho Santa Margarita right next to Mission Viejo! My Dad still lives there! Small world

I'm in middle Georgia, and it gets hot here. I have tracked my 2012 and at Road Atlanta, and Roebling Road the oil temp got pretty high. High enough that i replaced the OEM oil cooler with the NISMO 34 row. The OEM is good for just driving around, but when you get spirited on the track, the oil temp will get upwards of 260+ The engine coolant seemed to be fine, only the oil temp. I use the Nissan Ester oil. You may want to check your brake fluid, as it would get hot as well.

You should try Amsoil signature series as well. It helps to keep oil temps down and the viscosity break down decimates other oils.

Figure one hour of track time is equal to 1000 miles if temps are below 260. If temps get above 260 change the oil immediately after the event. This is what it says in the GTR manual and I think it applies to the Z as well. There are a lot of good oils out there but again I think what is good for the GTR is good enough for the Z and it uses 0w40 Mobil 1 as factory fill.

the 370 puts alot of heat into its oil even under light track use, so i would run quality synthetic like people have recommended, or at minimum a autoparts store synthetic with a ACEA 3 rated weight.

even in socal weather, i would get at least a 25 row oil cooler, cause even if you run great oil that doesnt break down at 250 degrees, the VQ engine bearings shouldnt be seeing that high of temps anyway. The 2012 oil cooler is just a oil to water "donut", basically your oil is being cooled off by you water/radiator, but even the stock radiator is under sized for the motor's cooling demands.

Amsoil vs Mobil 1 test
Amsoil vs Mobil1

You can run what you like but i could feel the difference when i ran Mobil 1 vs Amsoil in my 350z. The motor did not run as fluent through the higher RPMs as to when i changed to Amsoil. Also when i changed my oil i didnt lose a drop so none was burned off like cheaper oils.
I also not only noticed better power gains BUT i noticed better fuel economy. I ran 30mpg on the highway in my 350Z @75mph tests

Here is a couple sites that might help. Bobistheoilguy is forum with a well of info on oil.


www.animegame.com/cars/Oil%20Tests.pdf

- Bob is the Oil Guy

I made the Amsoil switch in another car and promptly blew my motor at the next track day. I know that it probably wan't the oils fault but I moved on to other oils. In another car I had the cams gaul the rockers using Redline Oil at a track day so bad things can happen even when you use the best.

Sounds like you need a cheaper hobby! lol

This is all true, but i think for the OP 1 track day a month Amsoil or Redline are both the best choices.

:iagree: what do you suggest? Hookers and blow??

whether that would be cheaper is debatable... :nutswinger:

I'm on Redline at the moment, but I'm thinking of giving the Mobil 1 0w-40 a shot.

And this thread just took a hard sharp turn in the opposite direction! haha

IDK but hookers and blow might be more expensive. Maybe maybe not.

Pops and his Porsche buddies all swear by mobile 1. My tech likes Motile vt300. You guys say Amsoil. I am guessing all 3 are fine, the trend seems to be use synthetic expensive oil. check.

If you guys are interested here's my old man at Mid Ohio this past sunday in his 997 S. Unfortunately we can't race unless one of us rents a helicopter and cargoes our car to the other side of the country.

Mid Ohio PCAP May '13 - YouTube

Thanks man. Brake fluid is Motul 600, so I am good to go in that dept.

I think someone needs to make a poll on what oil to use! All this talk of what oil is better and crap no this one, and no this one gets confusing as crap,

yes, that's what we need, another oil thread!

I assume you mean Motul not Motile. Motul is good stuff too but VERY expensive. Mobil 1 is ok but honestly there are probably 3-4 better oils out there for both street and track that do not wear down as poorly and are across the board a far better oil.

Your Dad should consider another oil that doesnt break down as poorly as Mobil 1 for track use. The proof is in the testing BUT i can tell you first hand my engine had more power and better gas mileage with Amsoil.

The factory fill Mobil 1 0W40 the Porsche and GTR guys swear buy has a much better additive package than the Mobil 1 5w30 or any of the other energy conservation oils.
Redline, Motul, and Amsoil are all better oils than the Mobil 1 5w30 as well but I haven’t seen anything that shows they are better than the Mobil 1 0w40. Plus those cost twice as much or more while Mobil 1 0w40 can typically be found at AutoZone and Wal-mart for under $5 a quart.

Just to clarify M1 0w40 is different from the other M1.

Eveybody has an opinion on oil. What it comes down to is to change it often and to control it's temperature with an oil cooler when tracking with whatever oil you use. ;)

While I will agree that there will never be "the one" as far as oils go, I switched to the M1 0w-40 over the last two years in my modded 07 Z06, and according to my Blackstone reports (which I see little reference to in this thread), it held up well, and the wear indicators in my motor were all well within parameters. The 0W-40 fill is the European factory fill for Z06's sold over there. There was a lot of speculation on the Corette forums as to why that was, but all I can attest to is the oil worked very well in my Z06, which was much tougher on oil than my Nismo is....again, my .02's.

I don't track my Z yet, but I've had some slight oil consumption ever since I bought it. Not enough for Nissan to replace the engine, but enough to piss me off. Anyways, last oil change I decided to switch to Redline 0w-40..... And absolutely no oil consumption at all! Not really relevant to this thread, just thought I would share and I will definitely be sticking with 0w-40.

Woah $5 a quart :eek:?? I have to pay 9 bucks a quart at my local autozone.

Well I just filled with Motul vt300 and welcome to 110.00 oil change. But dmmit it's worth it!

In other exciting news, yeah none of the auto stores carry racing oil. I even went to the local hotrod shop which is one of those Eidelbrock outlets and nothing besides Mobil 0W40. Corner 3 Garage pulls through again, they stock Torco, Amsoil, Redline, and Motul.

I can see the point of Mobile 1 0W40 that oil, starts thin, cheap, will pick my pops and the Porsche guys' brains a little and see why they like it so much. Knowing those guys though, the reason will be "because Porsche says so".

Really the difference between any of the "good" choices is likely to be marginal if you're maintaining things well. I don't think anyone's listed a bad oil in this thread yet :). I've always fed mine Motul 300V 5W30 and it's been happy so far.

If you buy per quart at Autozone sure it is a lot higher, but they have a sale every other month on it where you can get 5 qts and an oil filter in the low thirties, which once you factor in the price of the oil filter is under $5 a quart.
Walmart has the 5 qt jugs for under $25.

This has total relevance, it states what i was saying... The breakdown of cheaper oils will burn off where as Redline, Amsoil, Motul etc have a higher tolerance to not just dissappear :)

Great comment to be added to this thread!

Used to be small bottle only and it would cost about that much per quart. The 5 qt jugs are now available and Walmart sold them for the same price as the other M1, so it's just a little over $5 per qt last time I purchased.

here is a pretty good read

--Important read-- Engine Oil Tech - Corvette Forum

LG no longer recommends Mobil 1

They recommend 2 of the oils I stated :) and also talk about what I've been saying. Amsoil, redline etc will protect the engine under hard driving situations where Mobil 1 will not.

Lifter problems are usually the result of ZDDP and in all honesty you don't need very much ZDDP in oil for a motor like a 350Z/370Z since its a DOHC design.

M1 5w-30/0w-40 (depending on cylinder wall design) is the #1 Race oil ran every weekend by professional race teams. 5w-30 M1 is what Roush Yates uses in and recommends for their motors including the Grand-Am DP motors that run on it for 24 hours strait. So saying it doesn't protect under hard driving situations is pretty laughable.

5w-30 M1 is what they run in the Doran 370Z and they have had Zero failures as the result of oiling.

Also, I know for a fact that when run on the Dyno M1 (5w-30 and 0w-40) make the same power as basically every synthetic on the market in a 370Z within 1/2 a HP to Amsoil/Redline/Motul/Brad Penn. They have all been ran on the Dyno with basically no difference in power.

-Ron

I shouldnt have said it will not protect under hard driving i meant it wont protect as well.

Im not trying to argue about proven tests that clearly show Amsoil being superior, people will run what they want but some oils are better then others.

I run Royal Purple 5-30 in my Nismo and have run Royal Purple in all my drift/race cars, and my other vehicals trucks and such, but never for my WRX.

I also change my oil often usually just before 3K, and if I know it's going to be a hot weather event I'll change it out before.

Moble 1 sucks in my opinion, I have used it quite a few times and hated it. I wouldn't put it into any of my cars even it if was given to me.

I heard good things about Eneos, Motul, and Red Line, but never have tried them.

I pitted for dirt modified race team for a few years, and all they used was Red Line. We also changed the oil after every race.

How many people are running Amsoil?

I've pretty much always avoided Amsoil precisely because of their MLM model of business. I know zero about how awesome (or not) the oil is. It might be the single best-engineered oil on the planet for all I know. But my gut says stay way from MLM-ish stuff in general, and every time I see someone comment positively on Amsoil anywhere, I have to wonder if they're a dealer...

The only thing I have every used in the Z, car has a 112,000 miles on it and still runs like a champ. Since the Z is only a track car now, switching over to thie, AMSOIL DOMINATOR® 10W-30 Racing Oil

Even when the car got tuned, the tuner said it was one of the stronger motors they have seen with that about of miles on it. So I am sold

I switched to Dominator when I saw the extreme temps that my oil sees on the track.

To the OP - I'd suggest you get an oil analysis on whatever oil you choose. Or a Dyson analysis for even more detailed information. You are probably good with any named synthetic oil, and make it a practice to change it after a track day.

To the OP- I would definitely get an oil cooler if you're going to track your car. The stock 2012 oil cooler is insufficient for track duty. It's barely passable for hard street use.

There are 19, 25, and 34 row coolers that are out there. If you're going to track during the summer months, I would definitely go with the 34 row.

As for oil, if you stick with a synthetic and change it regularly- you'll be fine. If you want to spring for the expensive stuff that's ok, but Mobil 1 at Costco is super cheap and it'll work for track duty. Getting an oil cooler will enable your oil to last longer between changes as well.