Not to spark any sort of oil debate, just sharing my experience from this past weekend. Backstory: we race an H22 powered Prelude in ChumpCar, with our first race being this past March at VIR. We were running M1 0w40 and needing to add about 1/2 quart every 1.5 hrs. The car ran great so I didn't care too much, nature of the H-series I figured. Fast forward to this past weekend where I did a 3-day DE event, this time running Rotella T6 5w40. Over the course of 5 hrs of track time, I added only 1/2 a quart. Good enough for me!

 

Do you think the oil is getting past the rings or are you losing the oil to blow by? I have an H23 and the PCV is routed through a catch can before it goes through the intake. I've found that if I start with the oil near the full mark on the dipstick, I'll end up with about 1/2 quart in the catch can after an hour of running. Doesn't seem to matter what type or weight of oil I use.

 

Excellent point that I had thought about, then forgot about. I do think at the March race we could have been overfilling a little too much. I was basically just guessing at how much to go over past full, whereas for this past weekend I had the dipstick marked at 1/2 Q over full. Even at the "full" mark my OP light flickers a little in the corners. I can't say exactly how much I drained out of my catch can after the race, but it was definitely less than 1/2 a quart.

 

T6 is engineered for diesel engines, meaning it's got all kinds of additives and whatnot to make it stand up to higher heat and shearing forces, so it could be that it's holding up better on track. Second thing, DE events are normally a lot shorter than ChumpCar race, so not running up in higher RPMs for a while and having a short session followed by down time could have something to do with it.

 

True on both, M1 0w40 is a pretty "light" 40 weight as well.

The CC race was 11 hours of drive time on VIR South, the DE was a whole bunch of sessions on VIR Full. If I look at the lap count of "full laps" it's still over 5 hours of hard driving (I had a co-driver one day). Full course had much more high rpm/WOT time, so I still think it's worth looking at. Air temp this past weekend was +35-40ish degrees vs the race, and oil temps were 15* higher.

Again this is far from any sort of scientific study, but I was very pleased with not having to add oil but once over the course of the weekend.

 

based on previous experience in turbo motors, i dont touch mobil 1 oils. they are always "thin" for the weight. over 6ish years of of uoa's on my evo and waiting on results for my h2 car and gtr...amsoil has become my go to. i typically run 10w40 high zinc in my cars, but ive been racing on dominator 10w30. i dont run an oil cooler so i need something i can trust to hand 270-290 degrees repeatedly.

 

Can't go wrong with Amsoil. I run their 5w30 in my '15 Mustang GT on track days and I've noticed oil temp gauge will stay around middle vs inching towards the hot side with Mobil 1 on hot days.

 

M1 thinned out on me pretty quickly on the track. I've switched to amsoil dominator 10w-30 and its been great so far. its much more expensive... but I'm tired of swapping engines.

 

i was previously changing it for every race weekend since im always paranoid, but this weekend im heading out for a second weekend on once change. illl uoa it and see if it works.

 

I'm tempted to be cheap and do the same... but since the car is already up in the air... I'm going to drain it lol. also... I really don't want to swap motors again. building H2 spec B20s is getting old

 

im still racing on my first motor amazingly...but i have a spare block i should probably start rebuilding...

 

How long are thos motors lasting you? I spun bearings in my b20v on my first 100+ degree track day.

 

The first motor died in a freak way. 5 laps into my first session and I spun bearings. the first motor I was spinning to 8k with no oil cooler and running M1. I put down 169.5hp/137.4tq (DynoDynamics dyno)... when I pulled it apart it looks like over time, filter material collected in the oil pick up (some not a lot)... on track i was +370* oil and 198* with the coolant... I felt the power loss, checked my gauges, and my oil temp was sky high.

Motor two was pulled apart and found filter material in an oil journal (they must use the crappiest filters in japan on these b20s)... cleaned it up, assembled it ... I put down 154hp/124tq (mustang dyno)... I have one weekend on it. and she is running strong. I'm only reving this one to 7,500 and i added a 24 row oil cooler. I was running about 200* at VIR with both oil and coolant

I'll be at Summit this weekend where the 240k mile B18B finally popped a head gasket and sent me down the B20 path. we will see how it holds up. After this event i'll be on an S300 V3 with a ipad mini dash, so i should be able to data log "better" for the motor. so when this one finally lets go i'll have more to share.

 

I apologize for going slightly off-topic, but what oil temp range are you guys looking for on track? Or - I guess - what's a safe range?

 

Me: at roughly 50*F air temp, I was 215* oil temp. At 85* air, 225* oil. It never moves by more than a degree or two. I've deleted the factory oil cooler and use a pretty big air-to-oil cooler in front of the radiator.

Most synthetics should hold up fine to the 275* range, north of that I'd start getting nervous.

 

i dont run any oil cooler at the moment, i usually peak at about 270 in a 30 minute sprint race.

 

Summit Point, +80* and 80% humidity... tighter course than VIR, more 3rd gear digs... 230* oil and 200* water temps every session... in the rain the temps came down to about 220* oil and 198* water. I attribute that to a little less throttle input.

 

 

Its not a B20v... its a B20 built to HC2 spec. Essentially valve springs, spec cams, header, etc. no Vtec. I am on a stock JDM high compression bottom end. no rod bolts in this motor (and I'm keeping the revs down because if it and not upgrading the oil pump). I've heard even the ARPs will fail in the B20... so I am likely moving to the B16 I have sitting in the garage.

70psi is good at wide open, that's about what I have. so your oil temps are probably okay.

 

 

I didn't need the P8R to make power. I was able to be over the horse power cap on a P75... my curve looks good too so I'm not too upset. The B16 will also be H2 spec.. just need to source ITR/CTR cams.

 

fwiw, my b20v went on the 4th session of a 100+ degree day. I don't think I was revving higher than 7200 with arp studs and all that. About 190whp. I wouldn't build another.

 

 

how many street miles is a track day equivalent too, in your opinion?

obviously driver skill / ability matters alot in this context but...

 

my car lives between 4,700 and 7,500 RPM (based on shift points, GSR with 4.4 FD, 7500 redline) for 20-30 minutes a session... 8 session a weekend.

for perspective... I change my oil and trans fluid at least every other even. 8 hours on track is the maximum i'll run before I do a fluid change... you would do your fluids every 3-5k miles right? just some different perspective.