just wondering, since i have synthetic, should i change my oil before the track?(track day this saturday)

Last change was in sept and i only have 1800 miles on it.

 

Oil changes are cheap, it'd be worth the preventative maintenance since you'll be on a track which is a harsh environment. And 5 months on your oil is quite a while.

Short answer, I would.

 

Even w/ syn. oil and below the regular oil change mileage, I'd highly suggest it. Being that the oil change is much cheaper the failure of the current oil on the engine. Now this may never happen, but isn't the $20-40 oil change worth not having the risk.

As said before, short answer, I would.

 

I vote Yay

 

thanks for the replies. you all have a good point. oil change it is. thanks

 

1800 miles on full syn , just change it after the track day.

 

Frig change your oil more often or you're going to end up with engine sludge... it has been 5 months and you're only debating on changing your oil because you're going to the track. Sheesh.

I hope it doesn't seem like I'm lashing out or anything, just saying stay on top of that! Oil that sits gets acidic and sludge builds up, it may still hold good luberosity properties but you could end up with a dirty sludge like film all over the place that isn't going to come out with your regular oil change. It's different if your car is stored with fresh oil and not running, but if your car is being driven there is more contaminents getting into your oil.

 

I thought oil threads were banned in the Autocross/Road Racing forum?

 

IBTL

 

The discussion on what the "best" oil brands are definitely banned in this forum. But, maybe oil change intervals for someone new to HPDE's may be slightly more acceptable...just slightly, mind you.

I'm in the minority on this subject. I use synthetic oil and have an aux oil cooler. I just change my oil every 5000 miles. Within those 5000 miles, I usually get in 4 to 7 HPDE days. By now, I have about 55 track days, and 65k miles on the odometer. I guess I'm cheap and I like to live dangerously. The other two cars in our stable get oil changes every 9k to 12k miles (non-synthetic oil), and they have 186k and 224k miles on the odometer. The one with 224k is on original rotors, lol.

As for oil, I use whatever brand is on sale.

 

You are the rebel aren't you. ;-)

I am more conservative than you and do change my oil more often. I usually will change the oil in the Z twice a year. I never put many miles on my cars however. Having to take off the undertray on the Z to change the oil is really a pain however. I will be looking around for a quick drain plug for the Z. I've got them on a couple other cars and it speeds up the process.

I am embarrassed to admit that I once allowed an engine to sludge up. It was my wife's van and for some reason it slipped through the cracks. The other 4 cars in the stable got regular attention, but I missed that one. Cost me an engine rebuild. One very expensive lesson learned.

 

My brother has a 1999 Nissan Altima with the 2.5L engine. I've driven it before when it was new. One day, in 2005, I drove it, and it could barely go up the hill near my home (felt like it only had 75hp). After a series of questions, I finally asked him when was the last time he had the oil changed because if felt so underpowered. He told me he doesn't remember. In fact, he told me he doesn't remember EVER taking it in for an oil change, and it had about 95k miles on the odo back then!

 

Back when I worked for Lexus, we had a ES300 come in (1999 or 2000) w/ a blown engine. Noticed the front valve cover was dented out, so we pulled it off and found the oil was so sludged up that it locked up the one side of cams and the engine tried the force that bank to move and caused the cam to break in half. Talking to the lady that owned it and looking at our records of the car, it had not been in for any oil change in about 2.5yrs and close to 60k! When we pulled the engine and took it apart it was like it had glue inside the oil was so broken down and gummed up.