[Phil G]

I found a thread that was related to this, but was pretty old. Decided it was time for a new one.

I have only done one HPDE with my 335i (Road Atlanta two years ago). I'm going back to Road Atlanta in a couple weeks with BMW CCA. Last time I was there, I had oil temps well into the 300's, and had to pit a few times due to limp mode issues.

My indy mechanic said that running heavier oil on track days may help the oil temp issue. Do any of you do this? If so, what kind of oil do you use? Unfortunately upgrading oil cooler is not an option at this point.

[Cloud9blue]

Jesus... You really shouldn't have let the oil temp shoot up to 300F. And if you haven't already, you should really change out those oil asap. Even synthetic oil degrades significantly at that temp.

Any decent synthetic oil would work, 0W40 weight seems to be ideal for this type of engine. But you should solve your overheat issue on your car with some oil cooler and upgraded radiator next time you want to beat on your car on he track. And if you don't want to upgrade the thermal system, there is no other choice for you other than taking it easy on the track and do a few cool down laps every now and then. There is no magic oil that will survive +300 F temp.

[davidwarren]

Do you have a stock oil cooler? If so, you could get the reduced temp oil thermostat from Ad engineering. It won't add any cooling capacity, but may get you an extra lap or two just because you'll be able to use the oil cooler sooner.
A coolant flush with a greater percentage of water plus a water-wetter or similar product would help a bit.

[just_dirty]

Originally Posted by davidwarren

Do you have a stock oil cooler? If so, you could get the reduced temp oil thermostat from Ad engineering. It won't add any cooling capacity, but may get you an extra lap or two just because you'll be able to use the oil cooler sooner.
A coolant flush with a greater percentage of water plus a water-wetter or similar product would help a bit.

Whats the point? You still wont be able to get full session in. I run a Setrab 625 with no Thermostat and still see 270-280 degree oil temps towards the end of a session(will probably add another one). I would go with dual coolers if you're going to be seeing a good amount of track days a year.

[Phil G]

Originally Posted by Cloud9blue

Jesus... You really shouldn't have let the oil temp shoot up to 300F. And if you haven't already, you should really change out those oil asap. Even synthetic oil degrades significantly at that temp.

Any decent synthetic oil would work, 0W40 weight seems to be ideal for this type of engine. But you should solve your overheat issue on your car with some oil cooler and upgraded radiator next time you want to beat on your car on he track. And if you don't want to upgrade the thermal system, there is no other choice for you other than taking it easy on the track and do a few cool down laps every now and then. There is no magic oil that will survive +300 F temp.

Yeah, unfortunately I was so new to HPDE and trying so hard to pay attention to my driving, I never really looked down at the temp. The only reason I realized it was that high was because I noticed a huge loss of power and looked at my gauges. Thankfully the car was smarter than me......

Even in September, Atlanta is very hot and humid. I think the temp was 90+F that day. I do want to upgrade the oil cooler and radiator, but unfortunately time has not allowed that for me (and no way I can do it over the next two weeks). I'm already having to work on my brakes before the event. I'm thinking that I'll just shift sooner and watch my temp more closely. I mean hey, it's my 2nd ever HPDE....I probably don't need to be driving it that hard anyway.

Originally Posted by davidwarren

Do you have a stock oil cooler? If so, you could get the reduced temp oil thermostat from Ad engineering. It won't add any cooling capacity, but may get you an extra lap or two just because you'll be able to use the oil cooler sooner.
A coolant flush with a greater percentage of water plus a water-wetter or similar product would help a bit.

Yes, I have a 6MT, and can see the oil cooler lines. Unfortunately I wouldn't have time for the thermostat install though. I thought about changing up the radiator fluid mix.....may try that if time allows before the HPDE.

Back to oil......is the consensus just to use Mobil 1 0W40? My indy BMW mechanic threw out the idea of using some sort of heavier Motul during the HPDE....felt like he said something like 15W60, but could be wrong.....

[davidwarren]

Originally Posted by just_dirty

Whats the point? You still wont be able to get full session in. I run a Setrab 625 with no Thermostat and still see 270-280 degree oil temps towards the end of a session(will probably add another one). I would go with dual coolers if you're going to be seeing a good amount of track days a year.

pretty much the point was he could get an extra lap or two in before he had to cool off. Since he said he's not going to upgrade the cooler. I run a 625 with the stock cooler, but I'm not at the track again until next month. Excited to see how that works out.

[feuer]

I have been using Rotella T6 since 2010 with around 100k miles covered and at least over 20 track events, 2 different vehicles, no issues.
My brother uses in his bikes as well, gsxr6, same, no issues.

[dbworld4k]

I have a 2009 with the factory oil cooler. After about 12 laps on a 3.5mi circuit I noticed mine creep to 290F at which point I decided to cool down the car and exit the track. I never once hit limp mode though, surprisingly enough!

Is there any oil for our FBO/93 N54s that's proven to handle higher temps better/run a little longer before hitting such temps?

[Cloud9blue]

Originally Posted by dbworld4k

I have a 2009 with the factory oil cooler. After about 12 laps on a 3.5mi circuit I noticed mine creep to 290F at which point I decided to cool down the car and exit the track. I never once hit limp mode though, surprisingly enough!

Is there any oil for our FBO/93 N54s that's proven to handle higher temps better/run a little longer before hitting such temps?

You might as well change your oil after each track day if you insist on tracking the car with stock cooling setup. I don't think anyone who track extensively would risk running that high of an oil temp.

Limp mode for oil is 300F, but you could trigger it much earlier if your coolant temp is too high.

[dbworld4k]

I've always changed my oil after every trackday for my previous BMWs, this car will be no different (getting it done as I type this, actually).

I'm not looking to make this a serious track car but I do wish to enjoy a few track days per season now that I have a proper suspension set up and LSD going in. This event was totally unplanned and a spur of the moment decision at Autobahn. Evidently, my 19s with DW and Akebono Euros were not up for more than a half dozen laps per round lol.

[superg914]

Something else to keep in mind on track, these cars have a lot of torque so you don't need to rev the piss out of them constantly. In a corner where you might be at redline in 3rd on exit, try taking it in 4th gear and compare your RPM at the braking zone for the following corner.

For example, when I've run at Road Atlanta, I can downshift going into turn 5 to 3rd gear but then have to grab 4th really fast after exit, or just leave it in 4th. Downshifting feels faster, but speeds at the braking point for turn 6 suggest otherwise AND I'm not cooking the turbos as much. Similar example is Mosport, turns 9 and 10. Going down to 3rd just puts the revs up high but doesn't offer any advantage in my experience. I've found that my oil temps top out at about 270F and I don't get limp mode. When I mess around with the extra up/down shifting, I can easily get the oil up to 300F.

Just my $.02, YMMV...

[dbworld4k]

^Very good point. At Autobahn, I used 3rd gear almost 90$ of the time. So much TQ it negated the need to shift throughout much of the track. It's probably a big reason for my oil temps not shooting up to 300 as quickly as many report.

[The HACK]

Heavier oil is only marginally masking the bigger issue at hand, which is the lack of cooling.

You can try throwing liquid gold in there (i.e. Caste ok TWS 10W-60) and if you don't fix the lack of cooling, it still won't help as you pick up more speed.

Heat is your enemy.

[Riceball777]

can the 335i stock with the stock oil cooler even be tracked reliably ?

[Cloud9blue]

Originally Posted by Riceball777

can the 335i stock with the stock oil cooler even be tracked reliably ?

Well, I made do with stock setup last year. You just have to run JB4 maxcool mode and turn the HVAC fan and heater to max to help the cooling. Even then, I can hit 270F (JB4 goes into protection mode and lower the boost) after a few laps on a warm day. Never hit limp mode though.

So it really depends on what you mean by"reliably". You can definitely track the car as it, but just don't expect to have it perform at 100% for the entire session.