Driving The Car Hard After Long Periods Bad? (Track Days Etc..)

[Deza3000]

So ive probably owned my first turbo charged car for little over a year now, boosted, tuned and serviced every 5000ks. However recently ive been driving the car a bit harder, e.g. mountains, rural areas and the odd track day. Usually high revs and mostly on 2nd, 3rd or 4th gear, entering and exiting corners, sometimes for 1/2 an hour straight with small breaks in between. It then occurred to me, people have oil pressure gauges, oil temp gauges, transmission temp gauges, oil catch cans, wideband o2 sensors etc.. for this type of driving, So i decided to give the car a rest and walked over to the front, and felt a huge amount of heat radiating from the bonnet vents, so i opened the bonnet and let it cool down for 1/2 an hour. Thats where the OCD/paranoia kicked in.... I also noticed the "check oil light" flicker when idling after the run, which indicated the pressure was too low due to the oil getting too thin from the heat.

was just wondering how bad i might of hurt the car? Makes me feel shi***y inside
Topped her up with some castrol edge, which i got for bloody cheap (25 bucks for 5 liters) at supercheap.

[kaneryan]

me personally i like to know whats going on in the car. obviously the usuals help (oil cooler/bigger intercooler/bigger radiator) but if you need them then do it. i would find out all your temps first after some spirited driving and then see if you are in need of them. no point buying an oil cooler if you dont need it.

"although over compensating isnt always a bad thing especially for the future"

and remember you get what you pay for. i personally like to spend the extra 20-30% on known brands because they have been tested and work correct and give you a better reading. for example ive known people that buy rip off gauges and the temp just reads all over the place. food for thought!

[Deza3000]

Cheers for the reply man! Yea makes sense, i had no clue what the car was doing, it was only when the oil light started to flicker, that i realized the oil must of gotten pretty hot. After a 35minutes of cooling it down the light never came on again. So yea i guess a oil temp and oil pressure gauge is mandatory to have.

What brands do you recommend? I dont really trust the supercheap auto/ autobarn gauges e.g. saas, drift, calibre... Correct me if im wrong.

I currently have a Greddy boost gauge, calibrated, and with warranty (although its all in japanese ==).

[gtr jet]

What oil do you run? Maybe try something a bit thicker?

[Hadouken]

The thing that concerns me here is that your oil light came on. That means you had zero oil pressure for a moment. Then you topped up oil... How much did you put in?

I think there should be no more thrashing until you put a pressure gauge on it.

[Deza3000]

What oil do you run? Maybe try something a bit thicker?

I dont really know what weight the oil was, all i know is that they put motul fully synthetic oil. Im guessing it was 10w-30? Thats why i bought some thicker oil (10w-40), to see how it would go.

The thing that concerns me here is that your oil light came on. That means you had zero oil pressure for a moment. Then you topped up oil... How much did you put in?

Yea it concerned me too, but it only happens on idle, it always comes on after a long drive (or spirited driving), hence why im assumng the oil is just getting too thin. It isnt a solid light, just a flicker on idle, sometimes it it stays solid (only on idle).

I topped up because i wanted to see if mixing thicker oil would reduce the oil flicker. Might need to flush out the old oil and put in a fresh batch of thick oil.

The oil was still full, so i only chucked in 500mls to avoid passing the max.

[kaneryan]

when was the last time you changed your oil? did you change your filter aswell? how much oil are you using when you do an oil change? does your stock oil pressue gauge work on your dash (assuming you have one)?

[75coupe]

Not a good idea to mix oils, especially non syth with full syth...

[kaneryan]

The oil was still full, so i only chucked in 500mls to avoid passing the max.

so it wasnt full then?? if you have done some spirited driving/ track day since your last oil change plus mixed oil, plus maybe you dont have enough oil in there all these together sounds like a bad mix. maybe time for you to do a proper oil change with some brand new oil and filter and see how it goes from there

[Deza3000]

when was the last time you changed your oil? did you change your filter aswell? how much oil are you using when you do an oil change? does your stock oil pressue gauge work on your dash (assuming you have one)?

Umm around 3000 ks ago, i service it every 5000ks including oil filter, also had the rocker cover gaskets changed etc... I have no stock oil pressure gauge Evo's dont have oil pressure gauges, which is pretty stupid in my eyes.

Not a good idea to mix oils, especially non syth with full syth...

Both oil's are fully synthetic, just different weight and different brands (motul & castrol). Blends might be slightly different as well i guess.

so it wasnt full then?? if you have done some spirited driving/ track day since your last oil change plus mixed oil, plus maybe you dont have enough oil in there all these together sounds like a bad mix. maybe time for you to do a proper oil change with some brand new oil and filter and see how it goes from there

Yea sounds like the most appropriate idea, i was looking into getting the oil pressure sensor changed too.

The oil was just below the max line... Ill see how it goes once i get a fresh batch of oil in there. Is it normal for oil to slightly depreciate?

[kaneryan]

ye

Umm around 3000 ks ago, i service it every 5000ks including oil filter, also had the rocker cover gaskets changed etc... I have no stock oil pressure gauge Evo's dont have oil pressure gauges, which is pretty stupid in my eyes.

Yea sounds like the most appropriate idea, i was looking into getting the oil pressure sensor changed too.
The oil was just below the max line... Ill see how it goes once i get a fresh batch of oil in there. Is it normal for oil to slightly depreciate?

hang on so this is in an evo??????
maybe you might get more help on OZEVO or more of a response as it might be a common issue with the 4G63

yes some cars like to drink oil, but as for an evo i have no idea

[Hadouken]

Lol. Sau serves all.

You need to run a 40 weight oil period.

Drop the oil and put New juice in it like Kane said. You evo guys will be sweet.

[Deza3000]

ye

hang on so this is in an evo??????

maybe you might get more help on OZEVO or more of a response as it might be a common issue with the 4G63

yes some cars like to drink oil, but as for an evo i have no idea

Haha yea thats alright man, Cheers for all the help!

There were a number of reasons i didnt go to an evo forum, 1 being because OZEVO forums are down, not to mention their interface isnt the best compared to SAU. I would of also tried evolutions.net, but they are hosted in the US, and only deal with evo 8 9 and 10, not to mention the time difference, it would take almost a day to receive any reply to queries i may have. That being said, SAU also has an evo section, i just didnt post there as i thought the topic would be rather generic and apply to all cars.

Lol. Sau serves all.

You need to run a 40 weight oil period.

Drop the oil and put New juice in it like Kane said. You evo guys will be sweet.

Cheers man, yep will do, ill see how i go.

One more thing, where can i get a decent oil pressure and oil temperature gauge in australia? Preferably a reputable brand?

Im guessing supercheap and autobarn arent reliable? Greddy costs an arm and a leg so not gonna bother importing one of those haha

[gtr jet]

I buy mine from here.

http://www.egauges.com/

[niZmO_Man]

As a rule of thumb, never mix oils.

Dump your oil, get a new oil filter, put something like Penrite Racing 10 (10W-40 full synthetic) and enjoy. Do this ASAP.

I'd get an oil cooler with a thermostat as well (no idea what Evo's have from factory).

[BuuBox]

If the engine couldn't maintain 4 psi of oil pressure at idle then you'd know about it - the bearing rattle and eventual rod out the block would be dead giveaways.

Probably the oil light sender (hopefully for your sake).

You should be using a quality 10W40 synthetic oil (e.g. Penrite Ten Tenths Racing 10W40), possibly a higher viscosity if you're tracking it without oil pressure and temperature gauges.

[Deza3000]

I buy mine from here.

http://www.egauges.com/

Oh nice, cheers man! They sell senders too! too easy

As a rule of thumb, never mix oils.

Dump your oil, get a new oil filter, put something like Penrite Racing 10 (10W-40 full synthetic) and enjoy. Do this ASAP.

I'd get an oil cooler with a thermostat as well (no idea what Evo's have from factory).

Ahh dang, i googled it before mixing, a lot of guides say that its okay to mix, now that i think about it, might of just been under normal circumstances and not spirited driving

I checked out if i had an oil cooler yesterday, i think it does? There is a small radiator located right next to the intercooler piping on the left hand side, not sure if its for the transmission or engine, will do some research soon! Might actually be easier to install a bigger oil cooler if this is the case.

If the engine couldn't maintain 4 psi of oil pressure at idle then you'd know about it - the bearing rattle and eventual rod out the block would be dead giveaways.

Probably the oil light sender (hopefully for your sake).

You should be using a quality 10W40 synthetic oil (e.g. Penrite Ten Tenths Racing 10W40), possibly a higher viscosity if you're tracking it without oil pressure and temperature gauges.

My tuner told me the exact same thing! If the bearings are f***d then im screwed. But yea ill start off with thicker oil and a oil pressure sender, see where that takes me.

I used penrite the first 6 months of owning the car, then i switched to motul fully synthetic as per the tuner suggested, apparently its the best oil to use for high performance motors? Maybe ill switch back to penrite, got suggested this brand of oil twice haha,

[KiwiRS4T]

Do some research. Its not a popularity contest. Get a quality full synthetic for the track.

[Hadouken]

You have a oil cooler. It's in the driver's side of the bumper.

[Humbla]

Nulon 1040 I've been using it for years on a mildly modded r33 ,do 30000 plus a year.No lifter noise on start up and engine purrs like a kitten on cruise but when you need to punch it no prob with oil pressure. :-)