Jump to content
SAU Community

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


Recommended Posts

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.

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!

  • Like 1

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 ==).

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.

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.

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)?

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

  • Like 1

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?

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 :)

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

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).

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.

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,

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. :-)

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now



  • Latest Posts

    • Next on the to-do list was an oil and filter change. Nothing exciting to add here except the oil filter is in a really stupid place (facing the engine mount/subframe/steering rack). GReddy do a relocation kit which puts it towards the gearbox, I would have preferred towards the front but there's obviously a lot more stuff there. Something I'll have to look at for the next service perhaps. First time using Valvoline oil, although I can't see it being any different to most other brands Nice... The oil filter location... At least the subframe wont rust any time soon I picked up a genuine fuel filter, this is part of the fuel pump assembly inside the fuel tank. Access can be found underneath the rear seat, you'll see this triangular cover Remove the 3x plastic 10mm nuts and lift the cover up, pushing the rubber grommet through The yellow fuel line clips push out in opposite directions, remove these completely. The two moulded fuel lines can now pull upwards to disconnect, along with the wire electrical plug. There's 8x 8mm bolts that secure the black retaining ring. The fuel pump assembly is now ready to lift out. Be mindful of the fuel hose on the side, the hose clamp on mine was catching the hose preventing it from lifting up The fuel pump/filter has an upper and lower section held on by 4 pressure clips. These did take a little bit of force, it sounded like the plastic tabs were going to break but they didn't (don't worry!) The lower section helps mount the fuel pump, there's a circular rubber gasket/grommet/seal thing on the bottom where the sock is. Undo the hose clip on the short fuel hose on the side to disconnect it from the 3 way distribution pipe to be able to lift the upper half away. Don't forget to unplug the fuel pump too! There's a few rubber O rings that will need transferring to the new filter housing, I show these in the video at the bottom of this write up. Reassembly is the reverse Here's a photo of the new filter installed, you'll be able to see where the tabs are more clearing against the yellow OEM plastic Once the assembly is re-installed, I turned the engine over a few times to help build up fuel pressure. I did panic when the car stopped turning over but I could hear the fuel pump making a noise. It eventually started and has been fine since. Found my 'lucky' coin underneath the rear seat too The Youtube video can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLJ65pmQt44&t=6s
    • It was picked up on the MOT/Inspection that the offside front wheel bearing had excessive play along with the ball joint. It made sense to do both sides so I sourced a pair of spare IS200 hubs to do the swap. Unfortunately I don't have any photos of the strip down but here's a quick run down. On the back of the hub is a large circular dust cover, using a flat head screw driver and a mallet I prised it off. Underneath will reveal a 32mm hub nut (impact gun recommended). With the hub nut removed the ABS ring can be removed (I ended up using a magnetic pick up tool to help). Next up is to remove the stub axle, this was a little trickier due to limited tools. I tried a 3 leg puller but the gap between the hub and stub axle wasn't enough for the legs to get in and under. Next option was a lump hammer and someone pulling the stub axle at the same time. After a few heavy hits it released. The lower bearing race had seized itself onto the stub axle, which was fine because I was replacing them anyway. With the upper bearing race removed and the grease cleaned off they looked like this The left one looked pristine inside but gave us the most trouble. The right one had some surface rust but came apart in a single hit, figure that out?! I got a local garage to press the new wheel bearings in, reassemble was the opposite and didn't take long at all. Removing the hub itself was simple. Starting with removing the brake caliper, 2x 14mm bolts for the caliper slider and 2x 19mm? for the carrier > hub bolts. I used a cable tie to secure the caliper to the upper arm so it was out of the way, there's a 10mm bolt securing the ABS sensor on. With the brake disc removed from the hub next are the three castle nuts for the upper and lower ball joints and track rod end. Two of these had their own R clip and one split pin. A few hits with the hammer and they're released (I left the castle nuts on by a couple of turns), the track rod ends gave me the most grief and I may have nipped the boots (oops). Fitting is the reversal and is very quick and easy to do. The lower ball joints are held onto the hub by 2x 17mm bolts. The castle nut did increase in socket size to 22mm from memory (this may vary from supplier) The two front tyres weren't in great condition, so I had those replaced with some budget tyres for the time being. I'll be replacing the wheels and tyres in the future, this was to get me on the road without the worry of the police hassling me.
    • Yep, the closest base tune available was for the GTT, I went with that and made all the logical changes I could find to convert it to Naturally Aspirated. It will rev fine in Neutral to redline but it will be cutting nearly 50% fuel the whole way.  If I let it tune the fuel map to start with that much less fuel it wont run right and has a hard time applying corrections.  These 50% cuts are with a fuel map already about half of what the GTT tune had.  I was having a whole lot of bogging when applying any throttle but seem to have fixed that for no load situations with very aggressive transient throttle settings. I made the corrections to my injectors with data I found for them online, FBCJC100 flowing 306cc.  I'll have to look to see if I can find the Cam section. I have the Bosch 4.9 from Haltech. My manifold pressure when watching it live is always in -5.9 psi/inHg
    • Hi My Tokico BM50 Brake master cylinder has a leak from the hole between the two outlets (M10x1) for brake pipes, I have attached a photo. Can anyone tell me what that hole is and what has failed to allow brake fluid to escape from it, I have looked on line and asked questions on UK forums but can not find the answer, if anyone can enlighten me I would be most grateful.
    • It will be a software setting. I don't believe many on here ever used AEM. And they're now a discontinued product,that's really hard to find any easy answers on. If it were Link or Haltech, someone would be able to just send you a ECU file though.
×
×
  • Create New...