Oil weight

[Crild]

I tried searching thru Tapatalk & Google but didn't get any good info.

What oil weight would be good for heavy track use? I'm getting to about 260 and that is on a 75 degree day. Several people including some instructors said I should move up a weight to help manage the temps better. Currently running 5w-40 castrol edge.

What would be the next bump up to a thicker oil? Or if anyone has bumped up what oil do you run?

 

[Mini7]

The next step up would be to a 50-weight oil. Not sure that you get a 5-50 multi weight.
A 10-50 would work in Summer months without any cold start-up issues.

I’m in the same boat. My last time out at VIR in April had about the same ambient and I got as high as 270 and I back off for a lap or two. Until I figure out which way to go with an oil cooler. 10w50 will give a little better protection.

I’ll switch back to the 5W40 for late November DE’s.

 

[Crild]

The next step up would be to a 50-weight oil. Not sure that you get a 5-50 multi weight.
A 10-50 would work in Summer months without any cold start-up issues.

I’m in the same boat. My last time out at VIR in April had about the same ambient and I got as high as 270 and I back off for a lap or two. Until I figure out which way to go with an oil cooler. 10w50 will give a little better protection.

I’ll switch back to the 5W40 for late November DE’s.

Easier to change oil vs spending $550 on an oil cooler. Its hard to find anyone running thicker oil on these cars I would guess.

 

[aaronc7]

I'm a little late to the party but, personally I think at 260 you're probably fine as is. Much higher though and I would be shopping for oil cooler or run thicker oil.

A good compromise in your case might be running Red Line 5w40 or similar (vw/audi guys seem to like Motul?). In comparison to Mobil 1 0w40.... Mobil 1 has a HTHS of 3.5 while Red line 5w40 is 4.4.

So on paper at least, it should provide superior protection at high temps without being an overly thick 50 weight oil day to day, etc. Oil is about 2x the cost...but like someone else said, small cost in comparison to oil cooler.

https://www.redlineoil.com/5w40-motor-oil

 

[victorofhavoc]

i run a 10w-60 because I've hit 295 on track with the 40w.

Oil viscosity vs temp is a linear relationship (ignoring the multiweight oils near 0*C). If we assume VW designed these engines to run at ideal temps of 212*F with a 40W oil, then a 60W provides the same viscosity at approximately 248*F. Since moving to the 60W oil, my temps have actually gone down from 295 on a 95* day to 275-280 on a similar 95* day. My oil also seems to get up to temp a lot faster, though (225* or so in less than 5 min of street driving). Also, seems to be less oil burn on track.

I ran amsoil 5w-40 and had a "perfect" blackstone labs report, and we'll see how it returns this winter for the Liqui Moly 10w-60 full synthetic.

 

[Crild]

i run a 10w-60 because I've hit 295 on track with the 40w.

Oil viscosity vs temp is a linear relationship (ignoring the multiweight oils near 0*C). If we assume VW designed these engines to run at ideal temps of 212*F with a 40W oil, then a 60W provides the same viscosity at approximately 248*F. Since moving to the 60W oil, my temps have actually gone down from 295 on a 95* day to 275-280 on a similar 95* day. My oil also seems to get up to temp a lot faster, though (225* or so in less than 5 min of street driving). Also, seems to be less oil burn on track.

I ran amsoil 5w-40 and had a "perfect" blackstone labs report, and we'll see how it returns this winter for the Liqui Moly 10w-60 full synthetic.

Assuming that isn't a VW approved oil.

I've never gone higher than 258, I switched from Castrol to motul and saw reduction in temps by about 8 degrees.

 

[victorofhavoc]

Assuming that isn't a VW approved oil.

I've never gone higher than 258, I switched from Castrol to motul and saw reduction in temps by about 8 degrees.

I don't know of any oils that are higher than 40W that fall under the official 502 spec. The LM 10w-60 is the BMW M sport approved oil. Amsoil rarely gets direct manufacturer approvals from what I've seen, but I don't know anyone that can argue the quality and durability of their oils.

I typically do two-per-year Blackstone labs analyses because I find data more reliable than spec lists.

 

[GTI-CAL]

How accurate is the built in oil temp on the GTI's?
Are you guys getting your reading from the built in oil temp display?
I was at thunderhill on a 105 degree day and the highest temp i saw was 236F from built in display.

 

[Mini7]

I saw 245-255 in 35-55F ambients this past weekend.

 

[jimlloyd40]

I saw 245-255 in 35-55F ambients this past weekend.

If that's with just normal driving that's too high especially at that ambient temperature. I never see over 235 degrees and that's with an ambient temperature of 115 degrees in Phoenix.

 

[GTIfan99]

How accurate is the built in oil temp on the GTI's?
Are you guys getting your reading from the built in oil temp display?
I was at thunderhill on a 105 degree day and the highest temp i saw was 236F from built in display.

That's entirely possible if you're new to tracking and aren't pushing the car. If you're an experienced driver, then I highly doubt those numbers. Mine read 260 at 97deg ambient at Daytona in September, which is about what I expected for how I was driving. If I'd had better pads and tires and could have pushed harder, I would have expected higher.

 

[victorofhavoc]

How accurate is the built in oil temp on the GTI's?
Are you guys getting your reading from the built in oil temp display?
I was at thunderhill on a 105 degree day and the highest temp i saw was 236F from built in display.

From what I've seen of the data coming from OBD2, it appears the data fed to the ECU is accurate to 0.1*C. The gauge in the dash seems to display everything in 5*F intervals, so I would estimate it's accuracy as plus or minus 2.5* since the ECU data doesn't appear to be the accuracy limit. The 2.5 being half of 5 to account for the rounding the display is doing with 242.4* vs 242.6* likely doing the rounding to 240* vs 245*.

I've done one 105*+ day and I was pushing 295 in under 10 mins, water was getting very hot, timing was heavily retarded, two misfires in the mid rpm range, and throttle response was atrocious.

 

[GTI-CAL]

That's entirely possible if you're new to tracking and aren't pushing the car. If you're an experienced driver, then I highly doubt those numbers. Mine read 260 at 97deg ambient at Daytona in September, which is about what I expected for how I was driving. If I'd had better pads and tires and could have pushed harder, I would have expected higher.

I wasnt going all out ham but i did go full throttle on a lot of laps and never saw it go above 235-240. not that oil matters much but i was using castrol edge 0w-40

 

[Mini7]

If that's with just normal driving that's too high especially at that ambient temperature. I never see over 235 degrees and that's with an ambient temperature of 115 degrees in Phoenix.

The quoted temps are on track at VIR.

Normal highway driving, I see 210-224 depending on the ambient/traffic.

 

[victorofhavoc]

The quoted temps are on track at VIR.

Normal highway driving, I see 210-224 depending on the ambient/traffic.

With the oil cooler and stage 2, I have yet to see anything past 212 on the street, even on a 100*F day and 15 mins of driving. Without the oil cooler it would have been closer to 230. My issue now is that I can't get oil up to temp on the colder days. I almost never break 170 after 10-15 mins on the street, so I ride the car in the mid rpm range to get the temp up. I'm pretty sure the racingline pressure based valve opens way earlier than 186 or whatever it's claimed to be.

As an aside on the oil weight, I've gone up and down with various weights between Liqui-Moly and Amsoil. Heavier oil seems to be much more manageable on track with super hot days. It appears to keep the temps slightly lower (5 to 10 degrees ~), but more importantly there's a lot less PCV flooding and when up to temp the engine seems to like revving in the 6-7k range more (stock is20 turbo and some intake flow mods). As I add cooling, I anticipate better results with lighter oil. During cold mornings, the 10w60 has a very rough idle and long cold start. So far, both oils have come back fairly clean on blackstone labs reports.