One thing that came out of Combe yesterday was that 12 minutes or so of hardcore track use saw my oil temps (in the sump) increase to about 110 degrees C. Made the little red light flash on the gauge too. So, in reality, what kind of temps is the oil designed to go up to in this kind of scenario? It soon went back down to around the 85 mark once I had a single lap of cooling down at the end, and everything was fine temp wise on the way home too.

Do you think if it went up to 120 degrees+ that would be an issue?

Well I used to have to run test filters at 144 degrees celsius and to do this safely I needed to use Skydrol...

I would just check the spec sheet for whatever oil you use first and go from there. BTW Coomb is a car killer (Even if you keep it on the back stuff) and I would advise an oil change before and after anything more than a few laps.

Oil change coming up very soon anyway. My oil is Quantum Platinum 505.01 stuff.

If you remove the oil temperature gauge you won't have to worry about high temps.

If you remove the oil temperature gauge you won't have to worry about high temps.

Thanks for that! :P The car (if I ignored the gauges) never said anything was out the ordinary so I am happy with that. One good thing was the coolant temps kept VERY nice and low during the track work which showed me removing the AC rad has helped with venting the normal rad to keep the water cool. I might try investing in a dedicated external oil cooler.

I saw 131 degree's on my gauge yesterday at Combe (Sender is in sump)

133 at Donnington a few weeks back & 132 at Brands Hatch. At which point I backed off as i've been informed that 130 degree's is the point at which many oils start to turn to water.

I don't have an oil temp gauge but my water temperature gauge didn't budge from just below 90

I saw 131 degree's on my gauge yesterday at Combe (Sender is in sump)

133 at Donnington a few weeks back & 132 at Brands Hatch. At which point I backed off as i've been informed that 130 degree's is the point at which many oils start to turn to water.

Woah! :eek: Mine never got that high thankfully. I wonder why yours shot up more than mine as essentially we have the same setup oil cooling wise? (unless having no AC rad also vents the oem oil cooler as well? :confused: )

Cool, my mate was at Combe yesterday, he has a Silver E36 M3! Would have been out on track too

Alex

There were at least a couple of M3s - One was a CSL and not sure on any older generation ones as they're a little less obvious to spot.

Jason I would give Guy a call at Opie Oils if you plan on doing more track work, he can advise you. I've seen nearly 130 degrees on the gauge in the S2 at Combe but I did change the oil as soon as I got home as I didn't trust it.

Any track work I do will be based on my car being a "road-car" but it would be nice to know how far you can push the standard 505.01 grade oil.

110c would be fine if using a good quality fully synth, i dont think 120 for small amounts of time would do much harm either, ive seen these temps before on my old 1.8 16v '93 Clio when on a spirited motorway run, i used to used Fuchs/Motul/Silkolene in that