Hello folks! My family is working on a new project car. I am hoping to pick the collective brain of BITOG.
The car is a 2011 Mustang with a 3.7l V6. We will be doing endurance racing, up to 14 hours at a time. Ford originally used 5W-20 in these engines. We are planning to run 15W-50. This is what Ford did on the Coyote engines with the Boss 302s. Factory 5.0l fill on GTs was 5W-20, the Boss got 15W-50 since it was designed for track use specifically. Obviously, we will be running good racing oil in the car. Thinking Redline or Amsoil right now, but I think any quality synthetic racing oil will work.
We are very limited on changes we can make in this series. External oil coolers, aftermarket race pans, etc won't fly. So I am very concerned about oil temps. I had a couple of ideas. I can run a factory Ecoboost, etc oil cooler mounted under the oil filter. I am aware these aren't all that effective compared to a quality external-mount cooler. But if coolant is at 200*, and oil is 280*, I have a hard time believing it won't have any effect. Certainly better than not using it. I am aware this will increase the heat load on the cooling system a bit, and that has to be managed, but we've already planned for cooling system. We have upgraded the radiator and will be sealing it at the core support, will be running a lower temp thermostat to bring the "floor" of the coolant temp down, have quality hood venting, etc. We are running a small aftermarket heater in the car using standard 5/8 heater hoses. So I am thinking of routing the coolant (which is coming from the lower rad hose after passing through the rad) through the heater core, then through the oil filter mount to feed it coolant that is as cool as possible.
The other thing I was thinking of is using a remote-mount filter kit (which IS legal). The plan there would be to use a quality filter-replacement block with -10 AN lines running to a remote filter block mounted on a frame rail away from heat sources and in a spot where ambient air is able to pass freely over it when the car is moving (filter currently sits behind the radiator). The goal here is twofold: 1. obviously, put the filter in the air stream where it might be able to shed some heat in the oil out of the filter, essentially using the filter as a heat sink, and 2. increase overall oil capacity with a larger filter. My thinking is that more oil overall means that each given amount of oil spends less time in the hot parts of the engine, so has a better shot at cooling down before it heads back to the bearings, etc to get reheated. This plan assumes that's true AND that I won't see any ill effects from running a HUGE filter.
This car would typically use an FL500 or FL820 filter. Since I am running lines to the remote filter mount, I can convert from the odd M22x1.5 filter to a standard 3/4x16 thread. I use the FL1A or Wix 51515R on my other cars, which I think is larger in capacity than the 500 or 820. I found another filter today that was apparently used on some heavier-duty trucks years ago, the FL299. It appears that this filter (from any quality manufacturer) would greatly increase the surface area (important for using the filter as a "heat sink") and capacity.
Is there any major disadvantage to running such a huge filter compared to factory? Oil pressure, etc? I can't see that happening, but worth asking.
Any thoughts on the rest of this plan or out-of-the-box ideas on how to keep an engine alive while wheel-to-wheel racing for extended periods?
The car is a 2011 Mustang with a 3.7l V6. We will be doing endurance racing, up to 14 hours at a time. Ford originally used 5W-20 in these engines. We are planning to run 15W-50. This is what Ford did on the Coyote engines with the Boss 302s. Factory 5.0l fill on GTs was 5W-20, the Boss got 15W-50 since it was designed for track use specifically. Obviously, we will be running good racing oil in the car. Thinking Redline or Amsoil right now, but I think any quality synthetic racing oil will work.
We are very limited on changes we can make in this series. External oil coolers, aftermarket race pans, etc won't fly. So I am very concerned about oil temps. I had a couple of ideas. I can run a factory Ecoboost, etc oil cooler mounted under the oil filter. I am aware these aren't all that effective compared to a quality external-mount cooler. But if coolant is at 200*, and oil is 280*, I have a hard time believing it won't have any effect. Certainly better than not using it. I am aware this will increase the heat load on the cooling system a bit, and that has to be managed, but we've already planned for cooling system. We have upgraded the radiator and will be sealing it at the core support, will be running a lower temp thermostat to bring the "floor" of the coolant temp down, have quality hood venting, etc. We are running a small aftermarket heater in the car using standard 5/8 heater hoses. So I am thinking of routing the coolant (which is coming from the lower rad hose after passing through the rad) through the heater core, then through the oil filter mount to feed it coolant that is as cool as possible.
The other thing I was thinking of is using a remote-mount filter kit (which IS legal). The plan there would be to use a quality filter-replacement block with -10 AN lines running to a remote filter block mounted on a frame rail away from heat sources and in a spot where ambient air is able to pass freely over it when the car is moving (filter currently sits behind the radiator). The goal here is twofold: 1. obviously, put the filter in the air stream where it might be able to shed some heat in the oil out of the filter, essentially using the filter as a heat sink, and 2. increase overall oil capacity with a larger filter. My thinking is that more oil overall means that each given amount of oil spends less time in the hot parts of the engine, so has a better shot at cooling down before it heads back to the bearings, etc to get reheated. This plan assumes that's true AND that I won't see any ill effects from running a HUGE filter.
This car would typically use an FL500 or FL820 filter. Since I am running lines to the remote filter mount, I can convert from the odd M22x1.5 filter to a standard 3/4x16 thread. I use the FL1A or Wix 51515R on my other cars, which I think is larger in capacity than the 500 or 820. I found another filter today that was apparently used on some heavier-duty trucks years ago, the FL299. It appears that this filter (from any quality manufacturer) would greatly increase the surface area (important for using the filter as a "heat sink") and capacity.
Is there any major disadvantage to running such a huge filter compared to factory? Oil pressure, etc? I can't see that happening, but worth asking.
Any thoughts on the rest of this plan or out-of-the-box ideas on how to keep an engine alive while wheel-to-wheel racing for extended periods?
