Maintinance History: It is a GR86 with under 30k miles. The car has an unusually frequent oil change history that a nonBITOGER would consider excessive: Break in change at 1k mile, then every 3k miles with Pennzoil Ultra Platinum 5w20. Then Used Kirkland 5w30 for 3K miles, and moved to Motul 300V 5w40 for 4 changes. Used Mobil 1 ESP 5w30 once, and now on Valvoline Restore and Protect (5:1 mix of 5w20 and 5w30). It also got 2 complimentary oil change at Toyota with 0w20, but then changed back in less than 500 miles.
The Vehicle: It`s US manual specs 0w20, but Australian/Japanese manuals permits 5w30 (no surprise). It is shown to have some serious oil pressure drop issues on track on hard right hand turns especially if the vehicle has significant grip upgrades (mine is pretty much stock). It is also shown that overfilling it by about 0.5-1 quart helps alleviating it. The spec is 5.3 quarts on each oil change, which brings me exactly to the full mark (or a couple millimeters below). I have been putting 6 quarts each time, corresponding to a 0.7 quart overfill. On each track day, I check the oil level in the morning, mid day (waiting at least 1 hour to let all the oil drain to the pan), and once in the evening. I marked the 6 quart level on the dipstick, and never let the oil fall below the mid point between the full mark and 6 quart mark.
Usage: It sees a mix of track days, highway miles to the track, and maybe 50 miles of short trips as my daily for every 1K mile.
Oil Consumption Log:
Motul 300V 5w-40 1st fill: 0.4 quart top up (4 track days, 13XX miles)
Motul 300V 5w-40 2nd fill: 0.6 quarts (4 track days and 1 autocross, 17XX miles)
(Installed 200TW tires here)
Motul 300V 5w-40 3rd fill: 1.1 quarts (4 track days, 15XX miles)
Motul 300V 5w-40 4th fill: 1.5 quarts (3 track days, 32XX miles, mostly highway, all in <10 days)
Mobil 1 ESP 5w-30: 0 quarts (2 track days, 22XX miles, mostly highway all in 1 week)
(Installed All season tires)
Valvoline Restore and Protect 5w-20 and 5w-30 mix (5:1): 0 quarts (0 track days, 30XX miles, mix of short trips and highway)
Up until trying Mobil 1 ESP, I was under the impression that my car burns 0.5 - 0.7 quart per track weekend, and that was what it was. As it progressively got worse, i thought it might be a PCV issue, so I bought a replacement but I was waiting for Valvoline Restore and Protect to do its magic before replacing the PCV. (As someone from Valvoline said that their additive might be reaching the piston rings through PCV). And seeing absolutely no noticeable oil consumption with Mobil 1 ESP and Valvoline Restore and Protect, I don`t think I will install the new PCV any time soon.
I have the assumption that Motul 300V is one of the best oils for track usage, but perhaps not the best choice for the cat purposes. I would have expected the oil to be much less volatile than that, but @JAG also has already shown (link here) that it is highly volatile (around 15.4%). I guess this is also a good testament to the work @JAG has been doing with his volatility tests.
So my question is, can there be a strategic reason to why might one make race oil more volatile? Or would you think there is another variable here I am missing that might cause the drastic difference?
The Vehicle: It`s US manual specs 0w20, but Australian/Japanese manuals permits 5w30 (no surprise). It is shown to have some serious oil pressure drop issues on track on hard right hand turns especially if the vehicle has significant grip upgrades (mine is pretty much stock). It is also shown that overfilling it by about 0.5-1 quart helps alleviating it. The spec is 5.3 quarts on each oil change, which brings me exactly to the full mark (or a couple millimeters below). I have been putting 6 quarts each time, corresponding to a 0.7 quart overfill. On each track day, I check the oil level in the morning, mid day (waiting at least 1 hour to let all the oil drain to the pan), and once in the evening. I marked the 6 quart level on the dipstick, and never let the oil fall below the mid point between the full mark and 6 quart mark.
Usage: It sees a mix of track days, highway miles to the track, and maybe 50 miles of short trips as my daily for every 1K mile.
Oil Consumption Log:
Motul 300V 5w-40 1st fill: 0.4 quart top up (4 track days, 13XX miles)
Motul 300V 5w-40 2nd fill: 0.6 quarts (4 track days and 1 autocross, 17XX miles)
(Installed 200TW tires here)
Motul 300V 5w-40 3rd fill: 1.1 quarts (4 track days, 15XX miles)
Motul 300V 5w-40 4th fill: 1.5 quarts (3 track days, 32XX miles, mostly highway, all in <10 days)
Mobil 1 ESP 5w-30: 0 quarts (2 track days, 22XX miles, mostly highway all in 1 week)
(Installed All season tires)
Valvoline Restore and Protect 5w-20 and 5w-30 mix (5:1): 0 quarts (0 track days, 30XX miles, mix of short trips and highway)
Up until trying Mobil 1 ESP, I was under the impression that my car burns 0.5 - 0.7 quart per track weekend, and that was what it was. As it progressively got worse, i thought it might be a PCV issue, so I bought a replacement but I was waiting for Valvoline Restore and Protect to do its magic before replacing the PCV. (As someone from Valvoline said that their additive might be reaching the piston rings through PCV). And seeing absolutely no noticeable oil consumption with Mobil 1 ESP and Valvoline Restore and Protect, I don`t think I will install the new PCV any time soon.
I have the assumption that Motul 300V is one of the best oils for track usage, but perhaps not the best choice for the cat purposes. I would have expected the oil to be much less volatile than that, but @JAG also has already shown (link here) that it is highly volatile (around 15.4%). I guess this is also a good testament to the work @JAG has been doing with his volatility tests.
So my question is, can there be a strategic reason to why might one make race oil more volatile? Or would you think there is another variable here I am missing that might cause the drastic difference?
