kyle242gt

Hi all - just finished up another great day on the track - this time the full Five Miles of Thunderhill. Great time, lots of scary blind corners and rollercoaster elevation changes.

As I picked up the pace, I started getting occasional nags from the gauge cluster that the oil was low. Generally this happened on big elevation changes or hard braking.

Is there a common workaround for this (like running more oil)? Should I be concerned? What's the fix?

I also saw the oil temp around 290 a few times. It was near 100F ambient. Is there an easy oil cooler solution? Or you figure it's okay to run that hot? Water temp maxed about 230F.

Thanks!

Becker

iTrader: (4)

Kyle as far as oil temps look into the ground fixes and refreshers for this issue. Also, a friend of mine who tracks his car has added an oil cooler. His even fits with his headers, and he has had nothing negative to say about it. I want to say it said lingenfelter on it.

Onefast V

iTrader: (3)

Kyle I have run on the new five mile track and never had a low oil warning. Only problem I would get is the consistent bong from the oil temp which I know is wrong as an absolute measurement.

kyle242gt

Was that you I saw coming back Friday evening? If memory serves, it was a stickered-up gray one.

Maybe it is a temp warning... it's a bong and an alert in the gauge cluster, not a warning on the DIC.

AAIIIC

iTrader: (19)

I've never seen the Low Oil warning. My guess is that it would appear on the Nav screen rather than in the gauge cluster. I could be wrong.

The bonging and flashing warning in the gauge cluster could be either the oil pressure or the oil temp. You saw oil temps at 290F, so it's possible you were periodically hitting the 300F warning. It's also possible that it was low oil pressure, since you said it was happening during transients, which could be sloshing the oil away from the pick-up long enough to starve the pump.

I run 1/2 - 1qt over for track events. At one event I let level get a little low (less than 1/2qt overfilled) and I had 3 low oil pressure warnings. Since then I've been going a full quart over, and paying more attention to keeping it there, and haven't had an issue.

Junior-1

iTrader: (1)

All 3 would be a good fix.
The temp issue is a common occurrence, especially with a bad ground. The oil cooler will help that issue as well. And like AAIIC said 1/2 to 1 full qt over will help with the starvation issues which is what it sounds like was happening...

07CTS-V

iTrader: (6)

My temps were also the same as yours yesterday on a different track, oil and coolant. I did not get any low levels though. My pressure drops severely if I overfill more than 1/2 qt due to my stroker crank.

Onefast V

iTrader: (3)

Nope, I ran it when it first opened. I had a black CTS-V. I may have run into you at a hooked on driving HPDE at thunderhill before.

barrok69

Oil and water at 290/230 is perfectly fine. Especially for the ambient 100°F day you were talking about. If you do run at the 290+ temps for extended amounts of time I'd recommend changing your oil more regularly as it breaks down much faster at those higher temps. Investing in an oil cooler will help lower overall temps and there have been a few write ups in the forums about how to go about installing it.

Vcaddy71

iTrader: (2)

Never had low level warnings, but definitely had oil temp warnings. Cleaned up all the grounds and added an oil cooler, haven't had any problems since. Ran the short track at Thunderhill and oil stayed nice and cool. Ligenfelter sells the block adapter and it fits with B&B headers just fine.

hellride

Hey Kyle, that was probably me in the thunder Gray V with numbers 442 on it (tribute to my olds). I was out there with Trackmasters for Friday. Mine ran great and had no warning lights. I ran my oil right in the middle of high and low on the dipstick. I want to say my high oil temp was 250ish, 235 trans and 220 water if I remember correctly.

AAIIIC

iTrader: (19)

You may not have seen any warning lights, but I can tell you that running an LS motor (or really any motor) on track with the oil that low is asking for problems.

kyle242gt

Hey Hellride - good to see another local CTSV getting its workout. Even if I'm no longer a novelty!

Going to try to get to Sears Pt 9/21 or 10/??.

It was a lot cooler on Friday than Saturday, that may play a part.

I don't have the undertray/splash guard. Wonder how big a deal that is in cooling?

How's your car set up, and/or how hard were you pushing it? I was getting to 120 on the front straight, 110 on the back straight, and right around 85-90 around turn 8E. This is the first I've had the warning light/bong, so I'm guessing I was really hustling this pig.

Reason I ask is even accounting for a 10* ambient difference, we're still a long ways apart in temps.

hellride

Ya our speeds are about the same. I was 120 max in 4th on the front then on the brakes into the turn. 8e same 80-87. Back straight about 105. I wanted to save my brakes over the course of the day as they were already getting punished and and extra few mph pushing the car deeper into the straights just seemed to add more brake fade across the course. I would definitely like to make sonoma coming up. My will look for you out there and come say what's up. V1's unite!

hellride

My car is stock pretty much. Nitto nt05's made a big difference. Wait4me tune, straight pipes in place of cats with stock exhaust manifolds, k&n intake, 160 Lingenfelter stat. That's about it. How about yours?

hellride

Nt05's 275/35/18 on stock rims all the way around

kyle242gt

Thanks man, appreciate the info. I'm all stock, except for HP+ pads in front and ATE blue. Running V12's (280tw) 245/45 + 275/40.

Hope to see you out there!