BTW, going by the rules of the "modern synthetic oil", Porsche recommends changing the oil on your turbo evry 15k miles. ;-)

 

Just change it when you normally would. Has anyone ever heard of a modern motor failing because "the oil wore out"? News to me.........Best,

 

Here's the bottom line.

If you had to choose whether to brush your teeth a) at night before bed, or b) in the morning after you wake, which would you pick? A night of sleep is essentially the same as a day at the track...

I'm going with a morning brush, so I can be fresh for the day ahead. Anything else is just ludicrous. Who wants to go the whole next day with morning stink-breath?

 

Do not do this. Slightly below max is where you want to be and never over.

 

The question wasn't about when to change the oil but whether to change it before tracking or after since tracking for 2 days will add only a few hundred miles tops, so using regular change interval is assumed.

Back to wear on the engine, how many higher mileage engines have you opened up and seen the bearings on? I'm going to guess none. Modern motor or not, it has to do with increased wear of the lubricated parts over time, not failing all of a sudden because "oil wore out".

I guess it doesn't matter if you aren't keeping the car for the long run, but the kitchen logic some of you are using just blows my mind.

 

Sorry. This was a typo. I just fixed it. I meant to say ISN'T over filled. In fact, most recommendations I've seen is that it should be even lower than just under max (i.e. Better to be middle of the min-max range). Thanks for catching this.

 

A local Porsche expert gave a tech talk stated that the oil level should always be kept right around the middle mark when cold.

 

Why?

 

Technically you can't even measure the oil when the engine is cold (but the oil is probably only warm at that point). I keep my oil right in the middle. When I kept it full it burned oil and would do that (normal) white smoke on random startup.

 

Really in the middle? Isn't that considered low? Mine is 2 bars below the max and I get the white smoke on random startup, which I "thought" was normal?

 

Ah, no problem! Agreed that somewhere in the middle is considered the optimum. The place I take my car to (they run race cars also) purposely fill to 1 bar below max when doing an oil change on road cars. This is obviously measured with the engine warm as it won't measure when cold.

 

Yup -- I think we were at the same tech talk (Livermore?). I've also heard this independently from other folks. I recall that the oil isn't considered low until it is actually at or below the min bar.

Remember that the min to max range is still at the top of the overall oil level. We still have a lot of oil in there even when it's near the min bar. What I've heard is that it's much worse to have too much oil -- especially at the higher RPMs on the track. So far, I've tried to keep it right in the middle leading up to a track event -- kind of tricky since I have to estimate the oil burn rate .

 

SOB, here I am thinking that the oil level should be at the max bar; i'll watch my level and once it's at the middle i'll maintain that level. So is 2 bars below max, overfilled?

 

No worries. I don't think you're overfilled unless you're above the max. The techs will probably say that anything in between max and min is good (and within specs). All of the other advice is just a refinement of that.

For normal street driving, I usually start near the max (one below) right after an oil change and don't add any oil until I'm about one up from the min. Everyone probably has their own "personalized" routine .

 

Sorry I shouldn't say cold, I should say warm enough to measure. He said when the oil gets really hot, it will look for places to come out if you keep it at the Max.