That's pretty much what I do as well. I'll put in an ester-based race oil (e.g., Motul 300V, Torco SR-5) right before a track weekend and replace it with a regular street oil (e.g., Mobil 1, Amsoil) as soon as the event is over.

My question is how often to change plugs...but I guess that's a subject for another thread

Emre

 

hmm now im wondering what the origional author meant when he said "track time"

are we talking about drag racing or road racing?
a lotta people here are talking about changing the diff/ tranny fluids on a regular basis, thats really not necessary on a car you take to a road couse unless youre super over driving the car. drag racing might be another issue since youre constantly slipping and overloading the driveline.

 

Open tracking.

The TC / Tranny / Rear diff get really hot open tracking the car, oil breaks down faster, etc.

My rear diff was coffee at 10k miles with 4 track events. The rear diff takes alot of abuse at the track.

 

Interesting. When I changed mine a few weeks ago the fluid looked almost new and there was barely a dusting of metal on the drain plug. The last time I changed it was around June of last year with a good dozen track days in between. (The first change it was very dark and the plug was "muddy" but I attributed that to assembly lube.) The transer case fluid was darker, but again very little metal on the plug. This is on an '03. I've also never had the grinding noises people talk about. Maybe I'm just lucky and everything was perfectly shimmed from the factory?

Dave

 

Could be. But I suspect a lot of it has to do with driving style. If you slide the car around a lot, the rear diff will take a serious beating. If you're more "tight and neat" in your driving, the rear diff doesn't seem to mind.

Personally, I tend to drive tidy and neat without much sliding around. I started driving with underpowered but very well-balanced RWD cars, so there wasn't anything to be gained by a "fast and loose" approach. I tend to drive the Evo the same way. Like you, I find my drivetrain doesn't take much of a beating.

Hell, even with 300 AWHP and god knows how many track days, I'm still on the stock clutch at 36K miles!

Emre

 

My change at 10k was my first change. I am changing the diff fluid again this weekend, we'll see how it looks.

Yea, I don't drive my car with the tail out either, I try to be tight and neat like you said. My tranny and TC fluids always look fine. In fact my original 6spd tranny fluid at 22k still was somewhat clear.

Same here, over 300awhp on a mustang dyno, 28k miles and still stock clutch. I never launch the car. 10 track days with the evo so far. Almost 200 on-track miles each event. Brake pads and rotors are another story though.

 

maybe ill try replacing the tranny/diff fluids myself and see what kind of driver I really am

It might be helpful to do this a few times early in the tracking career (2-4 events) just to get a feel for how much abuse one puts on the driveline. With experience and proper education, that wear should come down. Despite our cars being relative power centric its still always best to keep that "neat and tidy" driving style. Or in the very least limit the aggressive stuff to those few flying laps. Think F1 old style qualifying