What are some good ways to get oil (not coolant) up to operating temp before doing your first autocross run?

I always try to drive around for at least 5 minutes before pulling into grid but sometimes this just isn't possible.

Another thing I do is choosing the last row in the grid so I can have extra 15 minutes or so to idle the car. (But then, I read that idling with no load doesn't warm up oil all that much, so maybe I've been just wasting gas).

What do you guys do?

Just drive around a little bit and do some slow tight circles to make sure fluid is all circulated. Not really a lot of driving but that's about all I can do when the car only gets towed places. Idling to get engine coolant up to temp is good but oil will only get so warm without load. Im sure it's not completely ideal but been ok over the last 5 years since we started towing.

Do you have a temp gauge on it?


If you don't, 15-20 minutes of driving in circles or idling on the grid is sufficient to at least get the oil warmed up to 160+ and it'll be fine.

First two events I did this year were cold and I really struggled to get any oil temp. After the first run it was fine but I could only get about ~150F in the pits. I just took it easy half of my first run. Even after that keeping it idling most I saw was ~190F.

In hind sight I wonder if I shouldn't have turned it off so it didn't circulate and dissipate heat.

turn on the car, hold at 3k rpms until you go lol

Ha I guess you could turn up the idle a little.

I think my thermostat is broken. I cruise the freeway in 75-85° weather and can't get my temp needle to budge (starts at 140°). I gotta kinda get on it a bit or get on city streets to reach 180°. Thinking my thermostat is stuck.
Getting temps up for my first session will be no fun.

no, if the car is cold I literally hold the throttle there, if I can't take it for a spin first. spin is always ideal, warms up the trans and diff fluids too. engine-wise though, that should do the trick

Isn't it hard to warm the oil with just revs, without any load?

Just curious.

Not really. If you held the motor at 2500-3k for 10-15 minutes, the oil would be sufficiently warm.

It's certainly possible. Did you log those temps or is that based off your gauge? I'd recommend you log it as I thought my tstat was sticking open however it ended up being the gauge sending unit had crapped out.

Based off the gauge. It used to warm up MUCH sooner. Like up to 180* after warming up for a few mins. It's a new sending unit, but i guess it's possible. I don't have a way to log oil temps. I run almost 7qts of 50w oil... so maybe that doesn't help? LOL
I think it's also possible my sensor isn't in an ideal spot. I'll be moving it soon.

Wait a minute Im an idiot I was thinking coolant not oil, lol.

Where is your sensor mounted? Of course added capacity means more time to warm up but not sure the heavier oil matters much but what do I know

who are you??? what are you doing here???

Oil temp sensor should be in the pan. Having 7qts of oil in a system that used to hold 4.5 will definitely take longer to warm up.