So as I get into HPDE and AutoX, I'm thinking about getting a baffled oil pan to prevent air suck. I do prefer hilly/curvy tracks (who doesn't?). My mechanic highly recommends it, and I trust him. Plus WMW has killer prices on them. Any thoughts about it from the gallery? I know paying for seat time will improve my skills the most, but I'd rather not trash my daily driver in the process :confused5: Cheers!
If I had to remove the oil pan to put a new gasket on I'd buy one. Kill two birds with one stone. If that wasn't needed I would not. I have not read of anyone starving their MINI of oil running track days.
I'm not an expert on this, but all the cars I've ever known to have oil starvation problems only run into that with R-compound tires. You're not gonna generate anything greater than 1G with street tires (versus 3-4G's on R-comps), so it'd be tougher to create oil starvation.
Actually you can easily suffer from starvation on performance tires depending on the car. Remember, 1 G is equal to gravity. So at a constant 1 G load the oil would be held to the side of the pan. The MINI has a pretty good design. So unless you are going to be going in a circle I don't think you will ever be in a position where you are under long enough sustained lateral G to warrant neededing a baffle.
I had an oiling problem with my Fire Arrow when I'd go over the hill in turn 8 at Mid-Ohio. My fix was running an extra quart of oil. cheap & effective. My MINI doesn't mind that corner & it is faster than the Arrow was some 25 years ago.
Not so sure Ben, at CMS I was passing a car regularly that was recording 2gs (not on the high banks but coming out of the road course) and I even have experience fuel pick up problems running ADO8s. If your tracking a lot, oil baffels would never be a bad thing and are on my list.....
Been tracking a lot on 50 & 100 treadwear tires (currently V700s) and have never experienced fuel starvation or noticed an oil light. And I have run the gas tank to within a couple tenth of a gallon of empty - computer had 0 range estimate.
Have you gone around the high banks at Charlotte doing about 130? LOL Car actually was shutting off coming out of the infield onto the high bank, had to keep plenty of fuel in the tank.....
I might have overstated my case. But looking at the responses, maybe the difference is sustained G's versus just hard turns. The banking on a roval would hold the oil/fuel somewhere for a few seconds, and maybe that's enough to cause fuel starvation.
Exactly Ben, sustained G's is the enemy for the fuel pick up and the oil, a momentary loss in short turns isn't so bad but when you keep the oil pushed off to the side of the oil pan is when the problems really start. Same thing with the fuel pick up, a short loss may not even be felt but a sustained loss will leave the engine starved for fuel long enough for the engine to shut down until more fuel arrives. This is why the NASCAR boys put the fuel pickups in the right side of the tanks, road course cars will use a type of sump for the fuel pick up to maintain the supply....and of course they use a dry sump oil system all the time.
No, but I've gone through turn 1 at Pocono at about 100 when doing the long course with PDA. On street tires ( I think I was running Azena RT-215s at the time) you need to slow to 100 before entering the corner. This was running it CW.
Guess if I was going to run a track with high sustained G loads I'd be bolting a baffle in. For the tracks I have run or plan to run I figure baffle less is fine for me. What a baffling thread. :crazy: