Oil temp up to 128c on 30min track stint

[Fabs]

Hey guys. I have a 2011 gti mkVI Dsg fully stock daily driver, cross country muncher, track days beater.
I get it serviced every 15000km at vw specialist nothing special.

I ran into other threads about oil temps and they all seem around 92/105c.
I however experience up to 118 wile crossing spain in mid summer doing, you know a little above speed limit, with full aircon running (ambient temp up to 42)
But on a track day around the end of a 30/40 min stint at catalunya i hit 128/130c !

Should I be worried. The car has 190000km after all.

 

[GTIfan99]

Hey guys. I have a 2011 gti mkVI Dsg fully stock daily driver, cross country muncher, track days beater.
I get it serviced every 15000km at vw specialist nothing special.

I ran into other threads about oil temps and they all seem around 92/105c.
I however experience up to 118 wile crossing spain in mid summer doing, you know a little above speed limit, with full aircon running (ambient temp up to 42)
But on a track day around the end of a 30/40 min stint at catalunya i hit 128/130c !

Should I be worried. The car has 190000km after all.

That's completely normal for these cars. I got to 286f/ 141c my last track day at Daytona. That's too hot. I was able to get it down to 266f/130c by using the heater on full blast.

If you're going to track your car you need an oil cooler and likely additional cooling.

 

[clownish]

Overfill the oil a bit on track days and drain it after. Some people try to use a baffled oil pan in addition to get some more volume. Heat is the enemy?

 

[Fabs]

Yeah that’s what I’m worried about.
so perhaps an oil cooler? I really dread starting to tune the car. I like the gti cause its suposed to be an all purpose car. But I do a lot of km with it.
On the note of fluids. I’m experiencing some brake fade (sponge break) and some times a shaky steering wheel. Should i upgrade the brake fluid? Or is that like, putting a brake kit scenario?

 

[fsures]

You can start by upgrading the fluid. Then go from there.

 

[Fabs]

I might get an oil change, see what the shop says about upgrading the break fluid (i have no idea what to run) maybe, maybe apr disks and hit the nurburgring in september, see how it goes.
i’m starting to worry about its milage. It might hit the 200k km mark by the end of summer.
So far coil 1,2,4 have failed, i had them open it up to check the chain, they said it looks brand new, as well as the tensioner so didn’t change it, had the dsg fluid changed. This was around the 170000km mark.

any other checks before nurburgring?

 

[GTIfan99]

I might get an oil change, see what the shop says about upgrading the break fluid (i have no idea what to run) maybe, maybe apr disks and hit the nurburgring in september, see how it goes.
i’m starting to worry about its milage. It might hit the 200k km mark by the end of summer.
So far coil 1,2,4 have failed, i had them open it up to check the chain, they said it looks brand new, as well as the tensioner so didn’t change it, had the dsg fluid changed. This was around the 170000km mark.

any other checks before nurburgring?

I always change the oil AFTER a track day and every 5000 miles.

 

[GTIfan99]

I've considered using Evans waterless coolant. It was originally developed for the C3 Corvette, but GM stole another companies reverse cooling system design and decided not to use the waterless coolant.

Only thing that's stopped me is mine is still under warranty and I'm fairly sure VW will replace the water pump when it eventually fails, even with mods.

My family used it in race cars for years with no issues and I've used it in previous builds and saw lower temps on track.

Main downside is you have to do a special flush beforehand.

Cheaper than an oil cooler though.

The reason it works is because your coolant boils in the head above 260f ish. This causes hot spots, which cause even more boiling. Which causes more hot spots. Evans boiling point is 375f ish, IIRC. Meaning it stays liquid and pulls heat away from the head more effectively.

Since these cars use the coolant to cool the oil, the two temps are linked. Lower the coolant temp, lower the oil temp. Build up less heat in the head, lower oil temp.

If you're going to track often, just get an oil cooler and higher capacity radiator.

 

[clownish]

Honestly oil starvation typically only happens in track scenarios on high banking when the car is at a heavy angle. I am skeptical that real-world scenarios occur very often. You can get DSG coolers, OPS systems like an accusump, etc.- like i mentioned earlier, in most track scenarios if you overfill a bit and flush it after that usually protects.

New revised coilpacks are good, if you want to price compare you can cross shop R8 coilpacks and some other ones to see whatever is cheapest.