*The FL5 Track Junkie Thread*

[Ktrw]

I'm hoping to get some advice on oil for time trials/track days. I am having a problem with high oil temperatures (275) on mild weather days (70), particularly at Laguna Seca, in my 2025 FL5 running a totally stock drivetrain with stock 0/20W oil.

I installed the WOT plate and removed the rain guard but it didn't seem to help. I can't really afford to buy the aftermarket radiator and oil cooler(s?), but I really can't afford to prematurely ruin an engine.

Will a good quality 5/30W oil reduce the risk of engine damage, or do I really need to bite the bullet and spend the $$$$?

I'm heading to Laguna Seca this Saturday April 4 and hope to meet some of you there. Thank you in advance for your help.

As @Club Version said, the oil temperature is a correlation/calculation which has been shown to be off by a bit versus a real oil temperature sensor placed in the oil pan (reads like 20F high in some cases iirc, but this is not a rule of thumb). Keeping track of coolant temperatures is probably a better way to gauge risk, and Jason (WOT) said around 240F coolant temp is the upper limit. Obviously lower than that is ideal, probably around 220F, but tracking the car on warm/hot days is going to push it up.

Running 5W-30 oil is not going to help your oil temperatures, they actually would be slightly worse due to the higher viscosity, but would likely improve oil pressure. Oil pressure stability is an important aspect to keeping an engine alive in high stress environments, so it is worth looking into. The IMSA Civic Type R TCR race car runs 0W-40, so there is precedence from Honda to run higher viscosity oils in racing environments.

You do need an upgraded radiator and oil coolers to manage on track temperatures in these cars, though plenty of folks do it without them and seemingly don't blow engines left and right. Not saying it's right or wrong, just an observation.

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[Club Version]

As @Club Version said, the oil temperature is a correlation/calculation which has been shown to be off by a bit versus a real oil temperature sensor placed in the oil pan (reads like 20F high in some cases iirc, but this is not a rule of thumb). Keeping track of coolant temperatures is probably a better way to gauge risk, and Jason (WOT) said around 240F coolant temp is the upper limit. Obviously lower than that is ideal, probably around 220F, but tracking the car on warm/hot days is going to push it up.

Running 5W-30 oil is not going to help your oil temperatures, they actually would be slightly worse due to the higher viscosity, but would likely improve oil pressure. Oil pressure stability is an important aspect to keeping an engine alive in high stress environments, so it is worth looking into. The IMSA Civic Type R TCR race car runs 0W-40, so there is precedence from Honda to run higher viscosity oils in racing environments.

You do need an upgraded radiator and oil coolers to manage on track temperatures in these cars, though plenty of folks do it without them and seemingly don't blow engines left and right. Not saying it's right or wrong, just an observation.

100% agree!

@Rfpauly I typically notice my water temp around 220 and peaks around 230. Same mods as you for cooling.

 

[Rfpauly]

Thanks for all of the good information! I understand that higher viscosity oil won't help with the temperature, but it sounds like it should deliver higher pressure and that higher pressure should provide better protection. Is that correct?

I am heading to Laguna Seca on Saturday and will keep a better eye on the coolant temperature. The forecast is for the mid-70s, the same as last time. I think that I will try short-shifting in a couple of places to hopefully change the computer's calculation of what the oil temperature should be. I have been downshifting to second for the Corkscrew, which probably isn't necessary (but it really makes the car leap off of the right-hander and slam down at the apex, which feels great) and downshifting to third for turn 10, which also probably isn't necessary (but it's more comfortable than fourth).

I had to cancel the NASA Willow Springs event a couple of weeks ago (I mistakenly thought that it wouldn't be too hot in mid-March) because of the weather forecast for high 80s, and I would really like to get this problem solved so that I don't have to do any more weather-related last minute cancellations this summer. I'm only going to be running Laguna Seca and Sears Point, but it can still get hot in either location. Is anyone going to Laguna this weekend?

Thanks again for all of everyone's help.

 

[MooMoo]

honestly you might not ever have this problem solved unless you throw money at the problem. It gets hot over there and this car runs hot. Its not hard for water temp to reach 240 and I have seen it even higher in friends car thats faster than me. Oil temps are estimated but I have seen it north of 275 lol. Only solution really is an oil cooler but I have seen people running these cars hot and they are all here to tell the story. I think for most is fine but very hot weather + very fast guys will have a problem on their hands, I am neither

 

[iforgettopee]

I have been downshifting to second for the Corkscrew, which probably isn't necessary (but it really makes the car leap off of the right-hander and slam down at the apex, which feels great) and downshifting to third for turn 10, which also probably isn't necessary (but it's more comfortable than fourth).

I would try staying in 3rd coming out corkscrew - I think I'm in 3rd from corkscrew to T11

 

[Rfpauly]

I'm going to try the Corkscrew in 3rd, but I hit the rev limiter if I don't hit 4th coming down the hill before 10 and again just before braking for 11.

 

[iforgettopee]

I'm going to try the Corkscrew in 3rd, but I hit the rev limiter if I don't hit 4th coming down the hill before 10 and again just before braking for 11.

Yup - I've definitely hit the rev limiter there before - but my thinking is that I'm not really gaining any significant time or speed by shifting to 4th anyways so just bang the limiter, keep my hands on the wheel, and keep the car on the track through T10
if anything, you risk losing time if you mis-shift / lose control taking a hand off the wheel, etc...
Same with shifting from 2 to 3 coming down the corkscrew, I find less shifting to be my preference - my focus is on maximizing speed from T9 to T10, corkscrew to rainey curve is a throwaway for me

I'm running a 275/35/18 tire which is slightly taller than 265/35 - that gives me a tiny bit more margin, and a hondata (phearable) tune that gives me a higher rev limit (7200rpm)

 

[REDRAGN]

Yup - I've definitely hit the rev limiter there before - but my thinking is that I'm not really gaining any significant time or speed by shifting to 4th anyways so just bang the limiter, keep my hands on the wheel, and keep the car on the track through T10
if anything, you risk losing time if you mis-shift / lose control taking a hand off the wheel, etc...
Same with shifting from 2 to 3 coming down the corkscrew, I find less shifting to be my preference - my focus is on maximizing speed from T9 to T10, corkscrew to rainey curve is a throwaway for me

I'm running a 275/35/18 tire which is slightly taller than 265/35 - that gives me a tiny bit more margin, and a hondata (phearable) tune that gives me a higher rev limit (7200rpm)

Very valid point...sometimes the shift is just not worth it!

One of the best mods I made on the FK8 was cams and valvetrain...increased RPM to over 8k...gamechanger for most of the tracks I drove in terms of shifting/gear selection!

 

[Rfpauly]

I try to eliminate any unnecessary gear changes, but the 3-4 and 4-3 shifts are very low risk, and I hate the feeling of the rev limiter kicking in. I think that it costs a significant amount of lap time when it happens, so I'm still going to go up to fourth approaching 10 and 11.

I think that you're right about not dropping down to second for the Corkscrew (even though it feels good), especially since it's such a steep downhill and you have to make the upshift almost instantly mid-corner, which upsets the balance as you're tracking out.

 

[Rfpauly]

You were right about 3rd gear for the Corkscrew Iforgettopee. I tried it and it felt fine.​

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I was still doing the extra 3-4-3 shifts approaching turn 10 to avoid the rev limiter, but I think that next time I'm going to try holding 4th through 10, even though I think that it's going to feel scarier.​

​

I really enjoyed meeting Jason Lewis (WOT), and he kindly spent a lot of time helping me understand the car and its behavior on track. Among the great advice that he gave me, he suggested dropping my air pressures way down and that seemed to help the car feel more balanced and easier to rotate on corner entry.​

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I had put brand new tires (Nankang CRS) on the front, but was a little bit disappointed in my lap times. They were one second slower than the previous event, but at least they were consistent.​

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[REDRAGN]

You were right about 3rd gear for the Corkscrew Iforgettopee. I tried it and it felt fine.​

​

I was still doing the extra 3-4-3 shifts approaching turn 10 to avoid the rev limiter, but I think that next time I'm going to try holding 4th through 10, even though I think that it's going to feel scarier.​

​

I really enjoyed meeting Jason Lewis (WOT), and he kindly spent a lot of time helping me understand the car and its behavior on track. Among the great advice that he gave me, he suggested dropping my air pressures way down and that seemed to help the car feel more balanced and easier to rotate on corner entry.​

​

I had put brand new tires (Nankang CRS) on the front, but was a little bit disappointed in my lap times. They were one second slower than the previous event, but at least they were consistent.​

​

What are your hot/cold tire pressures looking like with the Nankang?

 

[Rfpauly]

Redragn, For the last session, I ended up at 25 front and 31 rear cooled off for an hour and a half after the previous session, but not stone cold. I forgot to check them hot after I dropped them down to those pressures, but I started the first session at 28 stone cold front and 32 rear, and they went up to 41 left front hot, 39 right front (which is odd because it's a counterclockwise track so you would expect more heat on the right side), and 39 rear.

 

[eap35]

hey everyone, sorry to post right here. How's the Type R on track in general ? is cooling very much a big problem still even with 2026? it seems like even 65 degrees weather is not cool enough to not have issues ?

How much it is costing you to track your type R when it comes to car consumables/mods that matter ? this is still going to be ''half'' daily for me.

How reliable has it been so far consider your year and mileage?

 

[Rfpauly]

hey everyone, sorry to post right here. How's the Type R on track in general ? is cooling very much a big problem still even with 2026? it seems like even 65 degrees weather is not cool enough to not have issues ?

How much it is costing you to track your type R when it comes to car consumables/mods that matter ? this is still going to be ''half'' daily for me.

How reliable has it been so far consider your year and mileage?

I can only speak from my experience with my car, a 2025 with 7K miles and no drivetrain mods, but cooling is definitely a problem on track, even in mid-60 degrees weather. I am seeing coolant temps in the mid-220s and oil temps (I have read that this is calculated, not measured) of 275. I haven't noticed any engine problems yet (knock on wood), but you should definitely consider cooling system upgrades if you plan to do a lot of track events

I am thinking about buying the WOT cooling system, but I just had my SCCA and NASA competition licenses reactivated and plan to race with "arrive and drive" rentals this year, so I'm not sure how much track time I'm going to have in the Civic.

 

[kebn.]

Hello everyone! Apologies for the long post, but I'm hoping to get some help with diagnosing a strange issue I had on track recently with my 2023 Civic Type R. I've done 4 HPDE weekends in the past year with the car, and didn't have any problems until the most recent event a couple weeks ago. The car has ~40,000 mostly freeway miles on it, and is not modified beyond brake pads, an AWE Touring exhaust, PRL rear motor mount, and the ITS damper module. Completely stock engine with no tune and OE Michelin PS4S tires.

During the last session on Saturday, the car went into limp mode as I was accelerating at WOT onto a straight at ~6500 rpm in third gear. I pulled into the paddock and read the car's codes. There were a handful of codes, but I think the primary culprit was P0087: fuel rail pressure too low. I cleared the codes and the car was back to normal. I assumed this was caused by fuel starvation, even though I came off track with half a tank of fuel remaining.

On Sunday I made sure to refuel after every session to eliminate the potential of fuel starvation. The car was running fine until the third session when it entered limp mode at the exact same point on track as the day before. I scanned the codes and found they were also the same as Saturday, including P0087. I cleared the codes and the car was fine for the fourth and final session of the day.

My initial troubleshooting thoughts/efforts have not produced any explanations or results. I have driven the car on the street while monitoring the requested vs. measured fuel pressures and did not find anything out of the ordinary. I did run the fuel tank down to 1/10 bars on the fuel gauge getting to the gas station closest to the track on Saturday morning, so maybe I ingested debris/sediment into the fuel filter/pump/lines? But if that was the case, I don't know why the issue would only present itself at this particular point on track toward the end of the day. It would seem to be a clue that this happened twice at the same point on track, but there are other places where I was accelerating at WOT at the top of third gear and never had the problem.

I have linked below a video I put together after the weekend. The link is timestamped to the two limp mode instances, and you can rewind to the start of the video for my fastest lap to get a feel for the rest of the track.

I would appreciate any and all input you may have! Thanks!

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