Track Weekend at Buttonwillow’s Circuit Track

[nitepjony]

Hey all!
I wanted to make this post to talk about my recent track weekend at the Buttonwillow Circuit track, as well as discussing future steps for my car to make it better on track.

This was an event hosted by NASA. This was my second ever NASA event and second event track event. They are an awesome organizer and I had a lot of fun learning the track. I was in HPDE1 with an instructor for the first day and most of the second day. Luckily during the last 2 sessions we had a double and my instructor gave me the go ahead to ride solo. We ran a double session where we run a session, go back to grid while HPDE3 and 4 do their thing, and immediately after we go back. At the end I was promoted to HPDE2!

The circuit track was definitely fun to learn and there was a steep learning curve as Intook turn 8 a bit too fast and went off track my very first session. But immediately afterwards I got the hang of the track pretty well. Once again thanks a lot to NASA for hosting this event. It was very structured and fun to attend once again. I do have plans to return to Buttonwillow to take on their Classic track in October.

Next I want to talk about my cars performance. My car is a non-pp GT, meaning it had completely inadequate cooling for the track. Luckily I had some cooling mods installed before I took on the track. I had the OEM PP transmission cooler and the MMR oil cooler. I also had an aftermarket oil temp gauge installed to track my oil temps. My tuner also tuned my car to force my grille shutters open and to give me the DH oil temp algorithm to prevent limp mod. I also have the PP undertray and fender liners to give airflow for my oil cooler and my front brakes. I also swapped out to Powerstop Z26 pads on the front and rear. Car comes with the 6 piston front brembos from factory. I was really pushing my car this weekend much to the dismay of my all season 255s. Here are my temps near the end of my second day, peak temps I saw on track.

Ambient Temp: 110 F
CHT: 250 F
Oil: 284 F
Transmission: 226 F
Axle: 293 F

Despite these high temps I was still able to make the most of my car and got a very good handle on the track, leading to my promotion to HPDE2. I do plan to install the DH Rad and Fan combo to lower my CHTs, and I do hope that has some effect on my oil and transmission. As for my axle I might wrap a bit of exhaust wrap around the area near the axle and see what that does for my temps.

On an extra note I did end up melting my rear valance after my last session on the second day. I do have a DH valance and new rear reflectors on order (photos of the melting will be attached and some nice flybys on the main straight away). Also once my car got pretty hot I would notice if I tried flooring it on the straight away my car would kind of 2 step at 6500 RPM and stop me from further accelerating unless I let off the throttle and floored it again.If you have any recommendations for cooling or track tips please let me know, all advice is welcome!

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[nitepjony]

Just some extra videos I just found.

 

[krisk]

Hey all!
I wanted to make this post to talk about my recent track weekend at the Buttonwillow Circuit track, as well as discussing future steps for my car to make it better on track.

This was an event hosted by NASA. This was my second ever NASA event and second event track event. They are an awesome organizer and I had a lot of fun learning the track. I was in HPDE1 with an instructor for the first day and most of the second day. Luckily during the last 2 sessions we had a double and my instructor gave me the go ahead to ride solo. We ran a double session where we run a session, go back to grid while HPDE3 and 4 do their thing, and immediately after we go back. At the end I was promoted to HPDE2!

The circuit track was definitely fun to learn and there was a steep learning curve as Intook turn 8 a bit too fast and went off track my very first session. But immediately afterwards I got the hang of the track pretty well. Once again thanks a lot to NASA for hosting this event. It was very structured and fun to attend once again. I do have plans to return to Buttonwillow to take on their Classic track in October.

Next I want to talk about my cars performance. My car is a non-pp GT, meaning it had completely inadequate cooling for the track. Luckily I had some cooling mods installed before I took on the track. I had the OEM PP transmission cooler and the MMR oil cooler. I also had an aftermarket oil temp gauge installed to track my oil temps. My tuner also tuned my car to force my grille shutters open and to give me the DH oil temp algorithm to prevent limp mod. I also have the PP undertray and fender liners to give airflow for my oil cooler and my front brakes. I also swapped out to Powerstop Z26 pads on the front and rear. Car comes with the 6 piston front brembos from factory. I was really pushing my car this weekend much to the dismay of my all season 255s. Here are my temps near the end of my second day, peak temps I saw on track.

Ambient Temp: 110 F
CHT: 250 F
Oil: 284 F
Transmission: 226 F
Axle: 293 F

Despite these high temps I was still able to make the most of my car and got a very good handle on the track, leading to my promotion to HPDE2. I do plan to install the DH Rad and Fan combo to lower my CHTs, and I do hope that has some effect on my oil and transmission. As for my axle I might wrap a bit of exhaust wrap around the area near the axle and see what that does for my temps.

On an extra note I did end up melting my rear valance after my last session on the second day. I do have a DH valance and new rear reflectors on order (photos of the melting will be attached and some nice flybys on the main straight away). Also once my car got pretty hot I would notice if I tried flooring it on the straight away my car would kind of 2 step at 6500 RPM and stop me from further accelerating unless I let off the throttle and floored it again.If you have any recommendations for cooling or track tips please let me know, all advice is welcome!

Congratulations on finding a new (and expensive ) hobby. It sounds like you are picking it up quickly, and from my experience the more you do it the more fun it becomes.

As someone who just started tracking in the last couple of years, I’ll share some thoughts from my relatively brief experience.

1. Your differential will overheat and you will go into limo mode (assuming your tuner did not raise the temp limit or disable it). I ended up adding the MMR differential cooler and that solved my issues. https://www.mustang7g.com/forums/th...-install-update-9-21-24-track-testing.162367/

2. Your oil and transmission temps look in line with what I have seen on my PP car. I did find that on occasion my transmission temps would keep rising when I was first tracking with the car in auto. There was one time the transmission got over 230 and the shifting acted crazy. I have since switched to using manual mode with paddle shifters and have not had any issues. I also found auto mode shifted at less than ideal times on certain tracks. At Roebling Road, it would always downshift right as I was starting my turn in on turn 5 and it upset the car.

3. Be sure you are changing your fluids regularly. I do an oil change every other weekend. Differential fluid every 500 miles (per owner’s manual). Transmission fluid every 2-3 weekends. Bleed brakes before every track event. Also, I’m assuming you’ve already done this since you otherwise prepped the car for the track, but be sure you’re running a high temp DOT4 brake fluid.

4. Check your brakes to be sure you haven’t melted the caliper seals. My fronts were shot after a couple track days. I replaced the seals with a high temp version and have not had any trouble with them melting since the change. https://www.opmustang.com/store/p28...025_Mustang_GT_Performance_Pack_Brakes.html#/

Enjoy the new hobby! It’s addictive!

 

[Junkyard Dog]

4. Check your brakes to be sure you haven’t melted the caliper seals. My fronts were shot after a couple track days. I replaced the seals with a high temp version and have not had any trouble with them melting since the change. https://www.opmustang.com/store/p28...025_Mustang_GT_Performance_Pack_Brakes.html#/

Are the difficult to replace?

 

[krisk]

Are the difficult to replace?

No. The seals come out pretty easily and the new ones just press in.

 

[ZXMustang]

The 6500ish rev limiter was the temp based cutoff limiter. Its actually at 6800. Its a fuel cut limiter.

 

[nitepjony]

The 6500ish rev limiter was the temp based cutoff limiter. Its actually at 6800. Its a fuel cut limiter.

I had a feeling, it did sound like the factory rev limiter whenever you’re in park or neutral. Do you know what parameters it uses to determine the cutoff? I was able to run the car even hotter. Car was reading max at around 294F oil temp (in reality the oil temp through my actual gauge was 282).

 

[ZXMustang]

I had a feeling, it did sound like the factory rev limiter whenever you’re in park or neutral. Do you know what parameters it uses to determine the cutoff? I was able to run the car even hotter. Car was reading max at around 294F oil temp (in reality the oil temp through my actual gauge was 282).

This bad boy right here.

 

[nitepjony]

Congratulations on finding a new (and expensive ) hobby. It sounds like you are picking it up quickly, and from my experience the more you do it the more fun it becomes.

As someone who just started tracking in the last couple of years, I’ll share some thoughts from my relatively brief experience.

1. Your differential will overheat and you will go into limo mode (assuming your tuner did not raise the temp limit or disable it). I ended up adding the MMR differential cooler and that solved my issues. https://www.mustang7g.com/forums/th...-install-update-9-21-24-track-testing.162367/

2. Your oil and transmission temps look in line with what I have seen on my PP car. I did find that on occasion my transmission temps would keep rising when I was first tracking with the car in auto. There was one time the transmission got over 230 and the shifting acted crazy. I have since switched to using manual mode with paddle shifters and have not had any issues. I also found auto mode shifted at less than ideal times on certain tracks. At Roebling Road, it would always downshift right as I was starting my turn in on turn 5 and it upset the car.

3. Be sure you are changing your fluids regularly. I do an oil change every other weekend. Differential fluid every 500 miles (per owner’s manual). Transmission fluid every 2-3 weekends. Bleed brakes before every track event. Also, I’m assuming you’ve already done this since you otherwise prepped the car for the track, but be sure you’re running a high temp DOT4 brake fluid.

4. Check your brakes to be sure you haven’t melted the caliper seals. My fronts were shot after a couple track days. I replaced the seals with a high temp version and have not had any trouble with them melting since the change. https://www.opmustang.com/store/p28...025_Mustang_GT_Performance_Pack_Brakes.html#/

Enjoy the new hobby! It’s addictive!

Thanks for the advice! I’ll get the oil changed soon. I’ll also inspect my dust boots and see if I can get some new brake fluid put in. I’m still using the fluid that the factory put in.

 

[Dark Sprite]

Congratulations on finding a new (and expensive ) hobby. It sounds like you are picking it up quickly, and from my experience the more you do it the more fun it becomes.

As someone who just started tracking in the last couple of years, I’ll share some thoughts from my relatively brief experience.

1. Your differential will overheat and you will go into limo mode (assuming your tuner did not raise the temp limit or disable it). I ended up adding the MMR differential cooler and that solved my issues. https://www.mustang7g.com/forums/th...-install-update-9-21-24-track-testing.162367/

2. Your oil and transmission temps look in line with what I have seen on my PP car. I did find that on occasion my transmission temps would keep rising when I was first tracking with the car in auto. There was one time the transmission got over 230 and the shifting acted crazy. I have since switched to using manual mode with paddle shifters and have not had any issues. I also found auto mode shifted at less than ideal times on certain tracks. At Roebling Road, it would always downshift right as I was starting my turn in on turn 5 and it upset the car.

3. Be sure you are changing your fluids regularly. I do an oil change every other weekend. Differential fluid every 500 miles (per owner’s manual). Transmission fluid every 2-3 weekends. Bleed brakes before every track event. Also, I’m assuming you’ve already done this since you otherwise prepped the car for the track, but be sure you’re running a high temp DOT4 brake fluid.

4. Check your brakes to be sure you haven’t melted the caliper seals. My fronts were shot after a couple track days. I replaced the seals with a high temp version and have not had any trouble with them melting since the change. https://www.opmustang.com/store/p28...025_Mustang_GT_Performance_Pack_Brakes.html#/

Enjoy the new hobby! It’s addictive!

Wow, is all that fluid changing recommended even if only using for occasional track use (e.g. once per month)?

Do you do all of the changes yourself, and if so have you got any preferred instructional videos making it as straightforward as possible? I’ve read plenty of complaints about the hassle of having to remove the belly pan(?) to access and drain the engine oil on the S650.

 

[krisk]

Wow, is all that fluid changing recommended even if only using for occasional track use (e.g. once per month)?

Do you do all of the changes yourself, and if so have you got any preferred instructional videos making it as straightforward as possible? I’ve read plenty of complaints about the hassle of having to remove the belly pan(?) to access and drain the engine oil on the S650.

Here's what I've found regarding fluids.

Differential - Manual clearly states to change after 500 miles of track use. No question on that one.

Engine - My oil life monitor will go from 100% to between 0-40% of oil life after one track weekend. Waiting for two track weekends is as far as I feel comfortable going without changing.

Transmission - No specific guidance on how frequently to change, but a drain and refill replaces a little less than half of the total fluid in the system. Every 2-3 weekends may be overkill, but I know my transmission is not going to have trouble due to bad fluid. The transmission runs hot on the track and I don't want to have problems for a relatively cheap service.

I change all fluids myself. If you see some of my posts from when I first purchased the car, which was almost 3 years ago, I commented that I've stopped changing oil in my cars because it's worth the convenience to pay the dealer to do it. That was the case until I started tracking the car and changing the fluids so frequently. I have a lift in my shop, so it's not that big of a deal to get the car up and change the fluids.

The bottom cover removal for oil changes takes me less than two minutes with an impact driver. I'm not really sure why people complain about it. The oil change is the easiest of all procedures. Now that I have installed the PPE transmission pan, I can just remove the drain plug to get the fluid transmission fluid out. The first drain and refill was time consuming because you have to remove the pan, which involves disconnecting some lines. Refilling and checking the transmission fluid is still somewhat of a pain because of the car having to be up to operating temperature and running, but I've done it enough and have the correct tools to where it doesn't take that long. The differential fluid is probably the one that takes the longest because I have added the MMR cooler, so to drain I have to undo the fittings. I then pump the oil out of the cooler, refill the oil and cycle the oil through the system a couple times and verify the correct fluid level. I bought an aftermarket dipstick that I have bent to fit perfectly in the rear differential so I can check the level, since the proper level is below the opening.

I'm currently going through the process of changing all fluids this week as I'm leaving next Saturday for a stretch of six track days on three different tracks over the course of 8 days. Last night was changing the differential oil. Tonight is the the transmission fluid, engine oil and probably brake bleeding.

Sorry, I don't have any videos just because I've never really considered it. I didn't figure there would be much interest as I am not a professional mechanic, just someone who has been working on cars for many years.

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