KBS911

I'm taking my new GT-3 (6000 miles) in to the dealer tomorrow to change my Cup's back to PS2's. The dealer, my salesman actually, owes me an oil change because I helped sell a couple of cars for him. When I spoke to the mechanics today they wondered why I want to bother since I'm nowhere near the factory's service mark. They don't care one way or the other.

This isn't an oil question as much as it is an, if it ain't broke don't fix it question. I am in the oil (wholesale/distribution) business so i don't need a lesson on oil life. I know too well that modern synthetics can last 10K miles, or more. Trust me, I wish it wasn't so, I'd sell more oil. I am confident that I can wait a bit longer for an oil change.

The thing is I have not used a single drop of oil in 6k miles. I am on the same bar level since day one and I'm confident i can make it a year until the recommended maintenance requirement. It's probably more superstition than anything else. I don't want to jinx my good luck. Part of me wants to change just because I can. Free is free, right, but I can get free later too. I guess I could flip a coin. What would you do?

deutschmick

I would.

I did my first oil/filter change at 1200 miles and the second at 5000. I only have 8100 on the clock now so will do the next at about 10K unless a DE intervenes.

Snowboarder54

I have 40K on my car and have chaned the oil everytime I change tires, averaged out to about every 3100 miles. I'm old school, change oil every 3-4K on all my cars! It makes me feel like I am doing something nice for them!!

SDGT3

I concur with Snowboarder! I just picked up my '10 RS. I am tacking a 1500 mile roadtrip to break it in for the track. The oil with be changed at that time, and then every 3000 miles there after.

Clifton

I'd do it - I changed mine at the end of break-in along with sending the oil to Blackstone for analysis. Metal counts were WAY above average, so the early oil change certainly didn't hurt.

brim

Same here, took her in at 1500 miles and changed it up to ensure I didn't have unwanted metals floating around the crank case. I don't think the concern is so much about oil breakdown as it is around metal fragments given the nature of our engines.

KBS911

OK then. I'm going to do it. I know it can't hurt anything, just worried about the dreaded overfill and kind of wanted to go "by the book" with my GT3. I changed oil early on my Cayman S and Carrera S and will make sure to caution the mechanic on overfill.

Thanks.

mooty

it's very hard to over-fill.
i have done 100+ oil changes on GT3's
take both plugs out and filter, leave it for 30 min.
then i dump in 9 bottle of mobil 0/40.
drive it around, chk level, it's always within range.

Larry Cable

Given that the engine is the heart of the GT3, and is high revving etc etc ... I would change the oil regularly ... it's cheaper than any engine work ...

I have done an oil change annually (with 5xxx miles on the car) ...

and dont forget the transmission oil also!

KBS911

It's done and the oil fill level is right on the mark. Perfect!

russo

I am at the opposite end of the spectrum. Oil change every 4 track days.

Clifton

Russo, have you ever run an oil analysis on the oil after those track days? I experimented with synth and dinosaur oil on the track and the analysis helped me dial in the perfect number of days/miles for oil (both track & street).

russo

Clifton, I haven't run an analysis; however, I will always err on the side of caution. I am interested in knowing your results, please post them.

SpeedGeek

I just bought a Lotus Exige S240 (keeping the RS) and the user manual states that the Lotus factory-fill oil is specific for break-in and must not be changed before the break-in miles are done (1000 miles). But I don't think Porsche uses a break-in specific oil, just regular Mobil-1.

Clifton

For a car that sees track and street duty, I found that the sweet spot for dinosaur oil is ~1K miles and 2.5K on synth. Hot summer temps and track configuration caused a little fluctuation, but changing at those intervals seems to keep the metal counts at or below universal averages.

Technically, the oil is still "good", however, I found that wear metals would start to climb if I pushed the change interval beyond those mileage points. Blackstone commented on one of my "bad" (3.6k miles) oil reports that the oil had become abrasive as the wear metal count climbs which was compounding the issue. Perhaps a filter change could have helped??

From there I backed into the track day interval. Depending on the length of each session (20-30 min typically) and the number of session (3-4 runs/day), that generally that meant a change interval of ~3 track days. Of course since I drive the car to/from events and around town (short trips), I have to factor that in as well as I'm sure that can accelerate things a bit too.

When I read that your interval was pretty close to mine, my antennas went up wondering about your findings.