Seats and Oil

Goose428

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Hello everyone,

Havn't posted in a while but had some questions for you.

I am going to my first ever track event in a couple weeks and have some questions. Specifically, about aftermarket seats and oil capacity.

I will start off with oil capacity. My car is a 3v 4.6. Ford states 6 quarts. Is this what people run at the track? My worry here is oil starvation.

I know the 3V has a windage tray, so theoretically if I overfilled it (say, 7ish quarts), the crankshaft shouldn't be churning up+aerating the oil right? What else do I have to worry about when overfilling it? I know on 2V 4.6's, the oil pan itself could hold something like 9 quarts and still have a 1/2 inch or so left before it would begin to spill out of the pan. But the problem here was that the oil would be getting very close to the crankshaft, and would obviously splash up and hit the crank when taking turns. But with the windage tray on the 3v, this shouldn't happen correct? Obviously, I'm not going to fill it to 9 quarts. But my question is, why not fill it up to 7 or so, and thereby lessen my chances of oil starvation? I know BMW guys will do this.

And my other question is seats. My 2008 Bullitt has the side air bag GT500 style seats. I want to change out just the driver seat (Thinking Sparco or Corbeau) and use the stock seatbelt, but I don't want to lose the airbag system. I'm O.K. with losing the side airbag, but I want the front airbag systems to still work. Is this possible? I have spent a couple days researching the topic, but most people don't seem to have a good answer. Figured you road racers would have switched your seats and would know what's up.

Thank You!
 

Speedboosted

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Front airbag will work fine as long as you transfer the sensor, at least that's how it is on my '06 with a Pro2000 installed. I have no dash lights.

I don't have much input on the oil level thing other than I've heard of some BMW guys doing that before as well. I personally haven't.
 

SoundGuyDave

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Oil level is simple... Standard fill, then add 1/2 quart, done.

For the seats, PARTICULARLY for your first HPDE, I wouldn't bother. You're going to have enough on your plate without having to worry about airbag sensors, dash lights, alteration from your "normal" driving position, etc. With the stock belts, just slide the seat back an inch or two, belt up, yank the belt to lock it down, then slide forward. The GT500 seats have a reasonable bolster, and you should be fine.

What I WOULD do is swap brake pads, at least the fronts. Hawk HT-10 or Carbotech XP-8, and make sure the stock fluid is flushed so that you start fresh.
 

Norm Peterson

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Hello everyone,

Havn't posted in a while but had some questions for you.

I am going to my first ever track event in a couple weeks and have some questions. Specifically, about aftermarket seats and oil capacity.

I will start off with oil capacity. My car is a 3v 4.6. Ford states 6 quarts. Is this what people run at the track? My worry here is oil starvation.
I've always filled mine ('08 GT) to the top hole but not above it. I fill to that level with however much oil it takes to put it there, not to 6 quarts plus any known fraction of a quart. I just know it's more than 6 and less than 7 by the time I'm done.

Actually, I've done it that way for every oil change I've done in any of my cars that had a max level indicated separate from a crosshatched "acceptable range". Whether or not there was going to be any tracking involved.


Norm
 

46addict

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I thought the sensor on the floor is for the side airbag. If the steering wheel is left stock it should not affect the front airbags, no? What sensors need to be transferred when installing aftermarket seats?
 

Goose428

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Front airbag will work fine as long as you transfer the sensor, at least that's how it is on my '06 with a Pro2000 installed. I have no dash lights.

I don't have much input on the oil level thing other than I've heard of some BMW guys doing that before as well. I personally haven't.

What exactly do you mean by "transfer the sensor?" And I have heard that the front airbags will not work if the position sensor is not installed correctly.

And I actually just ordered some stop tech pads because I've hard bad things about the Hawk pads for our cars. At this point, I can't really justify spending $160+ on brake pads that are track specialized considering I never go to the track, and I'm sure those pads have worse stopping power for autocross and street use right?

I will flush out my fluid though.

In regards to the oil, I guess I will do 6.5 quarts. Still curious to see if there are any reasons to not fill it to 7 quarts.

Thanks everyone
 

Voltwings

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What exactly do you mean by "transfer the sensor?" And I have heard that the front airbags will not work if the position sensor is not installed correctly.

And I actually just ordered some stop tech pads because I've hard bad things about the Hawk pads for our cars. At this point, I can't really justify spending $160+ on brake pads that are track specialized considering I never go to the track, and I'm sure those pads have worse stopping power for autocross and street use right?

I will flush out my fluid though.

In regards to the oil, I guess I will do 6.5 quarts. Still curious to see if there are any reasons to not fill it to 7 quarts.

Thanks everyone

To be fair, you're going to be buying more brake pads anyway if you take your stock ones to the track. They cant handle the heat and you'll likely go through at least 50-75% of their life in the weekend.
 

Goose428

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To be fair, you're going to be buying more brake pads anyway if you take your stock ones to the track. They cant handle the heat and you'll likely go through at least 50-75% of their life in the weekend.

That was my thought exactly, that's why I opted to get some cheaper ones just for this weekend. It seems like spending a bunch of $$$ on fancy new stuff only to wear it out 30% in one weekend is a bit silly to me?

Once this track event is over I will re-do the system front to back with new pads and new rotors.

Thanks!
 

Norm Peterson

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Even track pads wear extremely rapidly if your basis is 50k, 60k, maybe 75k miles in street-only duty. But half a dozen days is better than one or two . . . or badly fading the brakes.

For the OE 12.4" brakes, I could only expect to get 5 or 6 track days out of the front pads before they were worn below 50% original thickness (rears get at least a couple more). Plenty of street life left, but most track day organizations want you to start off with 50%. In terms of distance, that's only something like 500 track miles. Pad cost/day (pads alone) can exceed $50.

As a track day participant, pads, rotors, fluids, and tires - those at least - are properly considered "consumables" just like the gasoline you put in the tank.


Norm
 

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