The FA24 engine—hailed as Subaru’s next evolution—comes with a hidden tax: oiling issues that threaten its longevity. Owners have reported dangerous drops in oil pressure when pushing this so-called sports car on track. Theories abound, but one thing is certain—these drops lead to lubrication failures that can spiral into catastrophic damage. Whether it’s poor design, manufacturing inconsistencies, or just another chapter in Subaru’s ongoing battle with oiling woes, one fact remains: If you plan on heavily tracking your car, this demands attention.
For the average FA24 owner, there’s little to worry about under normal driving conditions. But if you frequent the track, your days might be numbered… or are they?
The Baffle Debate
Diving right in—let’s talk oil pan baffles because that’s what we’re going to be installing in this post. If you’re in the BRZ/GR86 community, you’ve probably heard this modification hyped as the fix for the FA24’s oiling woes. But is it really the silver bullet?
Picture this: You’re carving through a tight corner, slamming on the brakes, launching hard off the line—meanwhile, your engine oil is sloshing around like a raging tide. If too much of it moves away from the pickup, the pump starts gulping air instead of oil. And when that happens? Well… say hello to oil starvation and a very expensive paperweight.
A baffle sits inside the oil pan, keeping oil near the pickup and stabilizing pressure. It’s a crucial modification for most high-performance cars, but on the FA24, the problem goes deeper. Unlike most engines, this flat-four struggles with oil pooling in the cylinder heads under sustained lateral forces. During aggressive cornering, oil gets trapped in the valve covers, failing to return to the sump fast enough—leaving the pickup starved, even if there’s technically plenty of oil in the system.
Overfilling: A Band-Aid Fix?
Some try to combat starvation by overfilling the oil, but this approach comes with risks. Too much oil can create drag on the crankshaft, reduce efficiency, wreak havoc on the PCV system, and even lead to aeration (which I’m not even going to get into). That said, adding a small amount—typically no more than a quart—can provide a buffer against starvation in these chassis, buying you a few extra tenths of a second before disaster strikes.
Modern Tire Tech: A Hidden Risk
There’s a common misconception, especially among older enthusiasts, that oil starvation only happens when running R-compound tires (typically 200 TW and under). The reasoning? Back in the day, street tires didn’t offer nearly as much grip. But tire technology has advanced significantly—modern summer tires can generate lateral forces comparable to R-compounds, even if only for short bursts. That means even if you’re running a “street” tire, you’re still at risk of oil starvation. The FA24’s oiling system wasn’t designed with this level of grip in mind, making it even easier to push the limits of its lubrication capabilities.
The Real Culprit: Subaru’s Design
The FA24’s stock oil pan lacks effective baffling, worsening oil displacement under high G-forces. While aftermarket baffles help somewhat, they don’t address the core issue of oil pooling in the heads. Some companies are currently developing fully custom oil pans with integrated baffling and increased oil capacity, but they haven’t hit the market yet. The increased capacity helps compensate for oil starvation by ensuring there’s still oil available in the pan, even when some has pooled in the heads and valve covers.
Ultimately, due to the flat engine design, if you’re tracking an FA24-powered BRZ or GR86, oil starvation isn’t a possibility—it’s an eventuality. And quite frankly, the only way to truly fix it? Ditch the flat engine altogether.
Ok, I bet some of the more savvy readers out there are trying to interject right now screaming… “just install and accusump!”
Accusump: Is This Really A Viable Solution?
An Accusump is an effective solution for addressing oil starvation in the BRZ and other vehicles. Acting as a pressurized oil reservoir, it stores oil under normal conditions and releases it during hard cornering, braking, or acceleration to maintain consistent pressure and protect critical engine components. This backup supply helps stabilize oil pressure and reduce the risk of engine damage.
Relatively easy to install without major modifications, an Accusump is a practical safeguard. However, it adds complexity, requires proper setup and maintenance, and takes up space in the engine bay or cabin. While highly beneficial, it doesn’t entirely replace other upgrades like a baffled oil pan, especially for cars experiencing severe oil starvation under high G-forces. For those who frequently track their BRZ/GR86, an Accusump is a valuable addition when paired with complementary oiling system enhancements. It’s definitely not the end-all, be-all fix.
Marlon’s BRZ: We’re Installing A Baffle
As some of you might know, my good friend Marlon has a BRZ, and since he picked it up in 2023, we’ve been on a never-ending mission to make it somewhat of a competent track car. From preventative modification to aesthetic fixes, we’ve done it all—just to make it reliable enough to survive the track and look halfway decent while doing so. Now, if you’ve spent any time in the BRZ/GR86 world, you’re probably aware of the persistent rumors about the FA24 engine—mostly centered around its oiling system failures and the sheer negligence in its assembly. It’s become a staple of BRZ enthusiast rhetoric, at this point.
Naturally, this cloud of doom left Marlon worried about oil starvation, so he decided to invest in an oil pan baffle to soothe his anxiety while putting his car through its paces. Oil starvation isn’t exactly rare in Subaru’s flat engines, so it’s hardly surprising there’s an endless list of baffle options, each accompanied by its own subjective opinions about which one will maybe keep the engine from self-destructing. Of course, finding the “best” one is an exercise in frustration, since no solution will ever fully solve the problem.
Instead of turning this post into a comprehensive review of every baffle ever made, let’s just say this: we went with the Tomei oil pan baffle because, for all its flaws, it had the most data backing its performance. Does it fix everything? No. Does it help maintain oil pressure? Kind of. That’s about the best you can hope for in this mess.
RTV: This Is Why Most Of You Are Here
As you’ll read further in the article, according to the internet, an even more “common” and significant issue specific to the BRZ/GR86 platform is the excessive application of RTV during engine assembly. Over time, pieces of this excess RTV can break off during normal use, clogging the oil sump tube screen and, in extreme cases, leading to oil starvation—even before the car is taken to the track. This means that not even an oil pan baffle, overfilling, nor accusump could save you.
Installing The Baffle
Here’s what the Tomei baffle looks like before unboxing.
Open it up, and you get some nifty stickers, an instruction manual, and the supporting hardware needed for the install.
And out of the box.
We begin the install with Marlon’s car jacked up via the super nifty quick jacks. Make sure to place plenty of cardboard on the floor because as soon as the oil pan is removed, oil will never stop slowly dripping out. The cardboard will do a great job of absorbing it and keeping the mess to a minimum.
First, completely remove the aluminum undertray from the car. It is secured with eight 12mm bolts and two 10mm bolts.
With the undertray removed, you’re greeted by the FA24’s tangled mess of an exhaust manifold. It’s bulky, it’s awkward, and it makes even simple jobs more frustrating than they should be.
Next, disconnect both the primary and secondary O2 sensors. They are easily accessible from the top of the engine bay.
Just underneath the upper radiator hose.
Black one and the gray one.
The reason for unplugging these is that the header needs to be removed to access the oil pan. Instead of unscrewing both O2 sensors from the header, you can simply unplug them, allowing the sensors to remain installed in the header when removed.
Now you can go back under the car and locate where the manifold (header) meets the overpipe/joint pipe (whatever you Subie dudes want to call it) and begin unbolting the connection there. This is done by removing the two 14mm nuts securing it to the manifold (header).
With space being tight, we had to make do with a basic combo wrench. Sure, the right mix of sockets and swivels would’ve worked better—but that would require Marlon’s garage to actually have a decent tool selection.
Since Marlon’s car is nearly new with less than 3,000 miles, we didn’t have to worry about seized bolts. But if your car has higher mileage or you live in a humid climate, it’s a good idea to spray some penetrating oil on the nuts to avoid snapping any exhaust studs. Get you some Kroil spray! it’s pricey, but well worth it.
There is just barely not enough clearance to remove the manifold (header), so you’ll need to unbolt the front pipe from the exhaust B-pipe (no need to remove it completely). This will give you a bit more wiggle room to maneuver the manifold (header) out.
You’ll also need to remove the singular 12mm bolt that secures the front pipe to the exhaust hanger. Once the bolt is out, you’ll need to ‘unhook’ it; this will make more sense when you’re actually under your car.
Here’s what the manifold (header) looks like when fully removed. To take it off the engine (sorry, no pictures during the removal process), unbolt the six 14mm nuts (three per side) securing it in place. Caution… It’s heavy! And again, you might need to spray some penetrating oil on these as well.
With the manifold (header) removed, accessing the oil pan is now possible.
In this picture, you can clearly see how we unbolted the front pipe but left it in place. By unbolting it, we created just enough wiggle room to remove the manifold (header). The studs where the manifold (header) bolts to the overpipe prevented us from pulling the entire exhaust far enough back to free the header, so this adjustment was necessary.
Taking the manifold (header) out really cleans things up. It looked kinda complicated before, but now it’s way easier to comprehend. What used to feel a bit cluttered and overwhelming now looks clean and simple, making everything more intuitive at first glance.
Anyone with even a shred of situational awareness could read Marlon’s body language—he was already regretting this whole thing before it even started. But the poor bastard had no clue what the universe had in store for him. The cruel joke was just beginning. Soon enough, in a twisted “as above, so below” kind of way, everything was set to unravel. And Marlon? He’d make a mistake so catastrophic, so utterly unforgivable, that you’ll have no choice but to read on and witness the downfall for yourself.
Once the manifold (header) is removed and out of the way, you can drain the oil. It may go without saying, but I’ll mention it anyway—you need to drain the oil to prevent it from spilling everywhere when you remove the pan.
Drain it just as you would when you do an oil change.
With it all drained out.
Don’t forget to reinstall the drain bolt and tighten it to the recommended torque specs (29 lb./ft). Unless, of course, you enjoy the thrill of realizing you left it loose after a long, frustrating install—nothing says ‘fun’ like catastrophic oil pressure loss because you were too tired and forgot to double-check your work.
Now onto removing the eleven 10mm bolts that secure the pan to the block.
no specific order is necessary.
Now with the final bolt removed, you can begin the incredibly arduous task of breaking the RTV seal. In preparation, Marlon purchased an oil pan separator tool, which wasn’t much help.
He worked that thing from front to back and all over without success.
After about 30 minutes of trying to be delicate, we took the hammer out and tried gently tapping the tool with hopes of making it through the RTV, but it didn’t really work either.
The key here is to be extra careful in making sure you don’t scratch, gouge, or mar the surface where the pan mates to the block. If you do, you run the risk of causing leaks because the RTV can’t completely fill the void that was created when you gouged the aluminum block mating area.
We started in with plastic pry tools and razor blades to cut through the RTV, but in the end, I relied on my experience and carefully pried at the rear driver’s side corner of the pan with a flathead screwdriver. This finally broke the RTV seal and let us remove the pan. If you use this method, be cautious—too much force can bend the steel pan, potentially distorting it and preventing a proper seal when reinstalled.
PHEW! The pan is finally off… what an ordeal that was. But at this point, I was even more excited—not just because we got it done, but because I was ready to prove Marlon wrong about the RTV-in-the-sump-screen rumors that had been lighting up the BRZ/GR86 forums.
(Not pictured, but Marlon did shine a light up the sump tube and check the screen for any RTV blockage. He even snapped a few photos on his phone to confirm that it was completely clear—just like I’d been telling him all along.)
But hold on… there’s more. A LOT more. And I’m about to eat my words.
Here’s the inside of the pan. (note the gray RTV)
Time for a Type R break. Gosh it sure is purdy.
Ok, back to the task at hand. Next, you’ll want to completely remove all the old RTV from the bottom of the block. Make sure you go the extra mile here because if you don’t get it all off, you might end up with an oil leak after reassembly. This is also incredibly time-consuming.
A plastic razor blade ended up being the best tool. No matter what you use, it is going to be a time-consuming task. But the plastic razor blade ensured that we didn’t accidentally damage the mating surface.
All clean and ready to go.
Now it’s the pan’s turn for cleaning. Again, you’ll need to remove any RTV completely to ensure a proper, leak-free seal when applying the new RTV.
Here is what the baffle will look like sitting in the pan.
All it does is just sit in there and gets pitched into place when the pan is rebolted on.
New bead of RTV goes on. Marlon was very careful not to apply too much RTV like they did at the factory, applying the thinnest amount around the mating surface. (more on this later).
And again, same thing for the pan. Thinnest amount possible.
Ensure the baffle is positioned inside the pan, then bolt the pan back onto the engine using the supplied hex-head bolts. Since the baffle sits between the pan and the block, longer bolts are required to compensate for the added thickness—Tomei includes these. Tomei doesn’t specify torque values for the provided hardware, so we followed the OEM torque specs. Be sure to tighten the bolts in the correct sequence. KEEP IN MIND THE OIL PAN TORQUE SPECS ARE INCH POUND NOT FOOT LB. You’ll most likely need a smaller torque wrench specific to in/lbf.
Here is what it should now look like all completely reinstalled.
With it all torqued to spec you can begin reinstalling the header.
It should go back on just as it came off. Don’t forget the gaskets for each head where the header bolts to.
for the six header bolts that secure it to the engine, again use a 14mm socket and should be torqued to 22 LB/FT
Now, connect the overpipe to the header using a 14mm socket or wrench and torque it to 31 lb/ft. Then, reconnect the two O₂ sensor plugs. Reinstall the undertray, torquing the eight 12mm bolts to 22 lb/ft and the two 10mm bolts to 5.5 lb/ft. Finally, don’t forget to pour oil into the engine.
The Catastrophe:
And we were all done. That was it; I got in my car and headed home late that night, actually early morning. After getting home and showering, I went to plug my phone in to charge, and I noticed Marlon had texted me…
Yep, at 2:35 am Marlon checked to make sure I made it home safely from the east side…He also shows me pictures of a sump tube with RTV on the screen. (I’m the blue text bubbles)
Marlon, ever the jokester, makes it impossible to tell whether he’s being serious or not. He’s trying to show me these pictures, insinuating that he took them with his phone.
So, it looks like the rumors are true—Subaru/Toyota (whichever company assembled the engine) really did use too much RTV, causing it to break off and clog the sump screen. But I still can’t take him seriously, as you can see from how I texted him the next morning to check if this was real or if he was just joking.
There’s really not much more to say. Somehow, Marlon managed to miss the obvious chunks of RTV clogging the sump screen during his inspection that night. But wait—it gets better. After we completely reassembled everything, refilled the oil, and I had already gone home, he finally decided to look at the pictures he took. And lo and behold, those pictures clearly showed RTV stuck in the sump screen. Fantastic work, Marlon. Great idea to wait until everything was completely reassembled and fluids filled to then check the pictures you took.
Unfortunetly, Marlon had a track event coming up, and surprise, surprise, our schedules just couldn’t line up beforehand to deal with the chunks of RTV stuck in the sump screen. No big deal, right? After all, he’d already done two track days with that mess in there, so what’s one more? If it didn’t blow up before, clearly it wasn’t going to blow up now.
Honestly, in my opinion, there weren’t even enough pieces blocking the sump tube screen to cause any serious issues. But of course, people love to freak out and blame Subaru’s “Achilles’ heel” of oil starvation on this, as if a couple of stray chunks of RTV are somehow the real culprit behind years of boxer engine woes.
It’s almost comical watching diehard Subaru fans twist themselves into knots trying to defend their beloved engines. “Oh, it’s not the flat engine design—it’s just a bad assembler!” Sure. Because boxer engines, with their totally-not-notorious oil starvation issues, couldn’t possibly have inherent flaws, right? It’s like they’d rather throw the assembler under the bus than admit their precious Subaru might not be the engineering masterpiece they’ve convinced themselves it is.
Anyways… Hopefully you can sense my disdain for flat engines. Inline four is the way!
Unfortunately for me (because I really want to K24 swap it), Marlon’s engine survived that next track day. That meant it was time for us to schedule a day to drop the oil pan and clean out the RTV clogging the sump screen.
Before setting a date, I advised him to order a new lower oil pan. At just $120 from Subaru online, it was a no-brainer—especially considering the effort required to clean, prep, and reuse the old one. Having a replacement also meant we didn’t have to baby the old pan during removal. We could be a little more persuasive without worrying about damaging it—because, after all, it wasn’t going back on anyway. If you are good with spending 120 bucks, I would highly suggest getting another new pan before you embark on this journey. It will just make things so much easier for you.
So this is what a new lower oil pan shipped from Subaru looks like.
It also comes with two new rubber gaskets. Speaking of rubber gaskets, we couldn’t decide which side of the oil pan baffle to install them on. After some careful consideration, we concluded that the best approach was to attach them to the black drain tubes first, place the oil pan baffle on top, and leave nothing above the baffle.
However, it’s concerning that the instructions from Tomei didn’t specify the intended orientation. This detail is crucial, especially given the importance of ensuring oil returns to the bottom of the oil pan as quickly as possible.
It’s worth noting that we also installed the gaskets this way during our first attempt, and he successfully completed a full track day without any engine issues. This leads me to believe our thinking on the gasket placement was correct.
Now, onto round two:
Operation Remove RTV Chunks From Sump Tube Screen
I’ll keep the pictures to a minimum this time since we’re essentially repeating the same steps outlined above to remove the oil pan and access the sump screen.
Here is how we begin (again): car back up on the trusty quick jacks, a new oil pan sitting off to the side, awaiting its new resting place, and Marlon’s guns out.
Go throught the whole process again.
- Remove undertray.
- Disconnect both O2 sensors.
- Disconnect manifold (header) from exhaust piping.
- Remove manifold (header.)
- Drain oil.
- Unbolt and remove oil pan.
And here we are with the oil pan back off.
Take the baffle out, and prepare yourself for everyone’s favorite pastime: scraping off all the old RTV. We used a nylon-style brush wheel attached to a drill for this glamorous task. Once you’ve scrubbed it clean, give the baffle a thorough spray-down with brake clean to remove any leftover debris—it needs to be operating-room sterile. After all, the last thing you want is for your engine to snack on stray RTV chunks. Or maybe it’s okay since Subaru thought it was fine ¯\_(ツ)_/¯… (I’m kidding, make sure it’s clean)
You don’t want to use anything too abrasive that could scratch or damage the mating areas on the baffle. What you see below is just the metal getting a little polished by the brush—it’s not damage, I promise. Trust me, it’s still as smooth as a baby’s bottom, and this will ensure a leak-free seal.
Once again, we face the meticulous task of removing RTV from the bottom of the engine. It’s a time-consuming process, but attention to detail is crucial. A helpful tip is to spray brake cleaner into the underside of the engine to flush out any trapped RTV remnants from hard-to-reach areas after scraping.
Allright, it’s time for the surgical removal of these tiny chunks of RTV.
Armed with a tiny flashlight in one hand and an extra-long pick in the other, Marlon is ready to embark on the noble—and utterly maddening—quest of RTV chunk removal. With the precision of a surgeon and the patience of a saint (or so he hopes), he begins the tedious process, proving once again that this is less about mechanics and more about testing the limits of ones patience and desire to have peace of mind.
Are you sure there is no RTV this time!? I don’t want to do this a third time…
When it was all said and done… This is everything that was removed. Again, I must stress, this is hardly enough to prevent the sufficient flow of oil through the engine (just my opinion as I’m no engineer).
Equally puzzling, we found two colors of debris in the screen: mostly black, with some gray mixed in. If you look back at the pictures from when we originally removed the oil pan (at the top of this article), you’ll see that Subaru used grey RTV to seal the pan, not black. Yes, we used black RTV to seal the pan when we installed the baffle the first time, but remember the pictures he texted me that night? The pieces of RTV in the screen were longer, spaghetti-like strands, and the only long ones we removed were black. And we hadn’t even started the car that night either, because by the time we were done it was 2am and he didn’t want to risk waking his son by starting his CLEiB exhaust equipped car.
I’ll admit that in the pictures he sent, the RTV pieces do look a bit gray, but I think that’s just the bright light reflecting off their shiny surface. This leads me to believe that the excessive RTV causing debris buildup—and potentially clogging the sump tube screen—is coming from somewhere else in the engine. Where exactly, I’m not sure.
Basically, there are a few different scenarios here.
- There is black RTV used somewhere else during the assembly of these engines, and that is the main culprit for the majority of the pieces we removed.
- It’s possible that gray RTV was initially stuck in the sump tube screen (as pictured in the texts), dislodged, and moved to another part of the engine, potentially lodging in a small oil passage. The black bits we removed were from when we reinstalled the pan with the baffle the first time.
Either way, we’ll never know for sure, but I highly doubt the black RTV removed from the sump tube screen was from us. We used such a small amount when applying it, just to ensure we didn’t cause any excess that could break off. Honestly, I was more worried we might end up with an oil leak instead simply becasue we hadn’t applied enough RTV (IMO). That just leaves us to pounder the conspiracy theory of who put the RTV in the sump tube screen.
Aannnyway, we’re now 100% certain there isn’t a speck of RTV in the sump tube screen. And once again, Marlon is applying the tiniest amount of RTV to the bottom of the engine, hoping to prevent any RTV from clogging the sump tube screen in the future.
Time for another Type R break!
Below, Marlon is finalizing the oil pan install for the second time.
And we are all back together again.
Conclusion:
For the FA24 (and probabaly most other Subaru engines) Neither a baffle nor overfilling will completely eliminate the oil pressure drop during hard right turns or when cresting hills. While there will be slight improvement in maintaining minimal pressure, the difference is not significant. We suspect the issue stems from the Subaru engine’s high oil flow rate. According to STIS (Subaru Technical Information Systems), the FA24 oil pump is rated at 48.9 qt/min at 6,000 rpm, which means it can deplete a full oil pan (assuming the lower pan holds 4 quarts of oil) in approximately 5 seconds at 6,000 rpm, of course. And at idle 600 rpm, it will only flow ~4 or 5 qt/min.
In hard turns, oil sloshing reduces the amount of oil available in the lower pan. Due to the boxer engine design, high lateral G-forces make it difficult for oil pumped into one cylinder head to return to the pan. For example, in a hard right turn, oil in the left cylinder head struggles to return, and vice versa. This results in a lower oil level in the pan, causing oil pressure drops. Left turns are less problematic because the oil pickup tube’s position allows the pump to access oil even when levels are low.
While baffles slow oil sloshing (hence the small improvement), they don’t address the oil return issue and some might even exacerbate it. Since we’re not engine experts, this is just a hypothesis—take it with a grain of salt.
Unfortunately, there currently doesn’t seem to be an easy fix for BRZ/GR86 owners. Viable solutions include:
- AccuSump System – Though effective, it’s challenging to set up correctly, expensive, and requires maintenance. It’s not great for someone who is daily driving their car.
- Dry Sump System – This is the solution used by Porsche for their boxer engines, but no off-the-shelf system exists for the FA24. Custom fabrication would be required, which is both difficult and costly due to the engine bay layout.
It might ultimately be more economical to simply replace engines as needed.
Mitigation Plan: For now, focus on increasing minimal oil pressure and limiting pressure drops.
- If you run an oil cooler, this will also rob some extra PSI from your oiling system, typically 5-10 PSI. So, you should really think through whether or not you truly need an oil cooler.
- Use 5W-30 oil for winter track days and consider switching to 5W-40 for hot summer sessions can also help add some additional protection.
- Limit the amount of high RPMs (above 6,000) on right hand turns.
- Lastly, If the engine fails, it will just be a great excuse to go with the tried an true K24 swap.
In my humble opinion, I believe that for most Subaru enthusiasts who track their cars a few times a year, they don’t really need a baffle; there shouldn’t be any major issues as long as they use a high-quality full-synthetic oil, change it regularly, and maintain proper oil levels—perhaps even slightly overfilling when tracking. If oil starvation were truly the epidemic the internet makes it out to be, we’d see constant reports from people saying, “I took my car to its first track day, and the engine blew up.”
The fact is, if the issue were as widespread as some claim, cars like the BRZ and GR86 wouldn’t be selling in such high numbers or be as popular among enthusiasts. While it’s true that Subarus have a reputation within the enthusiast and aftermarket communities for being unreliable, I believe driver error plays a significant role in many of these cases. Of course, there are rare instances of genuine catastrophic failures, but in most cases, I suspect we’re not getting the full story—whether it’s a money shift, running low on oil, overextended oil change intervals, mechanical negligence, or the use of inferior products.
At the end of the day, it’s always wise to take what you read online with a grain of salt. There’s often more to the story than what gets posted.
Objectively, Marlon’s car survived two track days without a baffle, even with RTV in the sump tube screen. It also made it through a third track day with a baffle installed but still had RTV stuck in the sump tube screen. Since then, it’s handled four more track events after reinstalling the baffle and cleaning otu the RTV. So, if you’re only doing a handful of track days a year, it’s safe to say you’ll likely have no issues with your BRZ or GR86. It’s also worth noting that from day one, Marlon has been using heavier weight oil and overfilling it as a precaution while tracking his car.
Honestly, since there’s no magic fix for Subaru’s oiling issues—and the most promising solution right now is simply overfilling—if I owned one, I probably would’ve skipped the baffle altogether. Most of the available data on the TOMEI baffle doesn’t show a significant enough improvement to justify using one, and in some cases—especially with other brands—baffles have even been shown to decrease oil pressure by hindering the flow or drain back.
Instead, I’d just overfill the oil by a quart, run a high-quality oil, and change it before and after every track day. I highly suggest not only inspecting for “glitter” in the drained oil but also cutting open the filter to check for metal in the element. And lastly, I’d keep it under 6,000 RPMs on right-hand turns. Simple, effective, and proven.
There’s also talk of some people running an S2000 oil filter on their FA24 because it has more inlet holes, theoretically allowing for better oil flow with less restriction. The idea is that by keeping oil moving more freely through the system—from the pan, through the pump, into the filter, through the engine, and back to the pan—you’re keeping more oil where it matters for longer (the pan). And if that buys you even a few extra tenths of a second before oil starvation kicks in mid-corner, that’s worth something. (We might explore this option too as it is cheap and couldn’t hurt.)
As I wrap up this article, I can’t help but reflect on my own frustrating attempts to keep my Type R from overheating on track. I’ve tried everything, yet the issue persists. It’s a humbling reminder that sometimes, despite our best efforts, there simply isn’t a perfect solution. In many ways, the BRZ/GR86 platform faces a similar challenge—an Achilles’ heel with no definitive fix.
It’s disappointing, really. These cars are marketed as their brands’ “high-performance enthusiast vehicles,” yet because they are mass-produced and only a small percentage of owners push them hard on track, they come with compromises. But let’s be honest—some of the complaints stem from unrealistic expectations. You take a mass-produced road car, declare it a “track weapon,” run it hard every other weekend, and still expect the engine to last 100,000+ miles? That’s a tough ask.
To put things into perspective, let’s break down a typical race season for a GR Cup car:
- Practice: 2 sessions, 30 minutes each
- Qualifying: 2 sessions, 15 minutes each
- Races: 2 races, 45 minutes each
That’s 180 minutes (3 hours) of total track time per weekend, and in 2024, they ran 7 race weekends, bringing the season total to 21 hours of track time.
Now, let’s look at mileage. From the 2024 GR Cup race results at COTA, we see 64 laps completed that weekend. With COTA’s track length of 3.426 miles, that’s…
Total Distance Driven in One Weekend:
64×3.426=219.26 miles
Total Distance Driven in the 2024 Season (7 race weekends):
219.26×7=1,534.82 miles.
So, a full GR Cup season sees around 1,535 miles of total track driving over 21 hours of runtime.
Compare that to an average track enthusiast who takes their car out for, say, four 20-minute sessions per track day. That’s 80 minutes per event—meaning they’d hit that 21-hour mark in about 16 track days. For some, it would take them 4 years to hit 16 track days, and for others, that figure could be met in a years time. EIther way, some expect their street-driven, mass-produced BRZ/GR86 to handle that abuse for years without issue all while still being used as a daily driven car too.
It’s a sobering reality—these cars are great, but they’re not invincible, especially when you’re pushing them hard on track.
The truth is, dedicated race cars—purpose-built and meticulously maintained—see only a fraction of the total runtime that many expect from a street car they also use on track. Before crying foul over reliability, consider that race engines are heavily maintained, rebuilt throughout the season, and often swapped for a brand-new one at the start of the next.
If you think a mass-produced, off-the-showroom-floor car—one that shares parts with a dozen other models—can endure relentless track abuse without consequences, you’re fooling yourself. These cars aren’t engineered for that level of sustained punishment. Sooner or later, something will give. It’s not bad luck; it’s just reality. You’re not buying a bespoke race car—you’re buying a mass-produced machine with a thin layer of ‘sport’ sprinkled on top to make it more appealing.
If you want to track your car, be prepared to pay the price when things go wrong, because they will. It’s part of the hobby. If that reality makes you hesitate, maybe taking a brand-new car—one that’s already stretching your budget—to the track isn’t the best idea. You’d have just as much fun (and probably fewer regrets) buying a well-sorted late ‘80s or ‘90s car and pushing that to its limits instead.
That said, most of us don’t have the financial flexibility to own both a brand-new car and a dedicated track beater. So, we track what we have—because at the end of the day, we’re enthusiasts, and that’s what we love to do. Just don’t be surprised when all that track time starts taking a serious toll on your shiny new car. That’s just the cost of playing the game.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t take precautions. Adding baffles, an Accusump, oil coolers, or even overfilling your oil can help—but at best, you’re just buying time. No matter what you do, mechanical failure is always lurking around the next corner.
Ironically, adding layers of protection can introduce new problems—complications you wouldn’t have dealt with if you’d just left the car stock. Hindsight makes it almost laughable, especially when you realize how much unnecessary complexity you added to something that didn’t need it in the first place.
And here’s the harsh truth: a slower driver will always have a more reliable car than a faster driver—not because of luck, but because they aren’t pushing the car as hard. A fast driver lives at high RPMs longer, endures sustained G-forces, and generally shows far less mechanical sympathy. That alone means a slower driver’s car might survive years of track days without major issues, while a faster driver will be rolling the dice every session.
These are the realities you have to accept when tracking a car. Some people get lucky, some don’t—but the harder you push, the higher the price you’ll pay. That’s just the nature of the game.
Thanks for reading. I hope this helped you better understand the oiling system in your BRZ/GR86 and gave you the knowledge needed to make informed choices about which modifications truly matter. I know some of this might not be what you wanted to hear, but sometimes the truth can be humbling.
Personally, I think the oiling concerns with these cars are overexaggerated. The reality is, most of us will never experience an engine failure—not because the risk isn’t real, but because we simply won’t track our cars hard enough or often enough for it to be an issue. And, let’s be honest, many of us will probably move on to something else within five years anyway.
Track any car, from any manufacturer, and you’re automatically shortening its lifespan. By how much? Who knows? I’ve had an oil pan baffle in my Type R for four years just for peace of mind, but plenty of people track their Type Rs without one and have yet to experience a catastrophic failure, even though the risk is real.
Think of it like smoking cigarettes—we all know the risks, but they take years off the end of your life, not the beginning. Some people smoke their whole lives, only to die from something else entirely, never really knowing how many years smoking took from them.
That’s what tracking your car does. You can’t quantify the damage or count the years you’re shaving off its life. But in all honesty, something else will probably take it out first. You’ll money shift, overheat it to the point of blowing a head gasket, rebuild the engine for “reliability” long before it’s necessary, crash it, or—like mentioned above—sell it and move on to something better.
So for now, just enjoy looking cool while you smoke your metaphorical cigarettes. Don’t worry about you or your car getting cancer—because in the end, we’re all going to die. Just make sure you enjoyed the journey.
If you have any questions, comments, praise, or simply want to say hi, you can reach me via email at Billy@Functiontheory.com, DM me on Instagram @Functiontheory, or leave a comment on the post below. I look forward to hearing from you.
Did you like this article? Are you interested in learning more about the BRZ’s/GR86 platfom? If so, click the links below where we document in detail everything we have done to Marlon’s car thus far.
That reminds me, I had a 2008 Viper, and I had been to Buttonwillow a few times, this was 2016, went out 1st session and on the 2nd or 3rd lap I broke a timing chain, I sent it to Prefix, and it cost me $11000.00, but it all fun.
OMG! yes… that is truly the definition of “part of the game” they say you gotta pay to play haha. ANd side note, I bet a vipe was tons of fun out there.