I've been worried about this lately, too, but that's a good point.

AutoX has some high G turns, but most of them are short. On the "sweepers" I can only go so fast before I start to push.

Well, do the coursewalk and if there's a turn that scares you, hold up a bit or let the revs drop.

I've been running .5 over on the oil, but last time I filled, I checked a week later and added another .5, so I'm at 6.5 now. (My 96 owner's manual specs 5.5 quarts.) I'm thinking I can go higher, based on some of Demon's comments. (He put a quantity of oil in an oil pan and it was still below the level of the windage tray, or baffle, or some such, and there's also the point that while the engine is running, there may be 3 quarts or so up in the heads, so you're not going to get oil cavitation or foaming from contact with the crank.)

Thanks for the feedback. I got the same answer from Demon in PMs, so 6.5qts it is. This weekend I'll add the oil when I put on my stickies and do a spring tune-up. Then it's off to the races! March 19th at Ripken in MD, for anyone who doesn't read the local forums.

That's what I did and never sweated it at all. If you're running good oil, you will always have good lubrication at autocross type G-loads.

I had a 2000 cougar that I autocrossed right when i got it. I didn't know to add more oil to the duratec.... and autocrossed 1 day each month for 3 years. I've also autocrossed my contour every month for a little more than 2 years. I read to add more oil a few months after getting my contour (and joining ceg)... and have been running +1 qt ever since. Even though I never had any issues over the last 5 years... I feel much better now since reading about the starvation issues... and was thankful i didn't kill my cougar since it was leased... and i beat the shi!t out of it.

There was a contour guy who was at the autocrosses when i had a cougar. He eventually went on to NASA/ASRA (roadcourse)... a couple months later, he was back at the autocrosses with a different car, because he killed his motor on a long sweeper.

I run my v6 cougar with the "upgraded" oil pan and AMSOIL 0W-30 synthetic oil. This oil has more "hang" than standard. Meaning that there is more lubricant up on vital engine points longer.. It doesn't find its way back into the pan near as fast as dino oil.

If you use synthetic oil (and you should),be careful as this "hang" probity can cause you to really overfill. Measure the volume of oil you add, not by looking at what is shown on the oil dip stick..

I use Mobil 1 5w-30, and I noticed it takes a long time to drain after running. About 30 min after engine shutoff it reaches its max point at the first stroke of the "M" in Max. This is after an oil change where I put in 6 qts, and then just added 1/2 qt.