What engine oil do you use and why?

[JohnW8]

Like the title asks, what engine oil do you use and why?


Until recently I used Mobil 1 10w/30, because it was readily available, and able to hold up well to higher temps found in a racecar.

What's your choice?

[joeg]

Mobil 1--15 W 50.

Readily available.

[chuck baader]

A racing oil only that contains zink. A street oil will kill a flat tappet motor on the track. CB

[Chip42]

Amsoil dominator 15w50. for the same reaosn Chuck aluded too: ZDDP content. but also because of its temperature stability and flow characteristics. it's survived at 300°F in the MR2 (cooler gets it to 260 in clear track!...warts and all) and still appeared to be stable, where Mobil 1 had shown signs of breakdown.

oh, and I'm a dealer, so... let me know if you need some :D

[coreyehcx]

10w30 Amsoil Dominator

Same reasons as Chip described.

10w30 puts me at an oil pressure Im happy with for my setup.

[bamfp]

I use nothing that I can buy at a local parts store over the counter. Gibbs, Amsoil, Brad Penn, Redline.

[ajmr2]

I've used Mobil 1 15w50 in my race car for 16 years. No issues. I use Mobil 1 5w30 in my 2 TSXs and my '94 E 150 tow vehicle. No issues. Worth every penny and woudn't use anything else.
:eclipsee_steering:

[preparedcivic]

In the race car, Mobil One 15W-50. It is the only M1 grade still with a high zinc content.

The autocross car gets 10W-30 M1. My C6 Vette the factory fill M1 5W-30. The Ford trucks get Motorcraft 15W-40 and 5W-20 for the 6.7 diesel and V-10 respectively. The only car on dino oil is the TSX, and that has had 5W-30 Castrol every 5k and it's now up to 112,000.

[gran racing]

For the racecar:

3 quarts Mobil One 0/40
1 quart Rotella 15/40 or straight 30

Why? Kessler Engineering told me to. LOL

[callard]

Dave,
Are you throwing in the Rotella for the zinc?
I'm running Mobil 1 15/50 in the 911 (270 + oil temps) along with some CamShield for the extra ZDDP.
Chuck

[JeffYoung]

For the reasons Chuck lists, I am pretty sure using Valvoline VR whatever in my car resulted in bad cam wear.

Switching over to either Amsoil or Joe Gibbs now for the new motor.

[ShelbyRacer]

Redline 40W Racing.

High zinc/phoshorus, good viscosity stability, excellent heat handling. Runs cooler under the same conditions as Mobil1 and Royal Purple.

Haven't ever tried Amsoil in the race car, but I run it in the truck...

I've been running Royal Purple in the street cars, since I can actually buy it cheaper than Mobil1.

[Greg Amy]

Mobil 1 or NAPA synthetic, 0W-something, whichever is cheaper. Change it every race.

[Wreckerboy]

For the race car - Mobil One Race. Because Dave Wheeler and Bret DePedro made convincing arguments regarding the use of a race-specific formulation that include ZDDP content and other reasons.

For the street cars - various weights of M1 as well. About 500K miles between the three of them with no complaints. Of course, with three street cars on the stuff of course none of them use the same damn spec oil, so I've always gots lots of bottles of the wrong stuff around when it's time to change the oil. At least the street Meotter leaks so much oil that I can just put cheap(er) Castrol dino juice in it.

[BruceG]

Some VEE drivers swear by Brad Penn which is the old "green oil" for PA.Loaded with ZDDP and good for 1200cc VEE engines.:dead_horse:

[Campbell]

It is interesting to see all the synthetic oil being used, how often do you change your oil? I use dino oil and change each race.. but the cost is much less. Thanks

[1stgen]

I use the B&G 15/40w full synthetic with an B&G MOA zinc additive. 1.8t motor spinning to 7k, never a problem and motor has full a race season and 3 years of hpde's on it. Was rebuilt in 09'

[1stgen]

Synth oil wont burn like conventional oil, start a fire in your backyard and try it out. Synth will put the fire out before burning. Great for turbo motors and high heat applications.

[racer240sx]

I have been coating my cams with Techline Cermalube coating. Never any signs of wear. Also will help with oil temps. Easy to apply and cure in your own oven.

[Flyinglizard]

Cambell, you dont have to change the syns every race, thus cheaper.
Rotella( my current oil) 5/40 has 1200PPm of ZZp in it and helps the scuff.
Syns will burn , but at a much higher temp. The engine will look brand new inside, even with the rod sticking out.

[quadzjr]

I spent alot of time researching oils and reading into the testing proceedures. From what I could find. Heck even at PRI I talked to every oil manufacturer there to get Technical Data Sheets on their product. Chemistry is fun :)

If I could afford it Mobil 1 Racing oil (not off the counter stuff) is extremely stable and is built truely synthetic starting from ethane gas.

since that is very expensive. I found that second best for my application is Amsoil. It buys the base stock from Mobil so the benefits of a true Group 4 base stock is there. It is also almost just as stable above the 210*f mark. Since I run very high oil temps ~270* after cooler, filter, and 6' of lines. I need temperature stablity.

If you have more moderate oil temps, then this opens you to more options.

[gran racing]

The engine will look brand new inside, even with the rod sticking out.

This. Engine temp gauge failed, of course so did a coolant hose. Engine fried. Amazing how good things looked inside. Well, most of it anyway.

[jimmy p]

Some VEE drivers swear by Brad Penn which is the old "green oil" for PA.Loaded with ZDDP and good for 1200cc VEE engines.:dead_horse:

+ 1 for Brad Penn racing 20-50
Very cost effective vs the other oils posted here and good stuff.

[quadzjr]

+ 1 for Brad Penn racing 20-50
Very cost effective vs the other oils posted here and good stuff.

I talked to the Brad Penn guys. The Brad Penn oils are what is left from the original oil fields and factory as Kendall GT1 back in the day. Infact when Kendall was bought out by some other ocmpanies the old workers at the Kendall plant are the ones that started Brad Penn.

Atleast that was the story I got from then at PRI.

[BruceG]

Anyone know anything about the Joe Gibbs line of syn oils?Since those NASCAR folks run high revs and temps for so long I'm wondering how that stuff is. Expensive....perhaps they pour Mobil One into Joe Gibbs bottles and sell it that way....LOL

[CRallo]

Anyone know anything about the Joe Gibbs line of syn oils?Since those NASCAR folks run high revs and temps for so long I'm wondering how that stuff is. Expensive....perhaps they pour Mobil One into Joe Gibbs bottles and sell it that way....LOL

The Gibbs oil that I've seen is semi-syn... I was quite surprised.

[Mark Morhaus]

I now use Redline 30w in the SRF.

In the past I used Valvoline dino 10w30 racing oil in my IT MR2. Never had a problem with it after I added the accusump.
I did end up switching to Royal Purple 11 (5w30) and noticed a good improvemet on the dyno over the Valvoline dino racing 10w30.

Still use Valvoline 20W50 VR1 Synthetic in the 305 sprint car with no problems. I have heard of people having issues with the dino VR1 if they have the traditional flat tappet/lifters in their engine package. That's why I run the Syn VR1 or the Valvoline/NAPA not street legal racing oil in that car.

If I had a pushrod motor that didn't have roller lifters, I would definetly use a ZDDP aditive with the standard motor oils of today. Supposedly, the ZDDP additives were taken out/reduced to protect O2 sensors and catalytic converters for oils marketed for gasoline automotive engines or having a "S*" designation.

But I am not an expert on this subject at all.
If you look for papers for tribelogoy you find some interesting facts about lubrication out there. Tribelogy, is the engineering field related to lubrication.

Great subject to post though!

[BruceG]

The Gibbs oil that I've seen is semi-syn... I was quite surprised.

Most of their oil is full syn. Here's a link to their website.Great oil info and product stuff.

http://www.joegibbsracingoil.com/

[D. Ellis-Brown]

In our Mk III VW engine, which has over 70 hrs on it, we have used Mobil One, 10w/ 30 exclusively. We change the filter (Fram) after every weekend, Change the oil every other weekend ( probably could go longer). We also use a 13 row oil cooler mounted low in the front grill area. On the long course at Daytona & Sebring the oil temp is usually 220, (in Summer) but on the short course at Sebring, temp usually 240. David Boles at Atlantic Auto Works taught me to give the VW rods a little more side clearence to help get the temps down....But only turning the engine 6200-6400 also helps. David Ellis-Brown

[Ron Earp]

Oil threads are the bane of motorsports forums. Typically not a tribologist in the group but plenty of anecdotal evidence discussed as fact.

I use oil which is slippery and it hasn't ever failed me. Now that is a fact.

[JeffYoung]

You got flat tappets in that Roostang?

You might rethink that if you had seen the cam shaft that came out of my car.

[Ron Earp]

You got flat tappets in that Roostang?

You might rethink that if you had seen the cam shaft that came out of my car.

I hear you, but one point of data can't be accepted as true because it is the only one available. The failure could be caused by poor metallurgy/hardening/machining of the cam, a lobe, lifters, or all three; localized geometry problems if the lifter/lobe, a valve spring with too much pressure, improper break in procedures, or a localized oiling problem in the galley or lifter. Or a number of other causes.

The Mustang has roller lifters.

[lawtonglenn]

we haven't had any problem with cam wear or valve failure :)

[Greg Amy]

we haven't had any problem with cam wear or valve failure :)
Oh, yeah? How's that oil usage been...? ;)

[lawtonglenn]

8/5oz for every gallon of fuel (premixed like a weed wacker).... I'm like a local Exxon Valdez spewing into the atmosphere

[JohnW8]

Oil threads are the bane of motorsports forums. Typically not a tribologist in the group but plenty of anecdotal evidence discussed as fact.

I use oil which is slippery and it hasn't ever failed me. Now that is a fact.

I was curious as to what kind of oil people preferred and why just as a matter of discussion among car people. Some people are very particular and use hard to find oil and others are using what's on the shelf at the part store. It's kind of a wide range of preference considering what we all do. What would be fun is seeing how race results match up to oil selection.

Honestly, anything a tribologist would have to say would be well over my head.

[JeffYoung]

Is the Capain drunk Glen?? lol....


8/5oz for every gallon of fuel (premixed like a weed wacker).... I'm like a local Exxon Valdez spewing into the atmosphere

Speaking of weird brands, for a number of years I used this pink stuff called Lubrication Engineers from Texas. Not even sure what it was, other than expensive. Speedshop guy sold me on it. Come ot find out he had bought out the last remaining stocks of this stuff and was pushing it like snake oil.

So to a certain extent I agree with Ron, a lot of this is snake oil stuff, but some is not. It's been proven that lack of zinc will case flat tappet cams to fail -- lots of experience out there on that. I won't make that mistake again.

[Ron Earp]

So to a certain extent I agree with Ron, a lot of this is snake oil stuff, but some is not. It's been proven that lack of zinc will case flat tappet cams to fail -- lots of experience out there on that. I won't make that mistake again.

Zink dawg, zink!

[JeffYoung]

Whatchoo tawking bout Willis??!!

It's zinc whitey, it's zinc!


Zink dawg, zink!

[MMiskoe]

In the Mee-Otter it gets the VR-1 synthetic 10-30 because it is by and large a street motor that spins fast so I stay w/ the OE weight. Synthetic because it tends to deal with the heat better & I have no idea hot it gets, VR-1 because it has a higher zinc content than most oils and that seems to be a good thing, lastly, I can buy it off the shelf. When it changes from clear to carmel color, it gets changed.

On my Nissan, the engine builder pointed at a case of VR-1 20-50 and said 'use that' when I asked. This guy had been building motors for longer than I've had a driver's license so I didn't question it.

[ITA_honda]

Mobil 1 Synthetic..easy as that:p

[BruceG]

To add more "fuel" to the fire,ar ar....a group of aerospace engineers got together and decided to take a look at all the syn oils and see how they might be improved.Below is a link to the PDF and you can google the product. Interesting info on their product.

http://www.synmaxperformancelubricants.com/PDFs/TDS_641540_SynMax_Racing_Synthetic_Competition_Mot or_Oil_15W40.pdf

[CRallo]

interesting read Bruce... Sounds like mostly marketing to me... I'd be intersted to hear an expert opinion. Doesn't hurt to try it though right? :)

[23racer]

I used to use Redline race 40 wt all the time in either one of my cars and replaced it every race. I had no issues, rock solid cold and warm pressures and when the Cougar got up to 250 oil temps, everything was stable. After a while at $17.00 a quart (the RX7 uses 7 quarts and the Cougar 8) it started to get monster expensive and I looked for less costly alternatives.

I tried Mobil 1 20-50 Street Synthetic (race is not available in Canada) and noticed that as my cars got hot, the idle pressures and max pressures would start to drop over time. I also ended up with more in the catch tanks. I spoke to the Mobil Customer Service guys and they recommended that I look at the Mobil 1 Air V Twin oils as they are designed to handle temps over 220 degrees. It was noticeably better, but still not good enough.

So I did some research on a number of oil researcher sites and ended up with either the Redline Oil Line or a couple of the Motul products as the only ones using the best base stock for their products, I think it was class 5 base stock. Both were still way expensive, so somebody suggested that I try Q Racing oil. I was extremely doubtful as I had some poor experiences with Quaker State in the past. So I tried the oils as the price was right and they worked great. I am using the Q Racing Oil in the 15-50 weight and my pressures are rock solid hot and cold and my max temps are lower in both cars.

I am back to changing oil between events again and I am happy as everything is just as stable as it once was. It seems to work in my BP rotary pulling to 9,000 rpm and my 12.5:1 compression V6 Cougar.