Racing oils- picking the right oil for your setup

[Curtis Guise]

Hey Mike, Gale Banks did a great series of videos with Amsoil at their facility doing interviews with all sorts of engineers and personnel. I believe the second or third installment went over thickness of oil and how sometimes thinner is better for your engine. Give it a watch.

These?

 

[michael.gonzalez]

Gale Banks is the man!

 

[MTPyle]

Yes those are the videos. I watched them all and pretty interesting. Learned a lot.

Gale does an amazing job on these videos. Cool for a guy with so much experience and knowledge taking the time to share what he knows.

Mike

 

[MTPyle]

learned something new this last race. Not all Race oils are made for long runs. Race vehicles usually get oil changed every race and they break down sooner than others. Thats fine if you start with a thicker viscosity but if you are at the desired viscosity when you start by the time you go 600 miles its broke down to the point that its super thin.

Talked to engineer at Driven Racing Oil about this and they have a different oil for longer races. Good to know and i figured I would share what we learned.

Race oils are made for optimum lubricant and HP. They make some sacrifices on make up of certain oils. So make sure you have the right oil for the race you are racing, especially if you run lower viscosity for tighter bearings.

Mike

 

[E.Hagle]

Do they base it on hours or miles? I wish someone from Maxima could chime in.

 

[MTPyle]

Do they base it on hours or miles? I wish someone from Maxima could chime in.

I assume hours at WOT. When I told him we ran 600+ miles over 12 hours he was like oh that’s way longer than the oil is designed to hold up.

Obviously the typical off the shelf racing blend they use is never ran that long. But they have another racing oil that is made to last longer. He sent me some longer life and shorter life to use for the right race. Pretty interesting.

My guess is some of the standard racing oil is made to last longer but who knows. Haha

Just a new variable I never thought about

Mike

 

[Bricoop]

I assume hours at WOT. When I told him we ran 600+ miles over 12 hours he was like oh that’s way longer than the oil is designed to hold up.

Obviously the typical off the shelf racing blend they use is never ran that long. But they have another racing oil that is made to last longer. He sent me some longer life and shorter life to use for the right race. Pretty interesting.

My guess is some of the standard racing oil is made to last longer but who knows. Haha

Just a new variable I never thought about

Mike

Do you ever run oil samples?

 

[MTPyle]

Do you ever run oil samples?

Yes and just sent the latest off so we can compare to the last sample.

Coming from aircraft piston engines you always do samples. Much safer to have the data tell you something is wrong before the engine does.

Mike

 

[ksmith]

I assume hours at WOT. When I told him we ran 600+ miles over 12 hours he was like oh that’s way longer than the oil is designed to hold up.

Obviously the typical off the shelf racing blend they use is never ran that long. But they have another racing oil that is made to last longer. He sent me some longer life and shorter life to use for the right race. Pretty interesting.

My guess is some of the standard racing oil is made to last longer but who knows. Haha

Just a new variable I never thought about

Mike

Hey Mike, Have you asked Danzio what oil they recommend? I'm kinda shocked the oil broke down that fast. Unless it was designed for drag racing with short runs. Anybody else using the Joe Gibbs oil in the desert? I've heard of race trucks using Maxima products or Penn Grade 1 Our motor builder highly recommends Penn Grade 1 for our current race motor, but its a race motor running 20-50W not a stock spec motor. I'd be curious what the other engine builders are recommending for the 6100 -6200 class spec motors.

 

[MTPyle]

Well what others use won’t help us. Haha we run the LT1 which has much smaller bearing clearance than LS3 or custom built race engines. All the other LS3 spec engines are running 20-50w

We have to run a 10-30w.

When a 20-50w breaks down you still have some viscosity left. When you start lower and it breaks down you get thinner. So the final viscosity of a 10-30w after 700 miles is lower than what you get after 700 miles on 20-50w.

It’s not just Gibbs and Driven. All “racing” oil is designed for shorter intervals.

If you run Amsoil 20-50w at the Baja 1000 the oil will break down.

To make oils last longer they have to have different make up and components. You see on the shelf some oils are good for 50k miles, at least that’s what they say. Endurance oil is different than race short interval oils.

Mike

 

[michael.gonzalez]

Why would one choose to NOT go for the "endurance oil"?
Is it to get that last % of HP?

It seems for desert racing, the peace of mind of "endurance oil" would be worth it.

 

[51rcr]

driven xp-9 flows like low viscosity yet performs like a 20 50, extended life. LS3 for comparison to a few other popular synthetics in a friends methanol sprint car its lasting 3 times at a minimum longer.
All oils breakdown. just depends how long at what abuse level.