Mickey_M: We're going to autocross our 2006 MCS quite a bit in 2007 (2-3 events per month). I plan to change the oil every 3000 miles. I had planned on running silver cap Mobil One 5W-30. We get it from Costco for $27 per case. Autocross is very competitive, so any reduction in friction that can make more power would be a plus, but not at the sacrifice of longevity.

We've been running this same oil in 10W-40 for about 5 years now and it seems to be working great (although we've only got 35,000 on the car, so it's really too soon to tell)

Any advice?

 

The practice until a few years ago in distance racing where qualifying and racing were separated was to run a 0W oil for qualifying and something more viscous for the race itself. That way you got low friction for a high qualifying speed and then engine protection so you could actually get through the race.

And then they just started runing 0W oil for the entire race, since - as you correctly point out - low viscosity = low friction = more speed.

To do that requires some pretty effective anti-wear agents.

If you race a car that you also drive, you don't want to have to do engine rebuilds once a month.

I am not current on every brand of motor oil out there - ExxonMobil is not the only company to make good motor oils. There are some 0W-5, 0W-10, and 0W-20 racing-only synthetics but I just have not had recent experience with them.

However, in the Mobil 1 line there are two products you might want to look for.

The first is the 0W-30 racing oil. It is discontinued but I think there is still some in the distribution pipeline. You could check with:

http://store.avlube.com/index.html

which is in Columbus, Ohio.

They were selling 6 packs for $43.98 plus shipping.

This stuff has a much higher anti-wear level than the current API SM oils, right up there with the MX4T 10W-40 motorcycle oil. You'd get the same viscosity as the 5W-30 but with much better engine protection at high rpms.

The other one, which was out of distribution for awhile but I believe is now available again, is the 0W-20 Mobil 1. This is also loaded with antiwear additives and would give you a lower viscosity.

If you used it, I would get some oil testing done by one of the labs, like Blackstone, that do elemental analysis. Keep track of your metal levels to make sure that you get enough protection with the 20 weight. If you do, it would give you a slight increase in horsepower to the wheels due to lower friction.





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Great information! I'm going to look into it.

Like you said, there are some racing-only sythetics available. I might try switching to Redline oil as it's available locally at the NAPA store. But the idea of send the oil out for testing is VERY interesting. That way you'd know once and for all, which oil provides the best protection, etc...

Thanks a lot!

 

The BITOG forums also comment that you shouldn't send out your Redline oil until the third change cycle due to it possibly cleaning up your motor a bit.

 

This is a very interesting discussion. I would like to thank everyone for inlighting this newbie. I do have a question. Where I grew up, small town Oklahoma, everyone uses Royal Purple. I was wondering if this is still one of the good oils?
Again thanks for the information.

- KP

 

The only downside I have ever seen with Royal Purple is the cost.
I have never used it but I have only seen great reports on its effectiveness.

 

I can get Royal Purple in bulk from my mechanic if I bring in my own jug. That's what I use now since I can get it for a decent price and it is good stuff.