Engine Oil Discussion

Charrlie_S said

iF YOU ARE RUNNING A $20,000 up engine, and/or a "class" racer, you can probably justify "boutique" oils. If you are a low dollar bracket racer with a $500 engine, it makes no sense.
PS: On the track testing I did. Made 3 passes on 10-30 Quaker State. Changed oil and filter to straight 30 Quaker State, 3 runs, and then back to the 10-30 QS. Car was a ZSA 65 Valiant 170 slant six. Ran a average of almost 2 tenths slower on the straight 30 compared to the 10-30.

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I can believe the test results you’ve posted. One thing is you stayed with the same brand of oil, so the additive package remains at least similar. That’s a good test.

Where you run into issues testing oils is when you use a different brand with a different additive package (and maybe different base oils). The additive package of the better oil may not get used up (or diluted or both) in only 2-3 runs. A good oil will make a bad oil look good for a few runs. That’s why I said 9 total pulls on each oil.

I would say that since 1979 I have never seen a 500 dollar bracket engine. They didn’t exist then and they certainly don’t now. In fact, in 1980 a decent street rebuild was 1500 dollars.

Today, starting with nothing you are looking at 10-15k to build a decent bracket engine, as in something that can go 200-300 runs before it needs updates and a freshen up.

Expensive oil is cheap. Cheap oil is just that. Cheap.