As always "what oil".

Pingu · May 12, 2003

I have a Ca18det powered nissan bluebird attesa.
It is producing around 250hp at the crank as it has had some mild modification. The engine is in good nick considering 150,000 kms.

I would assume this is a large ish power:displacement ratio.

I am about to upgrade to some serious oil as now im a little more clued up on it than i used to be.

Thing is you guys know everything there is to do with oils and you guys can sort me out.

Im in New Zealand where the average temp is 15 degrees C and the car will never see a cold start lower than -5 C. Never.

Half the time the car will see street driving and low ish street oil temps. The other half will see some moderate and some WOT. I want the best possible protection (as anyone) for this condition but also to serve the low oil temp situations aswell.

Hopefully im on the right track with this...
I am thinking Redline 10w30 or 10w40.
The cost does not have a say in my decision.
The change interval does not concern me.
I want the engine to last. Oil is expendable.

I have also considered Castrol RS/Castrol Formula R 10w60. This is a really viscous oil at operating temp. I assume this oil is designed for mostly high temp work, not suitable for street driving temps?

Please help me out in my decision. Should i be going for a high vis or a low vis for my conditions, the more i read the more i get confused!

Thanks for your time.

BOBISTHEOILGUY · May 12, 2003

A lot of racers are turning more toward the lower viscosity oils for power. The higher viscosity will have more resisitance thus a little more drag on the motor.

Now, based on your choices, If it were me in your shoes, I'd go with the redline. They tend to use a good quality base stock, but also has a good barrier additive mix. The barrier additives will give you that last line of defense from wear due to oil shearing which happens to all oils also the base stock will handle the extreme heat for long durations and if for some reason you were to ever experience some cold, again, it would provide you with a better flow at those lower temps.

Redline's oils are not IMO, designed for extended drains but more for racing, so I wouldn't advise going past standard drain intervals without running trend oil analysis if that becomes your intent.

Pingu · May 12, 2003

Thankyou for your quick reply!

I will replace the oil often as the car wont do more than 7000 miles every year. Short intervals are not a problem for me.

So is the intent of 10w60 Castrol for all out racing, and for sustained high temps?

Another factor that may influence the choice of oil would be that the high oil temps will not be sustained. Lets say i did want to do occasional race sprints, should i tend towards the redline 10w40 rather than the 10w30?

Thanks for your help

Pingu · May 12, 2003

Basically the car will recieve enthusiastic short period driving (always sub 5 minutes , mostly sub 1 minute) and as anyone i still want it to last...

I guess lower running viscousity is more suitable to the times that the car is under light load in my case half the time...

Al · May 12, 2003

I think Bob (the master

) gave you good advice. As much as some of us (including me ) are somewhat skeptical of Redline in terms of good UOA's in normal driving- your case seems to demand the higher protection it is assumned the Redline can deliver with Esters/high Moly content.
It would be interesting to see a Used Oil Analysis on the 30 wt. if that's what you go wwith. If that turns out to be not so good you could compare with the 40 wt.

satterfi · May 12, 2003

You can hardly go wrong with Redline 10w40.

My only concern with it is TBN retention. I'm not real confident it lasts (TBN) as long as some of the other oils.

I'm going to experiment with some field TBN test kits here in the near future on Redline.

Pingu · May 12, 2003

Im pretty sure Bob was born in a synthetic oil

J/k

I am in New Zealand and i know of nowhere that does oil analysis, ill have a go at finding out.

UOA's is a contraction for which term?

Thankyou for comming to my aid also!

Patman · May 12, 2003

quote:

Originally posted by Pingu:
Basically the car will recieve enthusiastic short period driving (always sub 5 minutes , mostly sub 1 minute) and as anyone i still want it to last...

I guess lower running viscousity is more suitable to the times that the car is under light load in my case half the time...

Based on this I would suggest 5w30 Redline. Definitely no need for the 10w40 if your oil temps aren't going to get too hot. The thicker oil will just rob you of horsepower anyways, so if it's not needed, there is no point in running it.

As a matter of fact, you might even get great results from Redline's 5w20, although I doubt you'll have an easy time finding that out your way.

Patman · May 12, 2003

quote:

Originally posted by Pingu:

UOA's is a contraction for which term?

UOA is a short form for Used Oil Analysis, something many of us here spend many hours a day worrying about!

Everyone wants a UOA with 0ppm in the wear column.

Pingu · May 12, 2003

Are you saying the UOA's of redline are not the best under normal driving conditions or that it is bad enough to question using it over almost anything?
Maybe another brand of oil can offer the best solution?

Thanks again.
Its on a bad semi sythetic 10w30 at the moment. I dont like the idea of a flush, is it acceptable if i just do a hot change and a new filter when i make the change?

Thanks.

Patman · May 12, 2003

quote:

Originally posted by Pingu:
Are you saying the UOA's of redline are not the best under normal driving conditions or that it is bad enough to question using it over almost anything?

Redline works very well in regular street driving situations too. I posted the link to this UOA recently but I'll do it again:

Redline 5w30:

http://theoildrop.server101.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=3;t=000340

This is easily one of the best UOAs I've ever seen, virtually no engine wear at all, and on an engine that's known to beat up an oil very severely too!

Pingu · May 12, 2003

Ok now i would like to understand the reasoning in choosing between 5w30 & 10w30?
Mainly better shear characteristics with the 10 weight?
I also forgot to mention that cold starts are infrequent when compared with kilometers driven.

I love this forum!
Please persivere with my insufficient understanding of oils!

Pablo · May 12, 2003

One oil for your situation of mixed driving - and does yield excellent street UOA's, is Amsoil Series 2000 20W-50 Racing Oil. I have used it in my street turbo, and even in cold starts less that 0°C have not had any issues.

satterfi · May 12, 2003

Can you get Amsoil in NZ?

Shear stability should not be an issue with Redline. I ran Redline 10w40 for 4200 miles in my motorcycle and the UOA came back with at 14.3cst at 100C. Virgin is 14.6cst.

Pingu · May 13, 2003

Yes i can get amsoil. But no one has recommended it to me when i have told them my type of service.

What would be an appropriate Amsoil oil for my type of service?

Thanks again Guru's

Pablo · May 13, 2003

quote:

Yes i can get amsoil. But no one has recommended it to me when i have told them my type of service.

What would be an appropriate Amsoil oil for my type of service?

Read the reponses above

quote:

One oil for your situation of mixed driving - and does yield excellent street UOA's, is Amsoil Series 2000 20W-50 Racing Oil.

Again let me emphasize - a great oil, often overlooked......

Pingu · May 13, 2003

How is it that 20w50 Amsoil is suited to mixed driving and 10w30 Redline is also even though they have completley different viscousity properties?

I would have thought since a 5w30 or 10w30 Redline was reommended above that if i were to use a different make of oil i would be to use the same grade?

Pablo · May 13, 2003

Mixed driving?

quote:

and does yield excellent street UOA's

I have used the Series 2000 20W-50 in my street driven and HARD driven Volvo turbo for almost 3 years. Does great - I go 10,000 mile OCI's.

As far as two viscosities and two different companies both being good - well there is much more to motor oil than SAE viscosity ratings - remember those "grades" are ranges, often overlapping.

I would not hesitate to recommend 5W or 10W-30 Amsoil either, but you seemed to ask for "the best". As you can read there are very few UOA on Redline products so I cannot say how it would do for mixed race - street - I would guess fine as long as you don't overextend the OCI. As far as 20W-50 robbing power - OK yes for sure with an old dino oil. But take a look at the properties of a good synthetic 20W-50 such as the Series 2000 - yes maybe on the dyno you would see 0.1 hp diff between that oil and a synthetic 10W-30 - but I doubt you would notice.

As always "what oil".

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