Need More Horsepower

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Jr. is on the SAE Mini Baja team. The car uses a spec Briggs & Stratton Intek 20 engine, 10 horsepower. What oil will give the biggest (I know, it's relative) horsepower increase? I think 30 weight is the factory fill. 10w30 and 5w30 are also approved (I think the multi-grades have to be synthetic).
 
Mobil 1 0w20 the fuel economy stuff. I would run it if i didnt care about wear or did a rebuild every few races. Or that 0w5 stuff. That would be crazy. Might as well run wd-40 in the sump.
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I was told this several years ago, from a go cart racer. Peanut oil and teflon. 0w20 sounds good to me as long as it holds up and the engine doesn't sieze. I think you will just have to experiment, but I am sure someone has tried it all before if you could ever find the info.
 
It's likely that you will achieve more RPM, more freely with a thin, synthetic oil. Veggie oil also performs remarkably well. If possible, remember to adjust the gearing to take advantage of additional RPM.
 
There are several competitions (acceleration, sled pulling, hill climb), but also a 4 hour endurance race. So it has to last a long time. Also, then engines have a governor on them to limit rpm's to 3800.

I'm thinking a 0w30 fuel conserving synthetic. B&S recommends a 30 weight. I don't want to burn the motor up during the endurance race.

Which 0w30 synthetic is "best"? Also need it to be readily available.
 
Thats what I meant by experiment, if you can afford to lose a engine you could perform your own torture test to see if the 0w20 would hold up.

But with the 3800 rpm governor you are not likely to notice a difference with any oil in my oppinion.

If it is a spec class where oil is the only thing you can change, then the only way to be faster than anyone else is to get lucky and get a better engine or cheat. Can you do any weight reduction?
 
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Lower viscosity and higher amounts of anti-friction additives like moly (I think, do some searching or call Dave at Red Line and see what they use).
 
I just looked up what SAE Baja is, that is pretty cool. I think your biggest performance gains are going to be in the clutch/transmission area and weight reduction. I think tire choice would make a much bigger difference than oil would.
 
If I were you I'd put in 5W-30 and be happy. 0W-30 is cold weather starting performance really and not much else. When the engine is hot, the numbers really cease to matter.

If it was me though? I'd be putting 10W-30 HDEO oil in, or straight SAE30, whatever is the best I can find. Why? I'd get any oil that is really rugged against shearing down, especially for hot hauling in long endurance (4 hours).

And then bypass the engine governor and push that thing as far as you dare. If you can :p
 
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