Oil brand affects horsepower?

[Jimmy9190]

This is just a general question to satisfy my own curiousity more than anything else. I have seen and heard a lot of advertising claims, but can any one or group of oil brands in a given weight really cause an increase or decrease in noticeable HP?

I ask this just because of the general idea/consensus here that most any oil and decent quality filter will work well for a reasonable OCI. But for example, will a brand name really provide better lubrication and therefore help increase engine performance over a perceived lesser quality or house brand oil? I realize add packs will have a lot to do with it, but I'm really curious about this.

 

[ET16]

From what I understand, viscosity trumps all other variables. It's lighter oil that yields more horsepower.

 

[MolaKule]

A lot depends on how much friction modifier is in the formula as well.

 

[FastSUV]

Also, a synthetic oil is "more slippery" and therefore lubes better and creates less resistance. They have proven this theory on power block TV by dynoing a motor with conventional oil and then switching to Royal Purple.

To get the full benefits though, you'd also need to run full-synthetig gear oil, etc. to see 1/4 miles gains and MPG on the HWY.

But yes, generally speaking synthetic oils have the potential to increase hp slightly over conventional oils. I am sure some of it is also attributed to the additive pkgs. I believe Royal Purple is primarily a high-performance oil with a less robust additive pkg. It is made for HP street cars & drag cars and has actually shown high iron wear in UOA as compared to other oils. Just because something is slicker, doesn't necessarily mean it protects a daily driven vehicle more n my humble opinion.

 

[Quest]

IMHO there are so many variables affecting your overall mileage that unless you can have all these variables under control (in a controlled operational environment), otherwise, you'll be better off observing sensible driving, etc. to obtain the mileage gains instead of paying for Full Synthetic just to gain that 2hp, which, IMHO, can be had if you drive carefully with regular oil.

Q.

 

[mpersell]

Its the physics and the chemistry, not the brand or marketing.

 

[Propflux01]

I personally do not believe that a synthetic is any "slipperier' than a conventional. I feel that a synthetic is made more robust, by the more even-sized molecules,and can be made on the lower scale of viscosity, and that alone, is what gives any horsepower increase, mainly due to less viscous drag.

 

[deven]

Originally Posted By: MolaKule
A lot depends on how much friction modifier is in the formula as well.