So guys and gals, I'm looking to step into some engine oil a little higher quality than the Rotella T6 I've historically used on my car. The car is a turbocharged Japanese 4 cylinder and runs anywhere from 15 to 25 psi of boost, up to 8,000rpm, and will see sustained high load driving (road course, autox, canyon carving) as well as street driving. It is a highly modified engine, bored larger than stock with all forged internals. It is not a daily, and I'm happy to shell out more for top quality oil simply because it's cheap insurance. Ideal oil weight is probably 40, but I might consider a 50 weight for any track time it will see in 90*+ weather depending on what clearances I end up running. I would like to run full synthetic, and the car never sees more than about 250* oil temps, typically sitting in the 200-220* range thanks to a very large oil cooler. I change oil after almost every track event.
The primary reason for looking to upgrade the oil that I run in this engine is that it is currently torn down being rebuilt after finding some excessive bearing wear. While basically any old synthetic oil in the right viscosity *should* be fine for my uses, given the nature of the car and the fact that it's currently torn down to rebuild after some accelerated wear, I simply want to fill it with whatever is objectively the best oil I can. The engine sees some excessive forces well beyond what the manufacturer intended - MUCH higher cylinder pressures (the engine makes 3-4x the power of a stock example), higher RPM, a turbocharger, alcohol based fuels, sustained high load+high temp driving, etc. Some oils are certainly going to be more up to the task of dealing with this than others. This is the third time this engine has been out, and I'd really like it to be several years and many thousands of miles before it has to come out again
If I end up paying a decent bit more for oil changes with a marginal improvement in engine protection, that peace of mind is worth it to me to shell out for something like Amsoil or Schaeffers.
I'm considering options such as LiquiMoly, Motul, Schaeffers, Redline, and Amsoil but I am certainly happy to add other options to that list. I'm sure the car would probably be happy with any of those, but I'm hoping to find some rationale that might bring one or two brands or formulas to the forefront of my consideration. Engine protection is my primary concern here.
