The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Lemons Newcomers → Lubricants
There are a lot of choices and a lot of promises from manufacturers. What kinds of engine/trans/diff lubricants are you guys using. Is there anything to explicitly stay away from?
This can be an almost religious level discussion at times, lots of personal preference and opinions. From our experience in 30+ races with multiple cars, we have never had an oil related failure while running Rotella T6 5w40, in cars as varied as an S10 and a turbo Civic.
Factory recommended weights and types. Oil has advantages with full synthetic but brand is almost unimportant. Exception is if you have a flat tappet motor...then the discussion can get weird.
Brake fluid is a serious exception. Dot4 (unless your system can take 5) in the highest temperature rating you are willing to afford and changed at least once per year.
For Engine I use Redline Race for the race then switch to whatever's cheap for storage/driving around.
I use Redline D4 in the T5 transmission and Redline 75w-120 gear lube in the diff with Ford Limited Slip Sauce.
I swap the Transmission and Diff oil during Race prep.
What I do is probably overkill, but I don't like on track surprises because I like being lazy on race weekends.
I would mostly stay away from only the cheap "recycled" oils. They probably work OK for street driving, but I don't trust their stability under endurance race conditions. Most true synthetics seem to work well for people so it's up to what you wanna spend. I also will use a Moroso oil filter for racing because I fear the weird store brand and Fram junk stories I hear.
Other than that it's mostly personal preference. I went Redline because I use it in my Daily Driven BMW on the recommendation of the BMW Car Club Tech guy and it seems to oil test well when it comes out after a full BMW long service interval and those aren't cool running engines usually. So I said screw it, may as well belt and suspenders this.
I will say, after the Headgasket/piston erosion at NCM the tear down looked amazing especially for a 1988 engine on its third race. So it was doing it's job pretty well right up until the headgasket ended the weekend. No surface pitting, no abnormal wear, all the parts were dead on spec for rebuild so, hey whatever.
Gonna do proper leak down tests now before races because Eff not getting to drive on a race weekend.
We've been running rotella T6 in the saab. It's a slight bump up in viscosity from the recommended 5w-30, but that seemed like a good idea.
After every race we sent a sample off to blackstone labs to get looked at. Every analysis has come back fine. They haven't recommended changing a thing. Every engine is a little different though. $28 is cheap to get insight into the health of your engine and if the oil you picked is working well.
FYI for those with clutch type limited slip diffs. Do not add the "friction modifier" to your diff lube. This stuff makes the clutches slip sooner to avoid "chatter" when driving your what ever on the street. If you want the most grip you'll not use the stuff in your diff.
You can use it to "tune" your lockup a bit. But the Diff we had was rebuilt on account of the last owner allowing chatter. On a Posi-style I'd say maybe, but Traction-lok busted the ears off the friction plates (or spacers, I forget which is locked to the diff housing not the splines). I think the S spring lets it "bounce" too much.
The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Lemons Newcomers → Lubricants