Oil Weight for racing

If you are going to run their racing oil, be sure to remove your catalytic converter. The additives will clog it up quick. 

My take on heavier oil would depend on how hot your race oil temp is and how worn out is the motor. Sloppy jalopy with 200K and blow by because of worn out rings? Heavier might help that. If oil temps are really high swapping to a heavier oil for the weekend as a band aid might help but fix it the right way and get an oil cooler

What is the stock spec? 20/50 seems high for a car like that. We run 15/40 in an old school push rod V8. Get some syntho, maybe one weight up. The problem is heat and starvation. Think about running a cooler so you'll have more oil and it won't be as hot. I'm not sure if it is possible for your application, but if there is a larger oil filter that can be a benefit too.

No need unless you need it to pass some sort of inspection.

The only way to know how your oil is working is to have it tested after the race.  You want to have just think enough oil to keep your pressure up, not enough to compromise flow. 

I do agree with going +10 heavier weight than the stock street recommendation in general though, like we run 5w30 in a car that specs 5w20 (in the US anyway, in other parts of the world it specs 5w30). 

Blackstone labs can test it and see how it is doing.  I found that our oil was doing really well and holding up enough that I only change it every other race now rather than every race.

Mobil1 5w40 turbo diesel truck oil is the trade secret we use. A lot of other racers swear by 5w40 rotella.

The turbo diesel additives are designed to absorb a lot more dirty "crap" from your engine. To be clear though, we have a carbureted v8 and run regular grade pump gas.

We're also in the rotella camp. No good reason, just started using it and all the blackstone reports keep coming back clean. We used Rowe oil for a while too when eEuroparts was "sponsoring" us. They gave us oil, we raced it and got labs run on it. That stuff worked just as well as the rotella. We went back to rotella when eEuroparts collapsed because it's a little cheaper.

I'll echo the comment that what matters is that you're not baking the oil and that you maintain the right pressure. There is such a thing as too much oil pressure just like you can have too little.

I guess someone will correct me, but I'd wager most street cars have oil temps above 200F.  My 2015 Charger R/T runs about 230F in normal street driving in the summer.

We added an 18-row cooler, with a larger V8-type oil filter so we now have almost 6 quarts of oil vs. the stock 4 quarts.  Before we added the cooler, our oil temps were north of 300F after less than 10 laps.  I'm told that most modern synthetic oils perform well as long as you don't exceed 300F. 

FWIW, our oil temp sensor is actually in the oil pan.  Even at that 265F number, we still have about 70 PSI of oil pressure at WOT.

Does anyone have an opinion about motor oil?  HA! EVERYONE DOES.  Ask 10 people and you'll get 12 different opinions.

My understanding is that the main advantage of synthetics is longevity.  My car's owner's manual doesn't require synth and I don't use it. We get some blow-by on one cylinder so our oil gets black after 2 days, so I change it every race.  Honda specs different oils based on ambient temperature ranges.  10w-40 for hot climes.  I just use 10w-40 or something close like a 5w-40, whatever is cheapest the day I buy oil.
I also send a sample to Blackstone after every race and the bargain dino-oil of the day has never shown signs of excessive breakdown. I do not buy the "high mileage" formulations.  Our current motor has around 12 races on it and seems healthy (knock on wood).

I use oem spec oil, so what ever that is 10w-30, 5w-30... pretty much any synthetic that is on sale, Though Amsoil is very nice.
To make it work, need oil cooler, which is what I have. without oil cooler I up the viscosity by 10, and leave W what ever it is.

hey Jimmy, are you the guys we raced at pit trace 2023 we were in the fox body notchback with the 2.3 pinto motor.

That was us!  We'll be back in Pitt in 2024 and are always ready for another Beer wager !