Synthetic Or None-Synthetic Oil
Racetracks
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 15,668
Likes: 0
From: How long is a piece of string?
Re: Synthetic Or None-Synthetic Oil
I run it in my sr20ed 240 which was previously running mobil 1 and i got a noticable performance gain. Not only will you notice a performance increase but when I switched to amsoil 10w30 in my truck from the previous owner using penzoil it immediatly got rid of the spark nock and the car no longer smoked.
If oil got rid of spark knock, I'm willing to bet that it wasn't actually spark knock (I can't even say spark knock without wincing).. Getting rid of smoking I can see, that is fairly common. That's just shear and viscosity differences over the other oil, whatever it happened to be.
It is possible to gain a few HP when changing oil from one type to another (usually conventional to synthetic), and from one weight to another, but only on high HP engines where the small percentage (or fraction of a %) increase is high enough to actually measure. Say you have a 160HP engine, and you have a 1% HP gain from the oil. That is 1.6HP (at the engine). Are you really going to notice that at the wheels when you drive?
I don't even trust dynos to have that type of repeatable accuracy, let alone your testimonial that you can feel it in your butt when you drive it. If you have a 500HP setup, that's only 5HP, and you may come closer to feeling that, but not much if you're already dealing with 500HP. Even so, the lubricant properties of the top brands of synthetic oils are so close that they get lost in the repeatability error and noise floor on the dyno. If the oil in your car is completely destroyed (yes, that's what happens) and you put a fresh, better oil in it, you may have a small power gain, though still not enough to measure.
Synthetic oil isn't a power adder, it's a lubricant performance and protection adder.
Royal Purple is way overpriced in my opinion; use Amsoil if you want good oil, or Mobil1 if you want almost as good and cheaper (and really easy to find). I'm sure Royal Purple is good and all, but I can't justify spending that much money when I can get the same oil performance for less money. I don't enjoy throwing more money at something without any more gain.
If you really want your brain ripped to shreds with esoteric oil chemistry, go to BobIsTheOilGuy.com...
Last edited by Fabrik8; Jul 2, 2008 at 12:17 PM.
Thread Starter
Team Dickbutt #13!!!
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 2,046
Likes: 0
From: Alexandria
Re: Synthetic Or None-Synthetic Oil
Performance gain when switching from one synthetic to another on a low output 4 cylinder? I don't think so. Placebo effect maybe. Prove the "noticeable performance gain" on a dyno, or you can't make that claim. Until then, I'm going to say that you're completely full of shit.
If oil got rid of spark knock, I'm willing to bet that it wasn't actually spark knock (I can't even say spark knock without wincing).. Getting rid of smoking I can see, that is fairly common. That's just shear and viscosity differences over the other oil, whatever it happened to be.
It is possible to gain a few HP when changing oil from one type to another (usually conventional to synthetic), and from one weight to another, but only on high HP engines where the small percentage (or fraction of a %) increase is high enough to actually measure. Say you have a 160HP engine, and you have a 1% HP gain from the oil. That is 1.6HP (at the engine). Are you really going to notice that at the wheels when you drive?
I don't even trust dynos to have that type of repeatable accuracy, let alone your testimonial that you can feel it in your butt when you drive it. If you have a 500HP setup, that's only 5HP, and you may come closer to feeling that, but not much if you're already dealing with 500HP. Even so, the lubricant properties of the top brands of synthetic oils are so close that they get lost in the repeatability error and noise floor on the dyno. If the oil in your car is completely destroyed (yes, that's what happens) and you put a fresh, better oil in it, you may have a small power gain, though still not enough to measure.
Synthetic oil isn't a power adder, it's a lubricant performance and protection adder.
Royal Purple is way overpriced in my opinion; use Amsoil if you want good oil, or Mobil1 if you want almost as good and cheaper (and really easy to find). I'm sure Royal Purple is good and all, but I can't justify spending that much money when I can get the same oil performance for less money. I don't enjoy throwing more money at something without any more gain.
If you really want your brain ripped to shreds with esoteric oil chemistry, go to BobIsTheOilGuy.com...
If oil got rid of spark knock, I'm willing to bet that it wasn't actually spark knock (I can't even say spark knock without wincing).. Getting rid of smoking I can see, that is fairly common. That's just shear and viscosity differences over the other oil, whatever it happened to be.
It is possible to gain a few HP when changing oil from one type to another (usually conventional to synthetic), and from one weight to another, but only on high HP engines where the small percentage (or fraction of a %) increase is high enough to actually measure. Say you have a 160HP engine, and you have a 1% HP gain from the oil. That is 1.6HP (at the engine). Are you really going to notice that at the wheels when you drive?
I don't even trust dynos to have that type of repeatable accuracy, let alone your testimonial that you can feel it in your butt when you drive it. If you have a 500HP setup, that's only 5HP, and you may come closer to feeling that, but not much if you're already dealing with 500HP. Even so, the lubricant properties of the top brands of synthetic oils are so close that they get lost in the repeatability error and noise floor on the dyno. If the oil in your car is completely destroyed (yes, that's what happens) and you put a fresh, better oil in it, you may have a small power gain, though still not enough to measure.
Synthetic oil isn't a power adder, it's a lubricant performance and protection adder.
Royal Purple is way overpriced in my opinion; use Amsoil if you want good oil, or Mobil1 if you want almost as good and cheaper (and really easy to find). I'm sure Royal Purple is good and all, but I can't justify spending that much money when I can get the same oil performance for less money. I don't enjoy throwing more money at something without any more gain.
If you really want your brain ripped to shreds with esoteric oil chemistry, go to BobIsTheOilGuy.com...
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post