Whether you tackle an engine swap or decide to hop up your
present engine, you should insure that you are properly caring
for the engine. Always refer to your owners manual or factory
workshop handbook for routine engine maintenance, such as
changing the oil every 3,000 miles. But is there anything else
out there that can help keep your car’s engine running like
new?
We would like to tell you that the answer is yes, but we would be
lying. But how can that be given all of the claims made by the
lubrication industry. They drain the oil from the engine, heat it
with a flame thrower, throw sand in the cylinder head, and spray
water on the valves, and the engine keeps running. Give me a
break. If you did that to your engine, no matter what product you
were using, your motor would be toast in 2 minutes. You would
never treat your engine like that anyway.
It all started with STP.
Remember their claims of reducing oil consumption. Well, they
were right, technically. By adding a can of STP, you can’t
fit as much oil in the crankcase, so you are burning less because
you are burning some of the STP instead. Believe it or not, this
author is a psychotherapist turned import nut, and the claims
made by these commercials are easy pickin’ for analysis.
Here’s another one. One manufacturer claims that no other
lubricant is more effective at preventing wear than theirs.
I’m confident this statement is correct. In fact, no other
product is less effective than their lubricant either because all
these gimmick lubricants are the same! We all wanted to believe
that products like Slick 50 prevented wear (we used it), but now
we all know the statistics, and Slick 50 has been asked to tone
down their claims.
But there is one consensus that
has been reached by many top racing teams, as well as the guy on
the street, and that is that synthetic oil keeps friction under
control better than any other product. That’s why it is not
recommended to use it after an engine rebuild
Specifically, oil should be judged based on two main properties:
the viscosity index and flash point. The viscosity index refers
to how engine temperature effects the rate at which a particular
oil resists changes in its ability to flow. In other words, under
high temperatures, a cheap oil will experience rapid change,
whereas a good oil will resist changes in viscosity. Flash point
is easier to understand, as it simply refers to the temperature
at which an oil will give off vapors when heated. You’ve
seen the commercials where a guy pours oil into a frying pan.
Anyway, a low flash point indicates that the film of protection
coating the cylinder walls will burn off sooner than an oil with
a higher flash point. When oil burns off the cylinder wall, you
lose protection.
So which synthetic oils seems to be better for most imports (excluding rotary engines)? Test results indicate that Mobil 1 and Havoline have similar viscosity indexes, but Mobil 1 has a higher flash point. On the other hand, Castrol Synthetic has a higher viscosity index, but a lower flash point than the other two. All three well exceed the SG/CD ratings, and any would be a good choice. They also beat 95% of all of the other conventional and synthetic oils on the market. That is not to say that standard motor oil is no good. Many mechanics swear off synthetic and will only use a multi grade conventional lubricant. And for a rotary powerplant, since some of the oil is injected into the combustion chamber to keep the apex seals lubricated, most experts will tell you to stay away from the synthetics since they can leave a residue when burned. No matter what oil you choose, remember that rotaries are dump more contaminants (like gasoline) into the oil than most cars. You will likely need to change it more often than every 3,000 miles depending on what modifications you have done.
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