Types of Oil

Looking for input on engine oil synthetic verses petroleum based, have read the info on the zinc and phosphate issues posted a little earlier, is synthetic a better option? Royal Purple comes to mind?
Thanks

 

red line stuff is excellent

 

We ran back to back tests with Brad Penn 50wt versus Redline racing 50. We saw a substantial improvement on the main bearings. We have been running the redline through a strainer and cooking the alky out of it. So far it has about 15 runs on it. Redline said to keep using it until you see pressure start to fall off. They claimed some promod teams use it for 40 runs. KB Olds 540 with 14-71 high helix.

 

What kind of process do you guys use to cook the alcohol out of the oil? Is it messy?

 

brian,
some of the guys with dry sump tanks put a couple of the heating pads on the tank and plug them in between rounds, that seems to work pretty good.
if you don't run a dry sump you can drain it after every race and pour it in a big pot or something and heat it up that way. it's pretty easy with a dry sump, you can take off the lid, and watch it evaporate. i have talked to alot of people that get more than 30 laps on their oil this way. for a low budget team, this is the way to go in my opinion. you will spend a little more in the beginning, but it will more than pay for itself.

 

For a wet sump you can install one or two 120v heating elements.

Blessings.......Ron Clevenger.

 

Does anyone know what the minimum temperature of the oil needs to be to cook off the fuel in a timely manner?

Is there a maximum temp that would be hard on the oil?

 

Mike, looking at the Red Line Racing oil spec sheet the flash point is pretty high. These are all related to the synthetic racing oils.
30 w flash point is 518 degrees F, 40 w is 527 degrees F and 50 w is 522 degrees F.
Also the Viscosity Index for 40 and 50 W is based on 146 degrees F.

Looking at those figures it would seem to be pretty difficult to heat oil in a pan or sump container to any dangerous level....giving some common sense applied.
Still don't know at what temp boils the alky off. But if you pulled up a spec sheet from VP or one of the other suppliers it would tell you the percentage of boiling at different degrees until it was 100%.
That's my thought's anyway...........Blessings............Ron Clevenger.

 

150 degrees for methanol and 170s for ethanol.

 

Flyingpig hit the nail on the head, it's the flashpoint of the fuel you have to worry about.

Cheers,
Ray

 

Was wondering, can nitro be boiled out of the oil the same way that alcohol can?........

 

"boiling" out the fuel

we have used royal purple in our TAFC for the past 4 years. we don't heat the oil at all, just put it in a big drain pan and let it sit, we usually use a blue blower to blow on it and the alcohol will go away in a couple hours, meanwhile we are using a different batch for the next run. as long as you air it out right after you drain it, it is still plenty warm to evaporate the fuel. seems to work best if the ambient air temp is above 70. then pour it through a paint strainer and you are ready to go. i have never tracked exactly the runs but i estimate we must use it around 15 times.

 

Type of oil

Clint are you using the 50w or the 70w oil
Thanks.

 

Safety:



Keep a fire extinguisher in your shop, since methanol is quite flammable, with a boiling point of 148.5 deg F (about 65 deg C). It's flash point is only 55 deg F or about 13 deg C. The flash point is the temperature at which vapor accumulating above the liquid could ignite.

 

Clint runs the Nitro 60 and gets it from yours truely!

 

oil

So is anybody using LUCAS? race sponsor and all that. does the fortifier work?
why 70wt over 50wt? just tryin to learn more.

 

Apparentally the lucas 70wt needs to be heated. We had it one and did not heat it and had a few issues with oil psi and the likes when starting engine for the first time after a change ect but i think it is good oil when heated.