Red 20/50 oil

[turbo415707]

Is the red line 20/50 oil any good for our cars any experience with it?

 

[SS/GN]

No need for synthetics,Brad Penn or Valvoline VR! works good and less $$$. Stay away from 20/50, 10W/30 is usually the best for our cars.

 

[Xflatrater]

I think Red Line and Motul are some of the best oil available, I use the 20-50 but I don't drive the car in winter.

 

[Mr.Spool]

I have used it.what would you like to know.i like the mobil1 15-50 the best.

 

[Buick Mark]

No need for synthetics,Brad Penn or Valvoline VR! works good and less $$$. Stay away from 20/50, 10W/30 is usually the best for our cars.

X2 10/30, no need for the 20/50 unless you have bearing clearance issues.

 

[Eazy-E]

vr1 20w50 here but i do live in south florida
redline is quality oil but at the end of the day you dont really need a full synthetic. change it and change it often

 

[1fastcobra]

15w40 rotella has zinc included
Using it for over 15yrs
No issues I was in Tampa for 10 of those yrs

 

[Nick Micale]

X2 10/30, no need for the 20/50 unless you have bearing clearance issues.

I assume that is your opinion which is based upon your personal experience with stock engines or ?

Having dealt with hundreds of Buick performance engines and seen many that have had bearing issues, it is usually rod bearings that are trashed due to detonation or too tight clearances.

Since we use 20W-50 oil and recommend it, we have never seen an issue due to clearances in our engines, but we do NOT use factory specs since we are doing a performance build, not an economy car build.

We are talking performance here, not grocery-getting, so the conditions of HP and RPM are much different.

My personal experience with many engines in my various TR's with thousands of passes, I have never trashed a rod or main bearing with any engine we have built, and always use 20W-50 oil.

To make a blanket statement to "stay away from 20W-50" would need to be based upon specific facts to verify why?

 

[Boostian]

To make a blanket statement to "stay away from 20W-50" would need to be based upon specific facts to verify why?

I'm curious as well. Is this repetitive internet info or legit fact? My go to guy for these cars has been working on them for 20+ years and told me 20/50 is the way to go. Never ran anything else in mine.

Not that I'm changing, I take his advice, not Internet advice, but I would like to know the theory behind why 10/30 is better.

 

[earlbrown]

Typically, any over-simplistic statement is false. ESP when it's an 'across the board' rule.

Thinner oil flows better and frees up pumping losses....

but if it flows so well, it flows right out of the hydrodynamic wedge, you've more than wasted the extra efficiency.


Personally I run 0W30 Mobil1 (with no oil pressure gauge and the weak spring) so it's obvious my engine should have already ate itself.

 

[Xflatrater]

Lots of good points here , rotella and mobil 1 were very good oils but have had their protective qualities degraded to produce better emission control longevity in modern cars and trucks. So welcome to 20-50 oil that is not spec'd as an emission oil or racing oil such as Motul and Redline racing which offer a better, harder to sheer hydrodynamic wedge due to an Ester base. Personally I like the added insurance of Motul to protect my ball bearing turbo with a limited oil supply at an extremely high temperature otherwise and in non turbo builds I use Brad Penn 20-50

 

[orangecar]

15-40 Delo for me, has zinc in it, it is made to run in Cat, Cummins, HD gasoline engines, that are turbocharged, I have used it in my construction equipment for over 30 years, takes the terrific heat and pounding diesel and gas engines are subject to in the most extreme conditions. Good stuff.

 

[TT/Ameasap]

Wouldn't you just use what the builder suggests as he is the one setting the bearing clearances?

 

[Turbo6Smackdown]

One thing to consider is genuine racing oil doesn't always have the additive packages that daily driver oils do, because they're meant to be run hard and fast, and changed often. Like wayy more often than any of us here do. True, we do build our cars to beat on once and a while, but our cars aren't the only turbocharged street cars out there taking a flogging once and a while. There are many decent horsepower turboed cars out there from the factory running standard issue (eg. 0w30 or 5w30) synthetic oils with 6000 mile change intervals. No need for some super high speed laser guided oils with 10 mile oil changing intervals. Our cars are built, true, but they're not alien engines from outer space. There should be no reason why a good quality 10w30 or w40 oil with a top of the line filter wouldn't work, with 2000 (for severe duty) - 4000 mile change intervals.

 

[Fast4Ward]

Is the red line 20/50 oil any good for our cars any experience with it?

I posted this somewhere
http://speedtalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=30483

 

[Ttype6]

Is the red line 20/50 oil any good for our cars any experience with it?

Is your short block original and never been touched?

 

[turbo nasty]

IMO syn's always tend to seep and leak more and not needed. I do think the oil cooler is needed and is there for a reason. I run DINO 20w50 mostly but have also ran 10w30. Did run the VR1 Syn last year just because I got a stupid great deal like 1.98 a qt so I bought a ton and used it but noticed the rear main starting to seep after swapping over to it.
Dont get wrapped in oil psi in gear fully heat soaked that it needs to but high. 15ish -25ish is the NORM!! And oil psi should rise approx 10 psi per 1K rpm rise with the yellow spring thats around 50ish -65ish at WOT 5200-6000 rpm
These are the ranges IMO that are the norm.

Also redline, Amsoil (AKA scamsoil lol), etc are expensive and with a turbo engine the blow by contaminates are greater and once they are in suspension the oil needs to be changed. In other words...more frequent oil changes syn or not. Its your wallet

 

[Turbo6Smackdown]

IMO syn's always tend to seep and leak more and not needed. I do think the oil cooler is needed and is there for a reason. I run DINO 20w50 mostly but have also ran 10w30. Did run the VR1 Syn last year just because I got a stupid great deal like 1.98 a qt so I bought a ton and used it but noticed the rear main starting to seep after swapping over to it.
Dont get wrapped in oil psi in gear fully heat soaked that it needs to but high. 15ish -25ish is the NORM!! And oil psi should rise approx 10 psi per 1K rpm rise with the yellow spring thats around 50ish -65ish at WOT 5200-6000 rpm
These are the ranges IMO that are the norm.

Also redline, Amsoil (AKA scamsoil lol), etc are expensive and with a turbo engine the blow by contaminates are greater and once they are in suspension the oil needs to be changed. In other words...more frequent oil changes syn or not. Its your wallet

They need to be changed often, but not as often as most here think. There's plenty of additive packages that can hold our crap in suspension for at least 4000 miles. Our cars don't require 1500 mile oil changes as most think. That's the old oil. We haven't used that stuff in 10 years. It's an old myth that hangs around.

 

[turbo nasty]

I respectfully disagree. Fuel dilution ...which is a blow by contaminant from our modded turbo engines is a issue and the byproducts associated with it is (acids, contribution to foaming, etc etc). With that said im talking most of the turbo Buick guys are running higher boost etc and IMO the oil should be changed more often.
LC2 is a expensive bastrd to rebuild and maintain with that said teh oil should be changed more frequently.
In the big picture unless your sending your oil to a lab you don't know what your oils shape is in at whatever miles.

 

[Steve V]

I assume that is your opinion which is based upon your personal experience with stock engines or ?

Having dealt with hundreds of Buick performance engines and seen many that have had bearing issues, it is usually rod bearings that are trashed due to detonation or too tight clearances.

Since we use 20W-50 oil and recommend it, we have never seen an issue due to clearances in our engines, but we do NOT use factory specs since we are doing a performance build, not an economy car build.

We are talking performance here, not grocery-getting, so the conditions of HP and RPM are much different.

My personal experience with many engines in my various TR's with thousands of passes, I have never trashed a rod or main bearing with any engine we have built, and always use 20W-50 oil.

To make a blanket statement to "stay away from 20W-50" would need to be based upon specific facts to verify why?[/QUOTE
So if I live in a cold climate and set my specs to .0025 you still recommend 20/50? Or just for "your" climate.