The extreme heat and power produced by today's race engines make it more necessary than ever for teams to have the proper oils and lubricants.
Manufacturers of these products have prioritized three factors relative to making sure your choices are on-target: lower viscosity, additives, and application-specific products.
The reason more low-viscosity oils are being used in racing is simple: It's the engine, said Steffen Niemietz of Liqui Moly USA in Irvine, California. "Modern engine designs, among other things, require low-viscosity oils to function efficiently and with maximum performance due to the very low component tolerances and tight fits."
Additive packages built into race oil also remain critical, according to Stephen Plopper of Schaeffer's Specialized Lubricants, St. Louis, Missouri. "Every little bit of these add packs, and how they're made up and how the chemistries work together, are very important. And then that base oil is what holds everything together."
A good example of application-specific lubricants are the Adrenaline R-Series racing oils from Hot Shot's Secret. Their features include increased thermal stability, a trait "absolutely" connected to the prevalence of turbochargers, superchargers, nitrous oxide, and aggressive engine tuning, reported Josh Steinmetz from the Mt. Gilead, Ohio, firm. "All [of those] dramatically increase combustion heat and overall oil temperatures."
Read on as we dive deeper into the subject with input from these and other top racing lubricant providers.
Through Thick and Thin
There is a clear trend toward lower viscosity racing oils, as is the case with passenger car and heavy-duty diesel engine oils, said Chris Mileti of Klotz Synthetic Lubricants, Fort Wayne, Indiana. "Lower viscosity oils are being introduced to improve fuel efficiency [in highway applications] and power output [in racing applications]."
Vehicle manufacturers and oil suppliers have done extensive testing over the past two decades to identify technologies that reduce frictional losses from motor oil, and massive improvements have been made. "However, friction modifiers still cannot match the impact of significantly lowering the fluid viscosity," Mileti said.
Klotz's Pure Estorlin Racing 0W-16 Engine Oil, entering its third season of production and gaining momentum in stock and super stock drag racing, is an example of a low-viscosity product. "[Its] formulation is fundamentally different than any other racing oil currently manufactured by Klotz," Mileti said. "It is optimized for short-duration, low-temperature operation while our other racing oils are designed for long durations at high temperatures."
The 0W-16 has consistently yielded improvements of three or more horsepower during internal dyno testing, and "some of the teams running this oil have used the same connecting rod bearings for multiple seasons," he said.
On average, racing oils are lighter than they've ever been, agreed Jaret Lozano of VP Racing Fuels, San Antonio, Texas. VP's Pro Stock Drag Racing Oil is a low-viscosity option engineered to meet the demands of engines producing more power per cubic inch than ever, he said. "The fluid pours like water yet provides the crazy amount of performance required to run low ETs round after round."
The trend will slow, however, "as you can only go so low" in viscosity, he added.
It Adds Up
Additives are an essential part of today's lubricants, but Steinmetz said the term is often oversimplified or misused. All of Hot Shot's oils and fuels contain additives—anti-wear agents, friction modifiers, detergents, dispersants, corrosion inhibitors, and cetane—and there is intent with each.
"For racers, the value of additives lies in targeted performance and protection," he said. "Additives can significantly extend component life, reduce parasitic loss, and support consistent power output, especially in extreme-duty motorsports environments."
Art Kendrick at Red Line Oil, Houston, Texas, said the company uses the highest quality base stocks and in-house-engineered additive packages to ensure its products can withstand the harshest performance environments without separate additives. "Being manufactured with PAO/ester base stocks gives you a more stable starting point," he said about manmade polyalphaolefins (PAOs) and polyolesters (POEs) used in synthetic oils. "It naturally gives greater protection and a wider viscosity range due to its chemistry compared to Group II and III [petroleum] products that must have more additives to make them perform."
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