Racing motor oil in daily driver?

[raiderhillbilly]

A coworker and I bought a 55 gallon barrel of synthetic 0w-20 motor oil for 300.00 this weekend. I have been reading some about the differences in racing oil vs regular daily driver oil.

I gather that racing oil has more wear protecting elements and less detergents Also I read that catalitic converter life can suffer if racing oil is used in a daily driver. Has anyone done this? I am about to, 1.36 per quart is pretty cheap.

 

[themiller]

"Racing Oil" - going to need to be a little more specific... Does it have a brand?

 

[GTA Matt]

Sounds like you just bought 55 gallons of oil for new hondas. What makes it racing oil?

 

[raiderhillbilly]

"Racing Oil" - going to need to be a little more specific... Does it have a brand?

Quaker state

 

[rsanter]

Racing oil does not have the corrosion and anti acidic additives that street oil has. This is because racing oil gets changed very regularly so it doesn't have the time to build any of those contaminants.
Racing oil often dosent have the additives of street oil because the teams like to add those on their own in Their own blend combinations.
Will it work fine, yes. However you will not have the added benefits from the technology of the additives and all.
If it was me I would blend it with street oil in perhaps a 50/50 mix so you still have some of the additive benefits

Bob

 

[d.mcfarland]

0w-20 is not racing oil. It's standard in many cars now. I'm assuming you might be older and were accustomed to 10w-30 possibly?

 

[themiller]

Hmmm.. how old is it?

Not finding it on epc.shell.com. Also - 0w-20 is pretty thin for racing I think?

Does it have a product code on it? (eg. 001D7758)

 

[SALIV8]

Id use it. Maybe run sea foam or whatever every so often if i was concerned. I would keep an eye on the miles and replace it at a greater frequency. My race oil has more zinc which helps reduce wear. I use brad penn.

 

[kiatech]

Many new cars call for 0w-20

 

[raiderhillbilly]

0w-20 is not racing oil. It's standard in many cars now. I'm assuming you might be older and were accustomed to 10w-30 possibly?

No, This was marked racing oil. I have used many brands of auto parts oil that is 0w-20 but this was cheap.

 

[raiderhillbilly]

Hmmm.. how old is it?

Not finding it on epc.shell.com. Also - 0w-20 is pretty thin for racing I think?

Does it have a product code on it? (eg. 001D7758)

It could be old stock, but, it was in a sealed drum. I couldn't find much information on the net either.

 

[c39er]

You need be careful if the car or truck is still under warranty. As mentioned newer cars are using this weight of oil.
I wouldn't use that thin of oil in a high miler older car.

 

[raiderhillbilly]

You need be careful if the car or truck is still under warranty. As mentioned newer cars are using this weight of oil.
I wouldn't use that thin of oil in a high miler.

I have a 2012 Honda Civic with 51k miles and my wife has a 2012 Honda Accord with 40k miles. The manual calls for 0w-20 specifically.

 

[themiller]

I'd recommend having a virgin sample tested by a lab. That should tell you all you need to know about its composition and application. I have used blackstone with success... That's all I have for you, best of luck. Some day I hope to have enough toys to need 55 gallons!

 

[skippy24]

I dunno if I would use it unless you an to change the oil every couple of weeks. Regular oil is cheap enough. I don't know if I would trust my newer cars to oil with questionable protection to save a dollar or two a quart.

 

[LandR]

We use race oil for our various racing cars. For our competition racers we only use amsoil and liqui-moly. Rotella for our other race cars.

None of them are 0-20w. All have added zdpp. Racing oil is designed to not break down at higher temperatures. And is also recommended to be changed at sooner intervals than traditional oils.

Was cost the main reason for why you bought it? Your per quart price is 5-8x cheaper than what true racing oil costs

 

[Bar50]

Racing formula oil has many more additives than street oil. As a matter of fact, ZDDP was removed from normal 'street' oils and has caused many of flat tappet camshaft failures. Racing designator on oil is a window or loop hole that also means no for normal consumption.

I run VR-1 Racing formula in all my muscle cars for the ZDDP.

 

[tdkkart]

Being North Carolina, could it have come from one of the Nascar shops?? I know that some of them use very low viscosity oils for qualifying motors.
Possible that it came from drag racers also, the pure stock guys use very light oils.

 

[raiderhillbilly]

I had this oil tested by Blackstone Labs as recommended and asked it it was suitable for a daily driver. It had normal levels of Boron and Calcium for detergent/dispersant additives. It also had only slightly higher levels of Phosphorus and Zinc for wear protection. The TBN (total base number) was 8.1, almost identical to Mobil 1.

Blackstone says it is just fine to use in the Honda. They did a great job and provided quick results. Oil analysis was 25.00 plus 10.00 to evaluate the TBN.

I would say that 300.00 for 216 quarts(54 gallons) of 0w-20 full synthetic was a heck of a deal.

 

[jchetty]

Racing formula oil has many more additives than street oil. As a matter of fact, ZDDP was removed from normal 'street' oils and has caused many of flat tappet camshaft failures. Racing designator on oil is a window or loop hole that also means no for normal consumption.

I run VR-1 Racing formula in all my muscle cars for the ZDDP.

This guy is spot on.

Be careful with using oils high in zinc (zddp) on cars with cats. It can coat the cats making them inefficient. If your state does a sniffer test for emissions, this could be a problem.

 

[Mike Miller]

I had this oil tested by Blackstone Labs as recommended and asked it it was suitable for a daily driver. It had normal levels of Boron and Calcium for detergent/dispersant additives. It also had only slightly higher levels of Phosphorus and Zinc for wear protection. The TBN (total base number) was 8.1, almost identical to Mobil 1.

Blackstone says it is just fine to use in the Honda. They did a great job and provided quick results. Oil analysis was 25.00 plus 10.00 to evaluate the TBN.

I would say that 300.00 for 216 quarts(54 gallons) of 0w-20 full synthetic was a heck of a deal.

It would be interesting to see the results of a sample after 3,000 miles. I sampled oil on a fleet of thrucks when I was working and found it to be a valuable tool that saved down time.

 

[JonnyMac]

This guy is spot on.

Be careful with using oils high in zinc (zddp) on cars with cats. It can coat the cats making them inefficient. If your state does a sniffer test for emissions, this could be a problem.

Correct. I use raw zddp as a gasoline additive to generate what are known as threshold catalysts. These are what are used to determine the catalyst failure calibration for OBD limits.
Only very minute percentages are needed to completely ruin a catalyst, most commercial oils do not contain zddp for this reason.