Shopsmith Forums

Had a brief discussion with a friend of mine earlier this week. He has been an engine rebuilder since the early 70's. He doesn't build engines for Nascar, but he is a certified builder of engines that run at a lot of race tracks. He was telling me that when he first started building, as soon as you pulled the pan or the intake manifold from an engine you could tell if it had been a long time user of either Shell or Penns oil. The build up of sludge within the engine was beyond belief. With the oils of today this is not a problem, somewhere along the years someone seen the light as to a problem going on. Oils today run very clean and do an excellent job to protect our engines. We do of coarse have to remember to get it changed now and again.
This friend is still an engine builder, adn a quality one at that......That is my input, for whatever it is worth. Yea I know, not much....

It is true that teams get paid for the oil they run, but they are going to get paid by whomever they choose. It's also true that the formulation they use for one day at 9k rpms does not compare to what you put in your car.

More important than the brand of oil you use is how hard you push it and how often you change it (and the filter). I don't understand this obsession with motor oil and engines that can go 10k, 15k miles and the people that argue passionately about it. Fresh oil will NEVER hurt your motor, and it only takes $15 and 15 minutes.

Mobil 1 is decent, but in my truck I prefer either Valvoline or Quaker State high mileage (leaves a zinc film in the cylinders) and Fram premium filters. In my toys, which are mostly 30+ years old, I use Castrol HD dinosaur oil straight weight 30 and Wix filters. If I'm going to the drag strip or track days, which I don't really do anymore, Amsoil is a good idea.