Fig 3
| RPM | Mobil 1 HP | JGR HP | Diff. |
5600 |
400.9 |
402.7 |
1.8 |
5800 |
410.1 |
412.6 |
2.4 |
6000 |
416.2 |
417.8 |
1.5 |
6200 |
419.8 |
421.6 |
1.8 |
6400 |
423.2 |
425.3 |
2.1 |
6600 |
427.3 |
429.0 |
1.7 |
6800 |
429.8 |
432.3 |
2.5 |
7000 |
432.4 |
433.5 |
1.1 |
7200 |
431.7 |
433.4 |
1.7 |
7400 |
431.0 |
432.1 |
1.1 |
7500 |
429.6 |
430.8 |
1.2 |
Average |
422.4 |
424.3 |
1.9 |
Here is something you won’t see very often – the inside of a top NASCAR team’s dyno cell. Here the engines dry sump pump is being used to prime the entire oil system prior to actually firing up the engine. This, as well as heating up the oil, is a normally done procedure before any of the engines are started from cold.
Fig 3 (left) One Cup car engine, one day on a million dollar plus dyno and 22 gallons of oil made this test an expensive one to do but the accuracy of the results seemed to made the effort worthwhile.
Among the many factors scrutinized and compared was the engines oil inlet to outlet temperatures. Assuming the specific heat and conductivity for each were similar we should see a reduction in temperature coming out of the engine if the friction was reduced. That proved to be exactly the case. With the Mobil 1 the oil out temperature averaged 33 degrees more than the oil in whereas the JGR oil out was only 22 degrees hotter than the oil in. Although far from conclusive this 11-degree drop is nonetheless further indication that friction is down.
 Because of the increased oil capacity of a dry sump lubrication system and two flushes this back to back test consumed 22 gallons of oil in total! |
The confidence level I had in from these tests and Gibbs’s mega buck dyno were very high. To give you an idea of how repeatable both the engine and dyno were all ten runs of each test set produced a maximum deviation of only 0.3 hp. With that said, the average increase given by the Gibbs oil of 1.9 hp is a realistic number not an accident of favorable statistics.
WEAR TESTS
While all the power testing was going on over the eight-month span of time concerned one of my dyno mules was run exclusively on JGR race oil. The engines spec changed in terms of carburetion, heads and valve train but the short block remained the same. After amassing about 800 pulls in the 4500 to 7800 rpm range and with power levels from about 400 hp to 520, the engine was used for track testing. In all it amassed the equivalent of about 900-1,000 miles. On tear down the bearings and bores were inspected. The worst bore had 1-1/2 tenths of one thousandths wear as did the worst of the Calico coated bearings. An oil analysis indicated that most of that wear took place in the first 100 or so miles.
 Seen here is the wear on the worst cylinder of a test engine run in the neighborhood of 1000 miles. This amount of wear measured out at 0.00015 inches max. |
A precautionary note here is that bearing clearance and the oil viscosity used to go hand in hand. Too little viscosity and too wide a bearing clearance will result in a failure sooner or later and this applies no matter whose oil you use. If you want to know the optimum oil viscosity for your engines bearing clearance go to the JGR web site.
So is this the best oil out there? Don’t know - I have not tested every contender for the #1 spot, but one thing is for sure, it is a heck of a good oil.
If you want to use this oil don’t call Joe Gibbs Racing as they are busy further developing it not selling it. Your #1 source is actually CV Products so give them a call.
SOURCES:
| CV Products 42 High tech Boulevard Thomasville, NC 27360 Tel: 800-448-1223 www.CVProducts.com |
KT Engine Developments 384 Industrial Court Concord, NC 28025 Tel: 704-784-2610 www.ktengines.com |