540 RAT

Here's one account that one of my Texas buddies told me about, regarding how Royal Purple Racing Oil performed in an extreme racing situation. Its a little something to go along with that earlier oil film strength discussion. His story below:

I've been a RP believer for a long time. Surprised me to see the base RP street oil do as well as it did......I've always seen good things from the race stuff. It's incredible some of the abuse I've seen it survive. Or I guess I should say the engine survive. I think I told you about the roundy pounder motor that was ahead when it blew a head gasket and the guy stayed out there until they finally hydraulic-ed it about the 4th time they dumped cold water in it while it was running during cautions. The motor was pretty much running the whole race with only oil for a coolant. When torn down, the bearings, pistons, block, crank etc all looked fine and were re-usable. Head had to be welded up and that was about it. I mean even valve stems and guides were serviceable. That RP didn't even stink like it had been overheated. In cases like that, killer oil allows you to continue to do stupid stuff and maybe finish a race. Sure can't argue that it's a good thing to have in your motor for protection.


So, it works very well in the real world too. I think that's maybe what people really wanted to know, instead of lab tests.

Paul L

Are you suggesting that Royal Purple is superior to Mobil 1 that is GM-approved?

540 RAT

I'm not claiming anything, you guys are all big boys, you can figure it out for yourself. Personally, I've never been able to find any data, nor any reports of Mobil 1 doing anything BETTER than Royal Purple. It might be comparable in certain ways, but not better by any means. I'm sure you're not naive enough to take at face value everything that GM says, is the absolute best there is. Money is nearly always involved in some way with big company's that are always in serious competition with rivals. They will do stuff we don't agree with just to save pennies on a product. Also real people are involved in these decisions, and more often than not, they don't even agree among themselves. I've been involved in things like this at two major manufacturers during my career. Sometimes the majority rules, sometimes the guy highest on the food chain rules. Hard to say how it went at GM, but don't just assume its all good, based on what you see on the surface. You need to decide for yourself what is best, maybe you'll agree with GM, maybe you won't.

macdarren

I do not want to start an oil debate thread here but just thought I would throw in my 2 cents.

I have generally used Mobile 1 in my newer cars, and many of my old school engines too, just because the price was not a major factor and I had it available. Mostly for the new cars M1 is what the manufacturer recommended or because of some odd wt. numbers that were required and M1 was the only thing I could find offered in the recommended wt. I can't say I have ever had a lubrication related failure...well maybe one bearing problem in one of the older motors but overheating was the bigger factor.

That said my newest engine (the one in my avatar) will be running RP.
Why? Because starting about 2 years ago, I began to read every review and test on oils I could find, I assumed most had some bias. I even read the relevant anecdotal stories of people that had what I considered reasonable thoughts on the matter and experiences in the real world. My conclusion.... I never found any BAD reviews on RP. I never found any tests were it FAILED and others did not. Sure it was not always the clear winner of a test but it was seldom less than 2 or 3 from the testers top pick. I have not heard any horror stories either but have heard ones similar to the above....I can't say that about M1.

My only question is whether to use the street version or the race version. I will probably go with the race stuff for the simple reason that even at 12-13 dollars a qt it is not going to break the bank or even be a major cost of running the car....And I suspect for the older school motors that were designed for zinc type additives the Race formula which is not 'approved' by various bodies probably for the very reason that it contains similar agents.....

I also agree with 540 RAT that a manufacturer will always consider the cost trade off. I don't see GM ever recommending something like RP it just costs too much, I doubt it would produce some clear advantage over say M1 for newer cars, and I would suspect RP probably is not a big enough producer and until very recently not that widely distributed that GM could use them as a major supplier.

crossram

The 6 dollar a quart RP is all you need. I run it in 20 different cars and motorcycles right now. I buy it by the 5 gallon pail. Love it, love it,love it.

Did I mention that I love it? You also get 5 to 7 more horsepower as proven in Hod Rod magazine dyno test.

mikem350

OEMs like GM like to recommend a popular brand that is available everywhere.

Tell your average car buyer to go find RP at a oil change shop??? hah

Mossy66

I have avoided using "Race Oils" because a racing engine is treated differently than a street engine. I would believe oil in a racing engine would be changed after at most 500 miles. I think additive packages would be different for oil that has to last 3-6K miles.

I am probably wrong, I'm no expert, but that's what I'm going with.

I use RP in the Harley and M1 in the daily drivers.
Maybe for the Vette I'll rotate between RP, M1, and Rotella. That way I'll be OK 33.3% of the time!

bweaver999

I would be curious to know if Mobil pays an add fee to GM for recommending M1 in new cars. Just bought an 07 Mustang for the wife, the gas cap says Ford recommends BP gas!! The only reason I can see for that is $$. Would assume the same thing for specifying a particular brand of oil.

babbah

Again, Diesel Delo 400 forever for our beloved "aged" rides!! Too many posts on this already to explain, and it won't break the bank!

jkuzzy

I ran Mobil 1 from the factory of a Camaro SS I once had and spun a rod bearing at 62k miles. I never went nuts on the revs and babied that car for 10 years. I am not a fan of Mobil 1.

427425

Royal Purple is great oil. Their #9 racing blend is some of the fastest I've ever tried in my drag car. The bearings always look great, as do rings, piston skirts, cam, lifters, etc.

I would agree that the 'street' blends are the ones to use in a driver. They definitely have a different additive package than the race oil.

Paul L

What about zinc/phophorous in their street oil?

grizzlyalan

I work for the company who makes mobil 1 and have been running RP in steam turbines and some very large pumps requireing anything from 10wt. to 90wt lubricants for 4 years now with excellent performance. the E M marketing department found out we were using RP and sent my supervisor a cease and desist order because it would look bad if anyone found out the makers of mobil 1 was using RP in their equipment. My supervisor sent them back a note that as soon as they come up with a lubricant that would perform as well as RP we would change . we haven't heard anything from them since

Paul L

That did not answer my question re zinc/phorphorus and flat tappet cams. We here all know the convential wisdom, or urban legend depending on your point of view, re CI-4 or CH-4 15W-40 oils. Personally, I avoid them. But what does Royal Purple have to offer for these old 327 stock engines to compensate for zinc/phosphorous?

540 RAT

Paul, I don't have the numbers with me, but Royal Purple's street oil, from the lab tests I've seen, have zinc/phos at similar levels with other newer oils. In other words, they have been reduced just like in all the others oils, to prevent cat damage on later cars. Their outstanding film strength may well be enough to save the day though. I just don't have any data on that to say for sure. If you don't want to chance it, just run virtually any "Racing Oil" that is labeled as such. They still have very high levels of zinc/phos and will take good care of the old 327.

SPLITRAY

That's what I'm starting out my new (old) engine with.

427Hotrod

I don't care who you are....THAT's funny right there!!


JIM

babbah

I run this - http://www.hughesengines.com/partDet...p?partID=12866

SnapperDragon

I knew someone who admitted she bought a 16 dollar bar of soap. Her hubby was not too thrilled...

427425

This is some really good stuff that I have used in race applications. I just checked their website and found they have some stuff for the street, as well. The manual transmission and rear gear additive is great. It definitely extends gear life in my drag race application. You can find it at many local parts stores.

www.mrmoly.com