Bill;
Bob Peckham's McLaren Can-Am car had a similar dry-sump setup with an
electrical heater. We used Valvoline
Racing(non-synthetic) 20w-50, too, but that was because the Valvoline
reps were always there giving away cases of oil to racers. (Need more
oil? How about for your tow truck?.....)
By starting the engine with warm oil, everything came up to temperature
quicker and the oil was already at its operating viscosity. Without a
pre- heater it would take a few laps to get that big tank of oil up to
temperature.
Regards, Neil Tucson, AZ
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-land-speed@autox.team.net
[mailto:owner-land-speed@autox.team.net] On Behalf Of
ardunbill@webtv.net
Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2004 4:32 PM
To: Stephen F. Doherty; land-speed@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: What's in your crankcase?
I recently had a chat with a member of one of the leading Bonneville
roadster teams. He said they use a dry-sump system which keeps 100 psi
in the engine at all times, and always use Valvoline
Racing(non-synthetic) 20w-50, but they have a heater for the oil tank
and get it to about 200 degrees F before they fire the car up to run it.
This is with an extremely high-output and high rpm smallblock Chevy.
I use 5w-30 Motorcraft non-synthetic in my Ardun at ECTA and it works
fine for me. I feel with this low-cold-viscosity oil, I don't have to
worry about getting it real hot. It works fine for me, no trouble. It
is a fact that cold 20w-50 oil is pretty thick, and I can see that it
might not be able to get through the crank to the rod bearings at high
rpm; and cause the trouble that Bryan described.
Obviously personal taste has a lot to do with what oil you like to run
in your racer... Bill H.
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