• Got the Contributing Memberships stuff finally worked out and made up a thread as a sort of "How-To" to help people figure out how to participate. So if you need help figuring it out, here's the thread you need to take a look at -> http://www.corvetteflorida.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3581 Thank you, everyone! Rich Z.

C5 427 forged motor?

RelentlessNiSMo said:
Is there anywhere on the internet that you have not been LOL!! Great Work on the research Tracy!! I forgot to add, that one of our techs put RP in his 350z with 32k on it, and only made it about 1,700 miles before he had catastrophic failure in the motor. i also have seen this in another Nissan Titan.
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So are you claiming that Royal Purple CAUSED this failure?
 
Rich Z said:
So are you claiming that Royal Purple CAUSED this failure?
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I don't know if you know my background Rich, but we have raced profesionally for years in NHRA & IHRA. Aside from Fram filters (their old design) collapsing and blowing up race motors......the only oil we have seen cause failures multiple times in the race motors was RP. Every racer has his personal preferance as the drag racer is a very superstitous breed, from Valvoline racing oil to M1 and everything in between, but it is universally known to NOT trust RP in any all out race motor and we have seen far to many examples.

Now that said, I have seen dozens of street driven cars do just fine with RP and the car owners swear by it......but not a single pro racer. If you search the web you can find a spy photot (I used to have it but just tried & could not find it) of RP sponsered team pouring another oil in in the pits. We raced all over the Easteren US for years, and ran one of the winningest big$ bracket teams at the time. These were 1000 HP BBC's on Alky and we shift at 7400 rpm.....raced 3 cars (dragsters) from Feb to Dec every weekend many times doubled up and the oil used is critical as these motors were pushed to the limit day-in & day-out. We saw fellow racers with failed bearings & crankshafts that had tried RP because a factory rep had pitched it with all the marketing. This is why we will warranty our motors with M1, Amsoil, Pennzoil, Valvoline, Castrol, or any other good full synthetic....but exclude RP.
 
RevXtreme 1 said:
I don't know if you know my background Rich, but we have raced profesionally for years in NHRA & IHRA. Aside from Fram filters (their old design) collapsing and blowing up race motors......the only oil we have seen cause failures multiple times in the race motors was RP. Every racer has his personal preferance as the drag racer is a very superstitous breed, from Valvoline racing oil to M1 and everything in between, but it is universally known to NOT trust RP in any all out race motor and we have seen far to many examples.

Now that said, I have seen dozens of street driven cars do just fine with RP and the car owners swear by it......but not a single pro racer. If you search the web you can find a spy photot (I used to have it but just tried & could not find it) of RP sponsered team pouring another oil in in the pits. We raced all over the Easteren US for years, and ran one of the winningest big$ bracket teams at the time. These were 1000 HP BBC's on Alky and we shift at 7400 rpm.....raced 3 cars (dragsters) from Feb to Dec every weekend many times doubled up and the oil used is critical as these motors were pushed to the limit day-in & day-out. We saw fellow racers with failed bearings & crankshafts that had tried RP because a factory rep had pitched it with all the marketing. This is why we will warranty our motors with M1, Amsoil, Pennzoil, Valvoline, Castrol, or any other good full synthetic....but exclude RP.
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Well, I'm certainly not married to any particular brand of oil, and try to base my decisions (by necessity, of course) on the recommendations of others based on THEIR experiences. But I would think that any company developing and marketing a product that had a verifiable history of CAUSING catastrophic engine failures would have such information front page news on all the car rags and forums in the world. Not to mention a complete failure of their marketing efforts to sell such a product. Granted, I was reviewing engine lubricants a couple of years ago when I started using Royal Purple and quite possibly things have changed since then, but I did not find ANY case history at all AT THE TIME that indicated that Royal Purple was BAD for any engine under any broad or narrowly defined circumstance(s).

So of course I want to hear about this when we are talking about the blood I will be putting into my brand new engine being built. And please forgive me if it may seem I am arguing with you (or anyone) about this, as that is not the case at all. I just like to see FACTS that I can use to make a rational informed decision, and sometimes I may press such a request to the point of feeling like it is an argument... :)

Point of the matter is that if there is the likelihood that RP would cause or contribute to a failure in MY engine, then I want to know about it. But if the facts tend to point more to the "I was wearing one white sock and one black sock each time my engine failed, so the SOCKS obviously caused the problem and I'm never going to wear them again, and neither should anyone else!" sort of associative linking of events, well, I will have to take that all with a grain of salt....
 
I do know that the Coast Guard uses Swepco exclusively in all there vessels and vehicles. Also if a person that builds 1000 hp motors that run 3 hours at a time at almost full throttle in a poker run, that helped sell me on the Swepco.
 
Oils

I respect all of your opinions,experiences,and input on this matter but when it comes down to it the only really thing I really stand behind is Mobile1.
I have spoken with with the guys at Katech often and they recommend 5W30 for street and light track use and 15W50 for cars that see the track alot.

If it is good enough for the factory Vette teams to run for 12hrs straight at Sebring and 24hrs at Lemans it should be good for any thing we as daily drivers and the occasional street racer are going to throw at it.:eek:

I have personally whitnessed its durability doing the types of racing we do.
I run other oils in other types of engines but for the LS series engines Mobile 1 or me is the only way to go. :yesnod:
 
Here are a couple of failures attributed to RP....and also note, in each thread there are users happy with it, but most are people using it in a daily driver & NOT in a race motor that is pushed hard on a regular basis:

http://www.dieselbombers.com/cummins-corner/23885-royal-purple-amsoil-synthetic-atf.html

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=335841&page=2

From a Q&A engine site:
Royal Purple is garbage.
i no longer use that oil due to a massive engine failure that cost me thousands.

I currently use Mobil 1 Racing 0w30.
I used to use 5w20 but due to its low zinc and phosphorus content, it didn't provide the protection that i needed for my valvetrain either even though i was running full synthetics from royal purple who claim to make superbad racing oils. bull****!!

ideally you want a oil with a high phosphorus and zinc content that is a synthetic and has a low detergent content so as not to gunk up your engine.

I only know of 2 manufacturers of synthetic oils who meet these requirements for high performance engines.
Mobil 1 and Amsoil.

as far as what weight to run in your car, the standard 10w30 works just fine in most applications unless you operate in EXTREME heat or cold ( -30 to 400 degrees F)

i've tested all the synthetics i can find in my cars and those of a couple of friends. i keep track of fuel economy and oil deterioration. this is what i found.

as a general rule, synthetics are better than conventional oil, but not always.
generic synthetic and valvoline actually got lower fuel economy than some premium conventional oils.
mobile 1 is about equal to a premium conventional oil for power and fuel economy.

pennzoil and quaker state synthtics are ok, but you can do better and they wear quickly like a conventional oil.

amsoil and royal purple will give amazing spikes in fuel economy and power, but deteriorated faster than anything else i tried. same with the other cars we ran it in. it is an exceptional racing oil where the oil gets changed every 500 miles, perhaps unequaled as a racing oil, but not overly useful as a daily driver because in every car we tried them in economy and power dropped SHARPLY after 1000 miles.

Castrol Syntec gave almost as good as the peak gas mileage of amsoil and royal purple, but didn't deteriorate like they did. it tends to hold it's condition to close to 6K.

now some will come on and say you can run amsoil, royal purple and mobile 1 extended much longer than the others, (up to 20,000 per oil change) but this is what i found when i researched that. repeatedly toyota and honda mechanics i talked to said the only cars they rebuild right now are from people who try to do that. a couple of companies i know that put thousands of miles a month on their cars tried as well. they all ended up with extra rebuilds... don't do it.

on 0 weight oils, i tried them as well and found that unless you live in an area where the temperature regularly stays below 0 (farenheit) you can do more harm than good as this doesn't stay on the motor as well and you end up with some metal on metal at start ups.
1 year ago"

Now I will add that we had tested RP on the dyno several years ago and it DID increase the power of the engine, but at the sacrifice of overall protection IMHO.
 
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RevXtreme 1 said:
From a Q&A engine site:
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Which site is that? I read the other links and did some more digging as well and I have to say that from what I have been able to find the overwhelming majority of reviews and comments about Royal Purple are POSITIVE or at least NOT NEGATIVE in any way. Actually there was more bad press about Mobile 1, by far, then about RP.

Found an interesting video in my travels as well..



But I did see a lot of positive press about German Castrol and Valvoline while reading all those threads. Not even a single mention of Swepco, however.
 
Rich Z said:
Which site is that? I read the other links and did some more digging as well and I have to say that from what I have been able to find the overwhelming majority of reviews and comments about Royal Purple are POSITIVE or at least NOT NEGATIVE in any way. Actually there was more bad press about Mobile 1, by far, then about RP.

Found an interesting video in my travels as well..

Click to expand...
 
Rich Z said:
Interesting reading.....

One thing I noted was that they were using the 15-40 weight oil (Swepco 306). Is that going to be a good match for my new 427 Warhawk?

OK, so where can I find this Swepco stuff in case lots? I'm willing to give it a try. Hey, maybe Chris can get a local distributorship or something.... :thumbsup:
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We carry it and can get Chris set-up as a dealer.

On what weight is right depends on what the clearances are set to for your rods & mains. I would expect for a street driven build it will be best to use the 10w30. We use it and see increses in oil pressure over M1 10w30.
 
RevXtreme 1 said:
We carry it and can get Chris set-up as a dealer.

On what weight is right depends on what the clearances are set to for your rods & mains. I would expect for a street driven build it will be best to use the 10w30. We use it and see increses in oil pressure over M1 10w30.
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So what would you charge me for a case of 24?

And does the higher oil pressure mean that the Swepco is thicker than the Mobil 1? Or are there other factors that would affect the oil pressure change simply by using a different type/brand of oil?
 
Let's see... I'm getting a new engine, new clutch and flywheel, new rear end, new drive shaft........... What am I forgetting? :toetap05:

Oh yeah.... TRANSMISSION! Certainly can't have all that new stuff and an OLD transmission in the drivetrain, now can I? :nonod:

And yeah, I also have a new shifter to put in there as well while this is all going on. Sheesh, it's almost like getting a whole new car.
 
Rich Z said:
Let's see... I'm getting a new engine, new clutch and flywheel, new rear end, new drive shaft........... What am I forgetting? :toetap05:

Oh yeah.... TRANSMISSION! Certainly can't have all that new stuff and an OLD transmission in the drivetrain, now can I? :nonod:

And yeah, I also have a new shifter to put in there as well while this is all going on. Sheesh, it's almost like getting a whole new car.
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YOU ARE GETTING A WHOLE NEW CAR !!! :crazy03:

Let us know if there is another trans option you want us to get a price on for ya :thumbsup:

Its all about you RICH.....You are making a lot of men jealous out there :yesnod:
 
85vette said:
Just curious...what are you doing with your old drivetrain?
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Well, the plan is for that LS6 motor to go into Connie's Silverado. :hehehe:

I figure the fun Connie will have with the added power is worth losing the core charge I would have had. I assume the transmission and rear end will have to be returned as cores to the people making those things for Chris. If now, Chris can sell off what he wants to anything left over. I doubt I will even need any of that stuff again.
 
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