I just put Pennzoil Platinum 10w30 in the tranny and engine

[Honcho]

I understand that, just wanted to make sure other folks do too before putting heavier/lighter oil in.

First you need to know your oil temps on the track. Then you need to know what viscosity and shear protection you feel comfortable with running at those temps. The generic viscosity vs. temperature charts on the internet will then help you determine what weight to run. Finally, you can do oil analyses like I do to actually measure your viscosity (Blackstone measures it at 210F), which is nice because my temperature sender in the oil pan can get up around 240F.

Happy racing!

Dave

+1 Dave. That thread from Ferrari Chat on oil is a must-read and everyone should read it before messing with oil weight in their NSX. If everyone read it, there would be no more 500-post oil debate threads!

The short version: Always try to have your oil operate at the OEM spec at temp. The NSX requires 30W oil at 212F to operate at max efficiency. If your oil runs hotter, you can use a heavier oil to reach that spec. This usually only occurs on the track. Driving you car on the street with heavy weight oil will damage your engine because it won't ever get hot enough to reach the correct viscosity. Rather than screw with oil weights, I say get an oil cooler to bring your temps down so that the OEM 30W will work fine.

 

[stuntman]

Have you read the older posts on here about using 40W on the track? For our tight clearances and oil passageways compared to German and American engines, 40W may not be the right choice.

BTW, I use the required 40W Rotella in an old musclecar for the zinc. But, I would not run it in my NSX.

My $0.02.

Dave

Oil passageways is probably not an issue when going to thicker weight oil. When 40 or even 50 weight oil is up to temp, its not that big of a problem. The major issue is when freezing or near-freezing temperatures, if you run that heavy of oil, more damage will be caused at cold startup. If you aren't in that cold of a climate, or if you're in a hotter climate or track your car, their's nothing wrong with a good 40 weight oil.

0.02

 

[TANTO]

Lots of great input from experienced folks. I'm a little shocked at the cavalier approach to mixing oils in the engine though. You are going to have quite a bit of the OLD oil mixing with the new. With so many addatives the chances of a bad reaction is very real IMO. Many years ago i have seen high levels of sludge buildup when switching from the high ash oils like Castrol when changing over to say a Kendall. While i think the high ash oils went by by, the makeup of modern oils is even more complex. Any long time mechanic of "regular" cars knows that the folks that use a different oil every change are the same ones that have massive sludge prematurely. Don't think for a minute that modern oils have been checked to be compatable with every other oil available. I personally NEVER change my initial oil selection on a high end motor. I'm also shocked that M1 did so poorly in the ball test. Like to hear their engineers comments. From the above, you can guess i'm sort of stuck with M1. JMI

 

[Honcho]

IIRC, one of M1's engineers gave a presentation/Q&A at an NSXPO. Apparently it was very interesting/enlightening and resulted in many track guys pulling the 40 and 50W oils out of their NSXs and going back to 10W30...

 

[Larry Bastanza]

IIRC, one of M1's engineers gave a presentation/Q&A at an NSXPO. Apparently it was very interesting/enlightening and resulted in many track guys pulling the 40 and 50W oils out of their NSXs and going back to 10W30...

Yes that was at the LimeRock ALMS race. He was a guest of Acura and he was introduced as the "Father of Mobil 1" I have his card somewhere. Anyway, I had gone from 10W30 to 20W50 in Peter's NSX. Peter's car was tracked heavily, and the last valve adjustment I did, when I removed the covers the smell, of what I thought was burnt oil, made me think we should thicken the oil up, since I considered the oil abused and burnt. He explained to me that was not true and the only thing that could contaminate the oil and have it smell like that was bad fuel!!! I never really thought about that, and his explanation made sense. He even suggested I could go to 5W30 with no problems. We ended up going back to 10W30 and all is well.

Regards,
LarryB