[gtofreek]

Originally Posted by PDC

Hey Paul - what are your thoughts on Gibbs Driven Hot Rod Oil? They offer a full synthetic 15/50 that is ‘alleged’ to have the same cold flow characteristics as a ‘conventional’ 10w, but holds viscosity at higher temps. Same concerns regarding leaks and getting past the rings as with other synthetics?

Thank you.

I hear Gibbs driven racing oil is good, but I have never used it. Personally, I don't like full synthetic oil. The only real advantage to it that I see it it lasts longer before breaking down, but it still collects dirt just the same. It still needs to be changed regularly like conventional oil does. 10,000 miles on an oil change is ridiculous to even consider so I see no real advantage over regular oil. We have used Kendall GT[way back before it was Brad Penn] and Brad Penn ever since. When we tear down an engine that has run all season long in several races, some lasting hundreds of miles, and the engine is run at 8000-9000 RPM's the whole time and the bearings still look brand new, what are you going to gain with full synthetic. I see it cause more problems with leaks and oil burning in engines not designed for it, so I won't ever use it. We even had a guy come by with an old V-6 engine that we built for another shop, and he switched to synthetic after 900 miles and came complaining about the oil leaks that started. We told him the engine isn't designed for synthetic and to go back to Brad Penn, so he did and his leaks stopped completely. Newer engine that come from the factory with synthetic oil have a Napier second ring and special seals designed for it. My Monte Carlo engine has over 320,000 miles on conventional oil and when I rebuilt the heads at 292,000 miles[because the head gasket blew] the heads were in such good shape that the guides had no measurable wear, nor did the valves so I reused them. Even the valve springs still tested good, although I still replaced them just because. The cylinders had no ring ridge what-so-ever. How much better would synthetic oil make that?