Oil Flow Through Your Engine
When the valve opens oil is pumped back to the negative side of the oil pump gears which leaves almost no oil at the bearings. The 80 PSI you see on the gauge is the drag or resistance the heavy oil is fighting. Some oil is moving but not enough to support the weight of the connecting rod and piston assembly. This is the time when the bearings are most likely to touch the crank and wipe away some of the soft material. Our coating materials are designed to take this abuse. They are designed to work with our lubricants, but lubricants such as oil only improves its load-carrying ability.
Oil flow and oil temperature are very much related. Higher oil temperatures will produce more oil flow. Oil weight also has a great effect on flow. Naturally, the thinner the oil the more it will flow. The oil flow meter helped us understand more about different oil viscosities. We tested 2 oils of different viscosities made by the same manufacturer. First we tested 10W-30 at different temperatures. Our second Test was performed using 20W-50 using the same temperature range. The 10W-30 flows quite a bit more at lower temperatures than the 20W-50. But when you reach 240 degrees, the 20W-50 actually lubricants slightly better than the lighter 10W-30. With the high temperatures of auto racing though, we still believe lighter oil will lubricate critical engine Components better from startup to race time. If you choose to run heavier oil, make sure to heat your engine before competition to get maximum oil flow to your critical engine components. You should pump oil through your engine before starting cold or hot to ensure oil has reached every component. The combination of cold engines and lighter oil looks better in cold conditions as seen below.
