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If I were coveting a spot on Arnel's list I wouldn't be tellin any of you drag racers this, but my car is set up for road racing, so I guess it doesn't matter. Besides, posts like this help confirm the known fact that I am extremely cool and intelligent, no matter what ZBlackTT says. For those who can't stand to read, here is the post synopsis: drag racers should pay attention to the oil level in the pan, because if it's overfilled it can cost you a bunch of horsepower. This post does not apply to road racers, who probably want to overfill to keep the pickup from becoming uncovered during cornering. This weekend at the strip I learned an important lesson about oil windage losses, and just how big the losses can be. For those unfamiliar, "windage loss" refers to the fact that the crank effectively spins in an oil fog, keeping some amount of oil suspended in the air in the crankcase. More oil in the pan can result in more suspended oil, which impedes the crank rotation. To give some history, my street/strip car normally runs high 12.30's at about 109-110, on motor. At a previous T&T, however, I noticed that after the burnout my oil pressure was dropping when the car lunged forward, due to the oil sloshing around. I later found out that the car was low on oil. Before I went to the track this weekend, I overfilled the pan by about a half quart, to ensure that I wouldn't experience low oil pressure after burnout. Therefore, I went from about 3/4 quart underfill to about 1/2 quart overfill. First pass, the car went 12.80 at 105. I noticed that it spit some oil out the breather. Second pass, 12.70's, and third pass 12.60's, all the while expelling some more oil. After that it rained, so I had to leave. Anyway, point is that for those drag racers who are trying to eke out tenths, you might want to consider running a half quart low or something. This is, of course, at your own risk, because if you run it too low, it ain't my fault if it grenades. However, you surely don't want to run it overfull, because it can cost you big power. In slowing me from 109-110 to 105, I guess that it was costing me 30-40ish horsepower! RSR
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