Question for Brad Hibbard

[SRSPRO11]

We have two 604 engines. One two years old and one with two races on it. I see you recommend the Joe Gibbs oil. Both these motors have ran on the Mobil 20w 50 that GM calls for on the engine. Changed oil and filter every four races. My question is if I changed over to Joe Gibbs is there anything I need to do besides just drain oil and change filter and what weight Joe Gibbs you recommend? Or should I just keep running on Mobil 1? We have not seen any wear on or other two 604 engine's. The only problem I see with the 604 is the retainers breaking (bottom washer under valve spring) and have found some of the keepers cracked. We run UMP and they said we had to run the GM keepers. I was hoping they would let us put a good steel keeper in them but they said no. Any help on this would be appreciated. One more thing what RPM and timing do you recommend?
Thank You
Brad Denney

[brad hibbard]

Brad,

oil recommendations vary quite a bit and are heavily debated.---I will give you our recommendation based on our expieriences with different situations.

A switch from mobil 1 to Gibbs will not create any problems.

we differ from many builders on weight ----we recommend XP9 or a mixture of XP3 and XP6

If your races are the traditional 20 to 25 lap events you can go as many as 10 events between oil changes ---we do recommend a filter change at 5 races and strongly suggest the oil level be checked every night of competition.

A more performance oriented keeper would be nice but UMP is correct in maintaing the stock keeper-----once you open the book up to allow a different keeper where would it stop?

Power wise there is no reason to run a 604 over 6000RPM----however because of a tight torque curve it is common to run as high as 6800 ----65 to 66 is pretty safe --67 to 68 requires constant valve train maintenance---over 68 is just asking for trouble

32 degrees total is always productive and safe but be sure your setting it properly-- we have outlined our timing procedures on our website under crate engine FAQ
be very careful of dial back timing lights ----we have an entire corner in the shop full of engines that fell victim to the high tech timing lights----

hope all that helps
Brad
www.race-1.com

[JAMESGANGRACING]

which oil would you recomend for a 602?

[brad hibbard]

which oil would you recomend for a 602?

our recommendations are the same 602 or 604 (see above)