TOVA's NEWEST SPONSOR
TORCO LUBRICATION SPECIALIST
The engine oil we use is one of the most important 'components' in our car. Good engine oil is very crucial to the optimum operation of our engine and also its reliability and durability. The oil provides protection during the engine operation by supplying lubrication against friction.
While I believe in - and use - premium grade oil in my cars, especially my integra, it is solely for
protection. I have a special need for premium oil because of the higher stress my engine is running at
because it has been turbo-charged. Actually my opinion is that this is true also for stock honda engines
especially the VTEC and the type-R engines. Good engine oil is not only crucial to efficient operation,
it is also important for durability and reliability.
There are some however who believe that a very good engine oil can reduce friction so much that it can actually extract more power from the engine. I.e. using a very good engine oil can actually result in extra horsepower from the engine. While I believe this can possibly be true, I have never really given much thought about it until recently when the Malaysian importer for TORCO oil, COSMIC ELITE, approached me about sponsorship of TOVA via the placement of their advertisement.
TORCO is well known and is one of the top premium oil manufacturers in the industry. TORCO oils are manufactured to the strictest of standards and features their proprietry additive called MPZ which is zinc based. This is said to offer superior lubrication properties as well as superior retention of that lubrication property across a very wide range of operating conditions, even the most adverse ones. Indeed, so good is TORCO oil's lubrication that it claims to reduce internal friction more than other 'premium oils' on the market, the end-result being that an engine that uses TORCO oil will actually deliver more power than when using other premium oils, due to a reduction in power lost to internal friction.
In fact, in one of TORCO's brochures is a dyno 'shoot-out' that compares the power output of a 2002 USDM Ford Mustang GT. Initially a baseline power output was taken using the manufacturer's supplied Ford Motorcraft oil (weight 5W-40) and this baseline was 217.49hp at the wheel hub (the dyno used is a DynoPak). Subsequently, when the oil was changed to TORCO SR-1 5W-30, the engine now delivered 228.84hp at the wheel hub, an 11.35hp or 5.22% power increase, all from simply reducing internal friction and thus power loss. The same shootout also lists several other 'famous name' premium brand oils which delivered between 221.92 to 223.50hp at the wheel hubs, impressive power gains from the baseline Ford oil in their own right, but none managing to deliver as much as the TORCO SR-1 oil. (Out of courtesy to the other engine oil manufacturers, Cosmic Elite requested that I do not put up the shootout details in this review).
When Cosmic Elite first started importing TORCO oil into Malaysia, they had in fact also
conducted a number of similar dyno comparisons of their own. The result of one such dyno comparo was
given to me, specifically because it was done on a 4AT CF4 JDM Accord VTi (with the 150ps F20B 2.0l
SOHC VTEC engine). This car showed a rather impressive power gain in the low-end/mid-range of the rpm
band. The dyno-chart which is shown on the left, shows the huge amount of power gain - as high as 30ps
at 2,200rpm. I talked to the owner of the Accord and was told that the old
oil used in the car was a very established fully-synthetic oil (which Cosmic Elite also asked me not to
disclose as a courtesy). Looking at this dyno-result, the benefits of TORCO oil seems to be
very good. Indeed, what is especially impressive is that the TORCO oil which produced this improvement
is only TORCO's SR-1 which is their base fully synthetic oil (the top grade is TORCO SR-5).
As part of the advertisement placement discussions and knowing how fussy TOVA is about our reviews, Cosmic Elite then proceeded to offer me a 'challenge'. Similar to the cases where I was shown the dyno-charts, they offered to supply me a sample of the Torco SR-1 oil, to put into my car and then to also sponsor a before-and-after dyno comparison. They expressed total confidence that I would see a power gain on the dyno, from the use of TORCO oil in my engine. In return, if the dyno run do show power gain, I was asked if I can supplement their advertising with a special review of TORCO engine oil here on TOVA. This 'challenge' I quickly took up.
On the day of our appointment, something unexpected turned up and I had to go over in my Jazz VTEC instead of my Integra. As the Jazz VTEC is a modestly powered small engined car, and my unit is completely stock, I truly didn't expect any gain from the oil and accordingly offered to defer the dyno test. But Cosmic Elite remained very confident and gamely suggested that we go ahead even with the Jazz VTEC.
Since I bought my Jazz VTEC new from Honda Malaysia, I have always serviced it at an approved service
center (WEGRO in Cheras in this case). When engine oil was free, during
the 2 years free service (a promotion which sadly Honda Malaysia had to replace with a much shorter
6 months free service package, due largely to increasing cost), Honda's mineral VTEC LEV
(an OEM by Idemitsu) was used, service interval being 5,000km, with an oil filter change once
every 10,000km. I kept to this 5,000/10,000 km oil/filter change routine when I had to pay for
the service after expiry of the 2 years free service promotion. However, I also switched the
oil, from the mineral grade VTEC LEV, to the semi-synthetic VTEC LEV. In terms of engine viscosity,
both of these oils has a 'weight' rating of 30.
Therefore for this 'dyno-challenge', I asked for TORCO's SR-1 10W-30 oil as it is the recommended weight from Honda. The 'old' oil in my engine had only 2,500km usage at the time of the comparo so it was still relatively new and in good condition.
The before-after dyno 'TORCO power challenge' was done on a Dynojet 2-wheel dyno. As with our standard practise, we first did an initial dyno, to establish the car's power to use as the baseline for comparison. Now, I had previously dyno'ed my Jazz VTEC around 2 years ago. At that time, the car was still under warranty and in fact I was even still enjoying the 2-years free service package. Mileage was approximately 30,000+km. The Jazz VTEC delivered almost 80ps on the dynojet, this result being documented in our original Jazz VTEC Power article. This time however, with mileage around 80,000km, and the car still completely stock, power at the wheels was registered as slightly over 80ps, almost 81ps. So the Jazz managed to deliver a small but rather nice increase in base power.
After the oil change, from Honda's VTEC-LEV to TORCO SR-1, the car is run on the dyno again. With a
sceptical eye and an silent concern about how I would have to respond if the dyno does not show any
gain, I was given a good lesson in why I need
to keep an open mind, even when my logical mind tells me otherwise. The Jazz VTEC dyno'ed at almost
83ps at the wheels. Compared to the baseline of almost 81ps, therefore the TORCO SR-1 oil managed to
liberate a very useful 2ps or 2.5% more power from the little L15A VTEC engine. Working backwards to
power at the engine using 81ps as the baseline stock power, 83ps works out to almost 113ps at the engine.
In fact, the 2ps gain was only for max power vs max power. In terms of maximum gain, the power
increase after around 5,000rpm was regularly over 2ps, maximum gain being almost 2.5ps at around
5,200rpm. More importantly is that there are consistent power gains all across the dyno'ed rpm range,
from 2000rpm onwards.
So to me, the use of TORCO SR-1 over Honda's stock VTEC-LEV engine oil delivered a consistent 2 to 2.5ps power gain. Of course in absolute terms 2 to 2.5ps power gain is small but we need to take this gain into the proper context. Firstly, this power gain has been delivered from a completely stock Honda Jazz VTEC, with the modest 110ps 1.5l L15A-VTEC engine. Everything on the engine is stock including the spark plugs which being platinum when delivered from the factory has not even been changed. Neither was the air-filter. But how really good is this 2 to 2.5ps power gain in real-life terms ? To answer this question, I wish to refer readers to some of my older articles on the real-world results from modifying our cars. These series of articles were published under what I used to called my 'Beyond Stock' section which can be reached by going to the url asia.vtec.net/tovahc.html. From the many case-studies I made at that time of relatively stock Hondas, some of them even with B16 and B18 DOHC-VTEC engines, it can be seen that very often, even mods like an open element air-filter and simple AF controllers on stock engines will also deliver only 2 to 2.5ps at the wheels. For example, a ASEAN market 1.6l SOHC PGM-Fi Civic, which is spec'ed to deliver 120ps at the engine, also gained 2ps in max power (a bit more at the lower rpm) and that is with aftermarket drop-in air-filter and exhaust and air-fuel ratio tuning using a HKS AFR. Similarly, when a HKS Super-Power-Flow was added into a 1993 JDM DC2 Integra Si-R (180ps B18C DOHC VTEC engine) with Tanabe headers and G-Medallion muffler/exhaust already installed, and the cat deleted, increase of max power was also 2.5ps. Subsequently, the use of a HKS AFR and dyno-tuning of the air-fuel ratio, liberated another 3ps. Some simpler mods like the drop-in replacement air-filters will in fact deliver even less power - 1ps or less at the wheels for the case of another Malaysian market 1.6l SOHC PGM-Fi Civic (spec'ed for 120ps stock). All of these results were tracked on a Dynojet so they can be compared broadly with the results for my Jazz VTEC. So, single digit max power gains of 2 to 3ps is quite normal even for modified engines, including the highly spec'ed DOHC VTEC ones. And seen in this comparative context, my impression was that the power gain from just using a better engine oil, TORCO SR-1 in this case, is quite significant indeed.
Subjectively, the TORCO SR-1 offers other important advantages. The battery in my Jazz VTEC is nearing its end of life. In fact, if left undriven for a few days, starting the car can often be a bit alarming as the battery struggles with the starter. On normal starts, the engine takes a bit of cranking to get started. With the TORCO SR-1, the starting is both visibly and audibly much smoother.
On the road, the engine also runs much quieter. With the standard Honda VTEC LEV oil (semi synthetic), the engine was quite audible, even on lightish throttle. With TORCO SR-1, the engine is now quiet enough that the predominant noise inside the cabin is now tyre noise. To me, this improvement is quite significant. The engine feels much more 'lighter', easier to rev than before. Another improvement is in the fuel consumption. Even when stuck in slow moving traffic, for e.g. a crawl that made a 20minutes journey take 1 hour, the fuel consumption only fell from 7.7 to 8.7 l/100km whereas previously it would have gone into the 9-litre or even 10-litres range.
Conclusion
I came away suitably impressed with the TORCO oil after this experience. TORCO oil is of course not
a magical oil but it do offer very important benefits, especially most (pleasantly)
surprising was the nice increase in power output and now that I have been driving the Jazz for some
time, also a very nice improvement in fuel economy and engine smoothness as well.
Equally important is the fact that Cosmic Elite
have priced the oil quite reasonably and indeed I will be paying more for Honda's fully synthetic
VTEC-LEV oil than I would for TORCO SR-1. So this is something of a bargain then, better engine oil
for a cheaper price. I would not hesitate to recommend anyone to give TORCO engine oil a try.
Chances are you might be as impressed with the oil as I am.
To get contact information for Cosmic Elite, Malaysian importer for TORCO, click on the TORCO banner on the left.
March 2008
© Temple of VTEC Asia
