So I built my first engine about 5 years ago and it was a sleeved, turbo 2.0 Chevy Cobalt motor. My goal was 500hp or boom. Well I made about 530 crank hp or 472 hp to the wheels of a small domestic economy car. The cobalt SS was fun but i quickly learned that boost lag sucks and numbers are not everything. It was a very fun build and I had to build the motor twice since i blew up the first one without good knowledge of my boost controller. The engine is still racing in Florida 5 years later.

Fast forward to 2016-17 and I start work on my first V8 build. I bought a short block (machine work) from a company in California and when I got it I checked the clearances on the bearings, the build quality, and many other areas. What I was able to build from there pretty much came out of Summit Racing Catalogs. There is nothing more exhilarating than firing up your own engine for the first time and it not coming apart. On top of that going to the dyno to find that the parts you personally chose with nothing more than forum reading yielded 475 hp.

So for the guys that have built more than 3 engine, lol, what oil are you using with the following build clearances. I am running about 60 psi at 190 and idle. The journal clearances are

Crank
.0019 .0022 .0019 .0018 .0019

Rods
.0019 .0020 .0018 .0018 .0018 .0019 .0022 .0018

I am running 30 weight break in oil at the moment but may change to 5w30 according to the following info I found. How is this affected by the rediculous heat here in texas?

Some recommended rod bearing oil clearances for various oil viscosities:

.0015 to .0018 for 0W20 or 5W-20

.002 to .0024 for 5W-30 or 10W30

.0025 to .0029 for 10W-40 or 15W40

.0030 to .004 for 15W-50 or 20W-50


For main bearings:

.0015 to .002 for 0W20 or 5W20

.002 to .0025 for 5W-30 or 10W30

.0026 to .003 for 10W-40 or 15W40

.0031 to .0041 for 15W-50 or 20W-50