Changing oil is how many of us started turning wrenches. In high school, changing dad’s oil may have seemed like another one of the chores on the maintenance list that always seemed to be forgotten. However, in 2008, when it comes to your high-tech Muscle car, picking the right oil for maximum horsepower and engine protection is an important task.

Lately, we’ve been doing some videos with Eneos Oil doing Dynojet power testing on their 0W50 (Zero Weight Fifty) synthetic oils mainly on Sport Compact vehicles. When the opportunity came along to do a test on a C5 Corvette, we thought it was interesting, so we jumped on it.

You might remember some of the previous testing we did on a built LS2 at the now-defunct Wheel to Wheel Powertrain. We filmed it and produced a full video on the test where the engine made a power gain where the testing was seen by Kurt Urban at W2W. Click here to watch that video.

In this test, we put up Eneos 0W50 (zero weight 50) against a factory fill of 5W20 Synthetic. We won’t mention the oil used for the baseline for liability reasons, but it was a factory/replacement oil. This is a real world test, period.Take from it what you want.

Every motor oil company makes claims about how their oil is better. That’s fine but around here talk is cheap and the Dyno tells no lies. We are not comparing apples-to-apples because we tested the Eneos 0W50 to a 5W20 oil. However, this is the oil that Eneos says should make power and have solid durability compared to a factory oil.

— The Challenger, ENEOS 0W50, lies in waiting for the big Dyno test.

C5 Corvette Baseline – The Test Victim

We decided to use a 2003 C5 Corvette for our test. This car came to use from our nice neighbors over at Showcase Motors and is owned by Sean Ecclefield. We swapped in a fresh batch of the baseline synthetic oil and a new filter, and threw it up on the dyno. With a nice set of headers and Borla exhaust the C5 Vette’s LS1 put down a best of 308 hp on the two Dynojet baseline runs with 327 ft-lbs of torque.

This was about expected for a C5 Vette. We think it also had an air intake, but we were too busy to really check it out. As long as it was properly running, it would be a good test to see whether there was any power there from the Eneos 0W-50.

— Our Victim, an LS1 powered C5 Corvette with minor bolt-ons.

Eneos 0-50W – The Slippery in the Test

Many people aren’t familiar with ENEOS. They are a relative newcomer to the USA market, but their parent company – Nippon Oil – is a player in Japan. Eneos make a variety of different oils for different applications, in fact, here is their list of performance oils.

ENEOS 0W-20 | ENEOS 0W-50 | ENEOS 5W-20

We chose 0W-50 because Eneos told us that it was best suited for high performance sports cars with large engines. Basically, domestic guys like us. ENEOS 0W50 is a 100% synthetic oil, and because it has such a wide viscosity range, it provides protection from very hot to very cold. Not that we’re going to put our C5 into the Tundra, but it’s nice to know we could.

You can check out the info on the 0W-50W here.

The Swap:

As you may have guessed swapping out the old oil and putting in the ENEOS was just like any other oil change. BJ and Bucko put the C5 up on the lift, drained the oil, and poured in the 0W50. They were impressed that gravity actually worked.

There were no additives to add, just drain and pour. While the oil was being changed we spoke with the owner, Sean, about what he expected from the ENEOS swap of 5W20 to 0W50. He was dubious at best. “I don’t believe it, after all its just oil.”

— Look BJ, gravity works. It’s incredible.

After our previous testing, we knew the oil was worth something. It’s hard to convince someone that this isn’t snake oil, but Wheel to Wheel did engine dyno testing with noted dyno operated Kurt Urban doing the testing, and we had already seen it make power in 3 sport compacts.

It was just time to dyno test this thing. We have never really liked the C5 interiors, and this was no exception. Just feels cramped. But we hopped in and let it fly.

The Bucko Stopped Here

After toping off the LS1 and re-strapping the Vette to the dyno it was time to see if we could really pick up more than a marginal gain in horsepower. We made our first run, and it was hard to tell from the sound of the engine if it was any angrier. (Sometimes, you can just hear or sense that the dyno run is stronger based on the acceleration of the rollers. Sounds odd, but true).

We jumped over to the Dynojet’s WINPEP software to see the results – just over 315 hp and 330 ft lbs of torque. This was an increase of just under 7 rear wheel horsepower, and about 3 ft lbs of torque. You’ll notice in this particular dyno graph, the oils were within 3 horsepower until 4,500 rpm when the ENEOS really took off and picked up another 3-4 hp. It was at high horsepower where it seemed the baseline oil broke down and lost power.

After a quick cool down (10 minutes exactly) we made another run to back up the first. Run two yielded 316 hp with 329-ish ft-lbs. We gained almost 8 wheel horsepower from the Eneos 0W50.

See the dyno results below:

— Our C5 picked up just around 8 hp and 3 ft-lbs of torque.

The Conclusion

We found power in the Eneos 0W50 over the 5W20 factory oil.

Does that mean that ENEOS is the best engine oil in the planet? No, we aren’t qualifed to answer that question. There is a tremendous amount that goes into making a great engine oil, and there are many players including Red Line, Royal Purple, and Mobil 1 which have protected racing engines for decades. And they may have oils that also produce power gains in similar applications.

That being said, with this ENEOS test on this day, the power increase is more than some intakes produce. It’s worth a hard look, and perhaps a dyno test of your own. If you’re local to Temecula, I’m sure we’d be willing to do some dyno work for a few of you and post the results just to prove what we already know – there is horsepower in your oiling, you just need to find the right oil for your combination.

We also want to know more. And we know our viewers do also. As such, even as the shop doing this test, it has partially left us more questions than answers, which is why we are going to continue to explore oiling and potential horsepower gains and loses in future articles.