E85/eflex And Oil Choice

[SS8_Gohan]

interested to see what oil choice people are going for with E85/Eflex now a lot more people are using it.

i've been running AMSoil 10w40 (which i also used on my prev GTT on E85)

but for track days i'm thinking of running something a bit thicker, say a 15w50, but my normal yank choices are a bit limiting in the thicker choices...

specially keen to see what people are running at the track with E85/Eflex and what your experiences are

cheers

[KiwiRS4T]

Keen to do the eflex thing but not as yet.

So far as i can tell the genuine synthetics include (apart from Amsoil) Motul and Agip both of which are pretty widely available. I am getting my oil tested (Motul at present) and want to see if Agip will do the same job as its much cheaper ( as you will know also much cheaper than Amsoil).

Agip do a 10W 60 racing oil which I think might be too heavy.

They also do an "Ultra Syn" in 5W-30, 5W-40 (which I may try next) and a 5W-50

[FineLine]

When I first ran e85 I stayed on 10/40 weight oil. I found it broke down very quickly as opposed to when I was running 98 octane leaded fuel neccesitating an oil change every 1000 to 1500 kays. I changed to 20/50 weight and got a major imporvement, Oil pressure remained more stable for a longer period of time...win!

Royal purple has been my oil of choice considering they are one of the few that claim their product is compatible with the alcohol base fuels. However after doing some more research I spoke to The tech advisor of Penrite oil. A local company making product that on paper is at least the equal of anything from anywhere else.

The oil he reccomended for my application was Syn 20, a 20/60 weight oil. His reason was simple, these fuels are brutal on oil and dilution is a major problem, hence the reccomendation for a thicker heavier oil to better deal with the issue.

My experience with the 2 different grades of royal purple have me believe he is correct. I am due an oil change shortly and will be giving the syn 20 a try.

p.s. I was a motul user until I switched to e85. The motul distributor advised firmly against using their product as it is not compatible.

p.p.s. the Penrite product is considerably cheaper than the imported oils so I am hoping it works from that regard as well.

[joeyjoejoejuniorshabadoo]

motul only recommend not to use 300v with e85

when running ethanol you shouldn't be using 100% synthetic oils as they cannot absorb any moisture, it is best to run a semi-syn

i use motul 6100 15w50, as it is formulated for LPG and has the highest rate of moisture absorption of the range, it's the highest quality semi-syn they make and it's a 15w50

it doesn't break down like has been described above...

motul rep reccomends this one for e85 rb's too fwiw

- also... i used to run turbolight with no problems, but for trackwork on a 300kw 100,000km motor i wanted something a little thicker

[SargeRX8]

What ECU's are you running your Eflex with?

[Piggaz]

Plug in Links.

[joeyjoejoejuniorshabadoo]

pfc

[Piggaz]

I have been using 300V in my E85 fueled GTR for the past 13 months. Trackday's the lot. I just change it more often. The rumours with the 300V and E85 range from "your oil will turn into jelly like its just come out of the fridge" to "It just breaks down quicker". The current oil in there has done a few kms so I will get this lot and get it tested.

A common oil that gets recommended is the Penrite "sin".

[NYTSKY]

Motul Synergy 6100 15w50.

Royal Purple XPR is the best but my wallet says no.

[scotty nm35]

when running ethanol you shouldn't be using 100% synthetic oils as they cannot absorb any moisture, it is best to run a semi-syn

I have been running Sougi 6000 for nearly 2 years now on eflex, no issues with breaking down or going milky. I still have 6 bottles left, I have no idea what i will change to when they run out.

Winter is the time to watch as cold starts are an issue with plenty of fuel washing down past the rings. I used 300v with a low temp thermostat and it turned into a milky mess, I dont seem to have any problems now I replaced the stock thermostat. VQ engine/oil temps sit at around 87 degrees which is hot enough to evaporate any ethanol into the catch can. I doubt you will have issues like this on the track as the oil temps will be high.

[boostn0199]

Ive used Motul power 15w50 changing after every trackday had no problems at all for over a year, oil pressure perfect I recomend it.

[SimonR32]

Castrol Edge 10w60

Been perfect every time I have dropped it after track days etc

[FineLine]

motul only recommend not to use 300v with e85

when running ethanol you shouldn't be using 100% synthetic oils as they cannot absorb any moisture, it is best to run a semi-syn

i use motul 6100 15w50, as it is formulated for LPG and has the highest rate of moisture absorption of the range, it's the highest quality semi-syn they make and it's a 15w50

it doesn't break down like has been described above...

motul rep reccomends this one for e85 rb's too fwiw

.

- also... i used to run turbolight with no problems, but for trackwork on a 300kw 100,000km motor i wanted something a little thicker

Your motul rep and mine sing a different tune Hamish. My rep actually warned me off using any of their product with ethanol.

From my limited experience I think any of them will be ok providing you use the right grade.

[JustinP]

Would anyone recommend following the above advise (thicker and semi synthetic) when running water methanol injection?

[joeyjoejoejuniorshabadoo]

thats weird noel.. i'll see if i can get him to post in here

[T04GTR]

any ester based oils are no good for e85

its not the moisture that is the issue, a byproduct of burning ethanol breaks down the oil molecular structure. "hydrocracked" synthetics are "more" suitable,

something about the ethanol structure wich is close to the chemiclas used to make/blend the oil, so it starts being "unmade" if that makes sense. straight from our motul rep, liquimoly rep and penrite rep.

would be worth asking holden what they use for there flex fuel commo..

as far as oils go, penrite syn 15 is my oil of choice. 15w50

[Piggaz]

Dave, is John's car on E 85? Has it been stripped down after running the Penrite?

[SS8_Gohan]

with respect to the 'what oil does Holden use' comment i was digging through some BITOG (bob is the oil guy) threads bout a year ago i think... as the yanks have had high E% for a while, the oil recommendations for their flex-fuel cars seemed to change over the years and in the end (from the car manuals) they didn't specify any special oil, just the drain intervals.

I know with motorsport applications you need to be more precise, but from the US it seems for their factory flex fuel cars, the manufacturers didn't recommend any brand/type specifically.

Just wonder how much it's just caution on behalf of ppl like Motul etc, you know, just to be on the safe side...

anyways, i'll check up on some of these other oils mentioned. But like others in this thread, i'll stick with the US oils at this stage as like Royal Purple, AMSoil advise their oils are ok with high % ethanol fuels.

As for UOA, who are we using?

[The Dan]

Yeah as said above it's not ALL Motul oils, only the good ones

Ester based = no good for E85

And to reaffirm Noels statement on the RP vs Penrite - RP do a thicker grade of oil we just don't care to bring it in. RP has just been getting dearer and dearer every year. Penrite Sin 10 and 20 have tested equally to the Racing RP and 10W40 RP in all independant tests we have seen. I spoke to the distributor in length about it and they assure me its suitable for E85 also as they don't use the Ester base stocks. Their film strength is equal to the RP racing oil and about 50-100 times more than any other Full syn oil on the market including Mobil, Redline, Castrol, Shell.....any of them

[R32 TT]

So how about Redline 10-40 then? Problems with this and e85?