Hey everyone, I have a 2005 Lotus Elise Supercharged. I have primarily ran Pentosin Pento High Performance II 5W-40 Synthetic Motor Oil in my car under the recommendation of my former boss who is a renowned Lotus Specialist.
I Pair the Pentosin oil with a Mobil 1 Extended Performance Oil filter.
It's been at least 8 years of using Pentosin... I'm wondering if there's an equally good or better oil for cheaper after all this time.
Through 10 hours of searching online yesterday and today, most of the threads that pertained to my curiosity was over 10 years old...
I live in Central California so the coldest nights where I am is around 38 Degrees Fahrenheit.
Few things to consider:
1. Lotus recommends Havoline 5w-40. I don't know why.
2. The Lotus Elise\Exige uses a high revving 2ZZ-GE engine made by Yamaha for Toyota- which Lotus used for their Elise\Exige platform. (Engine is also found on Toyota Celica GT-S, Corolla XRS, Matrix XRS, Pontiac Vibe.) The engines commonly see RPM's of up to 8,XXX.
It uses VVTL-I (Variable Valve Timing Lift with Intelligence ) (Video here if you want to learn about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vV_wcAybpc)
3. Early 05 Elise and Elise with Sport package and Exiges had twin oil coolers in the front of the car. (Only 2ZZ-GE engine equipped car to have them)
4. Up to about MY 2008 Intake cam wiping was\ Is common on the Elise\Exige.
The root cause is still unknown, because the manufacturer does not recognize the problem.
Some theories are:
Sticking valves causing rocker arm breakage from too low oil temperature
(There is an ECU flash available from Lotus that prevents high lift cam engagement until the engine is at 80C or about 176F Coolant temp)
Oil sprayer over number 3 cylinder spraying sub-optimally
(While this problem has been shown to exist, the sprayers are so close to the cams that it seems unlikely to be a root cause)
Lotus set the maximum engine speed too high
Improper hardening of the camshafts from Toyota
Improperly offset lifters or overly-centered lifters
Lotus owners spend more time driving the cars on the high cam lobe
The factory lash spec on the intake valves is too tight for cars that are revved high consistently
They need to be set to 0.010" between the valve and rocker, which is the maximum end of the stock spec. The valves grow too much under high temp and speed to set it any looser.
5. A lot of Lotus owners run Mobil 1 Turbo Diesel oil as it contains alot more ZDDP which is supposed to protect the intake cams and valve train at a greater rate than normal.
After all this information what oil would you suggest?
As far as the Winter number.. should I stay at 5W-40 or drop down to 0W-40?
I was leaning towards the following options:
Pentosin Pento High Performance II
Motul 8100 X-cess 5w-40 (Recommended by Lotus cup racing)
Liqui Moly 2332 Leichtlauf High Tech 5W-40
Mobil 1 0W-40 European Car Formula
Castrol EDGE 5W-40 US
Castrol EDGE 0W-40 A3/B4
Thank you for reading my post and the time you will take replying to my post.
I Pair the Pentosin oil with a Mobil 1 Extended Performance Oil filter.
It's been at least 8 years of using Pentosin... I'm wondering if there's an equally good or better oil for cheaper after all this time.
Through 10 hours of searching online yesterday and today, most of the threads that pertained to my curiosity was over 10 years old...
I live in Central California so the coldest nights where I am is around 38 Degrees Fahrenheit.
Few things to consider:
1. Lotus recommends Havoline 5w-40. I don't know why.
2. The Lotus Elise\Exige uses a high revving 2ZZ-GE engine made by Yamaha for Toyota- which Lotus used for their Elise\Exige platform. (Engine is also found on Toyota Celica GT-S, Corolla XRS, Matrix XRS, Pontiac Vibe.) The engines commonly see RPM's of up to 8,XXX.
It uses VVTL-I (Variable Valve Timing Lift with Intelligence ) (Video here if you want to learn about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vV_wcAybpc)
3. Early 05 Elise and Elise with Sport package and Exiges had twin oil coolers in the front of the car. (Only 2ZZ-GE engine equipped car to have them)
4. Up to about MY 2008 Intake cam wiping was\ Is common on the Elise\Exige.
The root cause is still unknown, because the manufacturer does not recognize the problem.
Some theories are:
Sticking valves causing rocker arm breakage from too low oil temperature
(There is an ECU flash available from Lotus that prevents high lift cam engagement until the engine is at 80C or about 176F Coolant temp)
Oil sprayer over number 3 cylinder spraying sub-optimally
(While this problem has been shown to exist, the sprayers are so close to the cams that it seems unlikely to be a root cause)
Lotus set the maximum engine speed too high
Improper hardening of the camshafts from Toyota
Improperly offset lifters or overly-centered lifters
Lotus owners spend more time driving the cars on the high cam lobe
The factory lash spec on the intake valves is too tight for cars that are revved high consistently
They need to be set to 0.010" between the valve and rocker, which is the maximum end of the stock spec. The valves grow too much under high temp and speed to set it any looser.
5. A lot of Lotus owners run Mobil 1 Turbo Diesel oil as it contains alot more ZDDP which is supposed to protect the intake cams and valve train at a greater rate than normal.
After all this information what oil would you suggest?
As far as the Winter number.. should I stay at 5W-40 or drop down to 0W-40?
I was leaning towards the following options:
Pentosin Pento High Performance II
Motul 8100 X-cess 5w-40 (Recommended by Lotus cup racing)
Liqui Moly 2332 Leichtlauf High Tech 5W-40
Mobil 1 0W-40 European Car Formula
Castrol EDGE 5W-40 US
Castrol EDGE 0W-40 A3/B4
Thank you for reading my post and the time you will take replying to my post.
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