With all of the discussion about E85 ethanol lately it has raised a lot of questions. One I saw in the forum a few days ago was about motor oil and that the manual stated that if you use E85 you need to use a motor oil that is E85 compatible. I told that person that I would make a phoone call today to a factory engineer and get the answer for him.

Well, I made the phone call today and it turns out, the use of E85 will break down conventional motor oil (dino oil) a lot quicker than synthetic oils and there ARE approved oils out there for E85. Here is the list of known oils that he gave me that are E85 compatible.

Kendall GT-1 Full Synthetic
Valvoline Synpower
Mobil 1 Full Synthetic
Castrol Syntec - Full Synthetic

I am certain that there are more that are full synthetics that are E85 compatible and he was certain as well. But these are the ones that he knows of and told to me today. They are known to work with E85 without problems.

When using the synthetic oil of your choice the main thing I was told to look for is the fact that it meets the Energy Conservation ILSAC GF-4's stringent requirements. If it meets those requirements, it should be perfectly compatible with E85. If the oil you prefer to run is not listed above, call the company of the oil that you like and ask them if it meets these requirements.

good to know ill pass on that info.

It is something that I did not know and it was informing to me. I would have never thought that the two would be tied together.

amsoil certainly meets the e-85 standards...

I figured Amsoil met the ILSAC standards, but I did not take any time to look any manufacturers up.

Doesn't that go against the note in the owners manual that... "Nissan recommends mineral based oils" ?

note: page 9-6 of my 2006 owners manual

I don't like recommendations when there is no explanation as to
the reason behind the recommendation.

Doesn't that go against the note in the owners manual that... "Nissan recommends mineral based oils" ?

note: page 9-6 of my 2006 owners manual


Good luck finding an FFV compatable mineral motor oil. If you go to the E85 section in the owners manual, you will see their notation about the special FFV oil, but they don't mention who makes it...lol.

Great info Stephen. Thanks for posting it.

I usually use Mobil 1 Full-Syn, so I'm good to go! :D Right now, I'm using whatever the dealership uses, because I have like 4 more free oil changes from them until I start doing them myself.

-AGTitan06

That is a good point Suddenurge. That is why he mentioned it meeting ILSAC GF-4 standards for Energy Conservation. If it meets those standards, it will mesh ok with E85. If those standards are not listed, then he suggested calling the company to confirm with them.

Thanks for the R&D man. I was in on that E85 thread but didn't see this followup. As I mentioned there I found some info from the Big 3 where they recommend synthetic only for running E85. Chrysler was only allowing owners to use their "special" oil to maintain warranty if they ran E85 but apparently they've changed their tune now.

Still your point is good, when will E85 be at least 60 cent less than ULD?

Indy has really ramped up the number of E85 stations after I checked but the price is still too high.

I finally got a phone call from Nissan today, after a week, about what mineral motor oils to use for the FFV Titan. They still couldn't tell me, it was just a follow up call to see if I got an answer from them...lol.

LOL That is funny. I will call him back tomorrow and tell him to take a look at this thread.