Originally Posted By: billt460
Originally Posted By: Spang
So, I was thinking if there is an oil out there that will keep lubricate the engine with some E85 in it? Not much E85 of cause, but a better oil than "gasoline oil".
Not to go off topic. But I have the flight operation manual for the P-47 Thunderbolt WW II fighter. On one of the pages it mentioned a "Fuel Dilution Switch", for cold weather operation in Europe during Winter months. By holding this switch on for a prescribed number of seconds, it would deliberately dilute the engine oil with gasoline, to thin it in order to aid cold weather starting. Supposedly this fuel would evaporate off when the Pratt & Whitney R-2800 radial engine got up to operating temperature. It didn't damage the engine in any way. So I wonder why the same wouldn't hold true for an automotive engine with fuel diluted in the oil?
Pretty much all the allied aircraft had that option. I've seen it in manuals for the P-38 (Allison V1710) also. But you gotta remember, those engines used a pretty different oil chemistry than a modern car. Virtually ZERO dispersants, and no ZDDP. Almost a straight mineral oil. The engine internals were designed to survive all that- roller cam followers, and different bearing alloys (a lot more silver) than even modern Babbit bearings, let alone the more common aluminum bearings found now. You can't really compare one to the other.