Quote:
Originally Posted by dustylax
my point of this is that lotus did not engineer the engine, so for anyone to say that lotus knows best because lotus engineers said something about it, i just dont believe that to be true.
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But the Lotus engineers did determine what is optimum for the installation of the engine in the position and conditions that it's used in the Elise (don't forget the use of oil coolers and the increased total volume of oil in the system.
You seem to be dismissing the Lotus engineer's knowledge of engines since they didn't make this particular engine (although it's possible that they did have something to do with it, considering their extensive engineering consulting services with Toyota). The Lotus engineers do know about engines, and they are the one specifying the weight of oil to use in the engine as used in the Elise in the conditions expected to be encountered with the car. I would expect that to be different that what Toyota would specify for the family car used under different conditions.
Lotus has specified the use of 5W40 synthetic oil. They have stated that 0W40 is not the proper oil to use, while admitting that the oil did not need to be drained and refilled in an engine that received 0w40 Mobil oil by mistake - but they continued to indicate that it should not be used regularly.