I've ran e-85 for about a yr now and have never drained oil out of my car that looks like what your describing. Even after setting 3 mo. Just changed it before the last race after setting that long and it looked pretty much like the day I put it in (maybe a little darker)but looked like oil and not jelly! By the way if you haven't hit the newbie thread ya might want to go there and introduce yourself before all hell breaks loose. I run valvoline race 20-50.

 

The pic would be helpful. Moisture is my first guess, but I'd love to see it. What color is the goo?

 

Is it black and more like tar? I'm really just curious now since jelly has me wondering if it's the normal broken-down oil?

 

Is it black and more like tar? I'm really just curious now since jelly has me wondering if it's the normal broken-down oil?

It looked just like green jelly... crazy huh...
I've never seen oil do this before.
And yes I do need to hit up the newbie thread before it's too late.
What's the best way to post a pic?
Thanks.

 

Moisture....how hot do you get the motor while running E85?

 

tare down?

 

I'm guessing you had a shit ton of water in your oil? Or alot of fuel?


I've allways ran Brad Penn 10W30 with alky and never had anything like that. Oil might smell like my fragrance additive or like alky but never any goo.

Come to think of it I had a cylinder filling up with water ( pin hole in cylinder wall ) and never had any goo build up. The Brad Penn oil wouldn't mix with it. Pull the drain plug and nothing but water until it was all gone, then oil would drain.



Maybe your E-85 mixes up with the Brad Penn?

 

Ive seen what your describing but not anything in an engine.

Unkept, and too hot of bearings on oil bath style bearings would do this on larger trailers.

Reminded me a jello shot sitting in my hand that when i squeezed it would go threw the cracks of my hands

 

I've seen it happen on a diesel heavy truck engine when the oil is not changed often enough but it can happen to any high compression engine . The fuel blow-by from the rings causes fuel to mix with the oil and "coke up" and it creates an oil that looks almost like asphalt.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_would_cause_engine_oil_to_turn_thick_like_a_jello_mold#ixzz1n9el0XEx
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Would run around 180deg water temp..

 

if in fact it is from fuel or water in the oil i would strongly recommend you check ALL bearings in that motor. im surprised it didnt start knocking before it gelled up

 

Trust me after I seen the jelly gooo I pulled it completely apart. The bearings didn't look very good but not as bad as I was expecting after seeing the oil. I feel pretty lucky to tell you the truth.
Some new bearings and a little cleaning it will be good as new.
The only reason I was opening up the engine was just to look for anything funny due to the e-85.

 

OMG....I thought I was the only one seeing green JELLY in the oil pan with the BP oil! I had an oil pump quit working on me while the engine was running last year....cleaned out the pan after replacing the pump thinking it was bad and there was a 1/4" thick layer of green jelly in the bottom. Tore pump apart and didn't find anything wrong with it. I think the layer of goo kept the pump from pumping. Never seen that before this last year and been running BP oil for 2-3 yrs now. I run Q16 fuel. Its either the fuel / oil mix or most likely condensation in the oil causing it. Been thinking about calling Brad Penn about it....or sending a sample off to have analyzed.

 

Here is the photo.
Hope this works.

 

Do you run any additives in your oil? I run Lucas oil treatment and it will do that same thing on the bottom of the pan.
Thanks Rick

 

WOW...never seen that with the Lucas in mine. I run the synthetic version though.....I don't have two hours to fill a quart of additive


I do change my oil and filter after every race also.

 

ive scene a gas engine oil pan full of goo once ,from water . pan was heavy as hell too.

 

It sounds like to me, that the fuel had some water in it....and letting it sit over the winter just made it that much worse.

 

I have seen it a few times in diesel engine. It is due to lots of moisture in the oil. You stated your engine temp was 180, well what was your oil temp. Coolant temp and oil temp are two different things. Oil temp is very crucial on any engine, especially alky engines, and I can imagine e85 is no different

 

Yup....the oil has to get hot enough to "boil" the water out of it. Pop a set of valve covers off of an engine that's been started and shut off after about 5 minutes several times. Lots of milky, nasty looking oil....and that's on gasoline. Alcohol/Ethanol just makes it worse.

 

http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/77209715@N07/6775668184/
Here is a link to the photo...hope it works.

 

shit looks like hollywood prop for a cheesy horror flick

 

wow

 

interesting...i dont know whether to never mess with brad penn oil now or e85..or both. is your block grauted or any reason your engine should see high oil temps?

 

You weren't BS'ing about green jelly.

 

I've seen many diesels running poor quality bio-diesel get the green jelly but not too many gas engines. I would say you are getting a lot of blow-by(alcohol and water in oil) AND not getting your oil up to temp properly to burn it off.

 

Do you have block heaters?

 

It could be the moly lube from when you or your builder put the motor together mixing with the oil . I know when I take my pan off theres always a small amount of block thick sot from the moly lube stuck to the bottom of the pan . Maybe your sucking that shit up ?

 

I can't see the pics now (office firewall)

Last time I went to empty my catch can I got a light brown/tan colored sludge in the bottom of the can that stopped up the drain flow. It was not as think as jelly - more like a light peanut butter both in consistency and color.

As to my oil - I changed it twice on short intervals after the motor was built (Sept 2010) and the oil looked fine. I've not changed it since March/April of 2011 (Amsoil Synt - only 2000 miles on it)

From all the readings I've done about E85 and oil - it's my conclusion that you must let the motor get to good operating temps for 20-30 mins to get the moisture that the fuel is absorbing (natural process of the alcohol) to evap out of the oil.