What oil?

[r4dr]

I just put whatever 10W-60 strikes my fancy into my M3 and drive it ~2,000 miles a year in warm months. Life is too short lol.

[tnord]

Please don’t clean it off without removing the whole head and putting it in a dunk tank.

All that dirt and varnish will just end up back in the oil pan and may end up causing more problems.

Just use shorter oil change interval and it may eventually wash away.

I'm not. I did it on the VANOS because it was off the car and everything was accessible. I'm hoping that my annual 1500-3k mile OCIs with non-castrol may help over time.

"Original" TWS was formulated in what, the 90s? We've come a long way in petroleum technologies in the past 20+ years, not sure I'd want to run original TWS if there are more modern alternatives out there.

fair point. do we trust them to actually make it better for our application, or just improve product margins?

[r4dr]

"Original" TWS was formulated in what, the 90s? We've come a long way in petroleum technologies in the past 20+ years, not sure I'd want to run original TWS if there are more modern alternatives out there.

[eacmen]

Well, I could clean it off with brake cleaner. I could also scrape it off in places with a pick. I may have some old photos somewhere, I'll see if I can find them.

I did follow your link but the first one was dead, and I didn't see anything else that lead to engine testing? Agree, differences between quality oils will be minor. The Castrol TWS is just repackaged whatever, and not the original TWS right?

Please don’t clean it off without removing the whole head and putting it in a dunk tank.

All that dirt and varnish will just end up back in the oil pan and may end up causing more problems.

Just use shorter oil change interval and it may eventually wash away.

[tnord]

Are you sure it's varnish, i.e. a laquer-like layer baked onto the metal surface? If it's just discoloration on the metal surface, it's probably just staining. Much less bad than varnish.



There might be. But if there is...

1. We'd never know (see the post I linked), and
2. Any differences that exist are going to be extremely minor.

That's why people are saying just pick your fave. Might as well.

If it were my engine, I'd go with BMW 10W-60 from FCP Euro, because... FCP Euro. Second choice would be Castrol TWS.

Well, I could clean it off with brake cleaner. I could also scrape it off in places with a pick. I may have some old photos somewhere, I'll see if I can find them.

I did follow your link but the first one was dead, and I didn't see anything else that lead to engine testing? Agree, differences between quality oils will be minor. The Castrol TWS is just repackaged whatever, and not the original TWS right?

[IamFODI]

From what I remember, it's something that's unique to the Castrol in that it turns the head the brownish color you mention. And yes, I believe it's basically varnish. I cleaned it all off of the vanos when I rebuilt that unit, but it's impossible to do anything with the head unless you take it off and hot tank it. If I remember right, we basically concluded back in the day that the longer the OCI, the darker the varnish would be. Since the timing of this car correlated with the change to 15k rec'd intervals there's often some pretty dark, thick varnish inside the head.

Are you sure it's varnish, i.e. a laquer-like layer baked onto the metal surface? If it's just discoloration on the metal surface, it's probably just staining. Much less bad than varnish.

Don't care about cost savings. Just looking to lengthen the amount of time before I'll need to yank the motor for a full rebuild. I agree I don't think a change to any quality product will yield significant benefits, but that doesn't mean there isn't something better out there. Especially with the constant changes in Castrol.

There might be. But if there is...

1. We'd never know (see the post I linked), and
2. Any differences that exist are going to be extremely minor.

That's why people are saying just pick your fave. Might as well.

If it were my engine, I'd go with BMW 10W-60 from FCP Euro, because... FCP Euro. Second choice would be Castrol TWS.

[eacmen]

Use whatever oil meets the spec and priced so that your budget allows for short oil change interval.

[tnord]

What do you mean by darker color? I recently did some work and saw that the underside of my valve cover and the top of head in general had a brown look to it (varnished oil?).

From what I remember, it's something that's unique to the Castrol in that it turns the head the brownish color you mention. And yes, I believe it's basically varnish. I cleaned it all off of the vanos when I rebuilt that unit, but it's impossible to do anything with the head unless you take it off and hot tank it. If I remember right, we basically concluded back in the day that the longer the OCI, the darker the varnish would be. Since the timing of this car correlated with the change to 15k rec'd intervals there's often some pretty dark, thick varnish inside the head.

I don't really think it will, but I was kinda hoping that my short cycle OCIs and use of a different oil might start to clean that out.

Same as for DropTopKingM3. Whatever you like, as long as it meets spec and/or has a decent rep in these cars. You don't drive enough to see significant performance benefits or cost savings no matter what you do.

Don't care about cost savings. Just looking to lengthen the amount of time before I'll need to yank the motor for a full rebuild. I agree I don't think a change to any quality product will yield significant benefits, but that doesn't mean there isn't something better out there. Especially with the constant changes in Castrol.

[IamFODI]

not to stir this up again, but I'm getting rod bearings done before long and was looking around for what to put in. I've been on castrol TWS/Edge/Whatever since I got the car in 2010, using 7500 intervals when I was DD'ing it for a 3 years. Now I'm on annual OCI probably around 1500miles.

Same as for DropTopKingM3. Whatever you like, as long as it meets spec and/or has a decent rep in these cars. You don't drive enough to see significant performance benefits or cost savings no matter what you do.

found this interesting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvYW5DWJBWE

Neat looking, but not meaningful for engine oil. See this (talking about a different person doing the same kind of test) if you're interested why.

[Cubieman]

not to stir this up again, but I'm getting rod bearings done before long and was looking around for what to put in. I've been on castrol TWS/Edge/Whatever since I got the car in 2010, using 7500 intervals when I was DD'ing it for a 3 years. Now I'm on annual OCI probably around 1500miles.

found this interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvYW5DWJBWE

sidebar; when I did my valve adjustment the head had the darker color to it I'm guessing from the OP 15k OCI. If I keep changing it on this short interval, will the detergents eventually clean it up?

What do you mean by darker color? I recently did some work and saw that the underside of my valve cover and the top of head in general had a brown look to it (varnished oil?). I am the 4th owner and while the vehicle overall seems well kept I don't know how often/what oil was used previous to me buying the car in June of 2018.
I have seen photos of others with the valve cover removed and the metal components looked much more silver or metallic colored rather than brown like mine. Maybe they just had theirs cleaned up, who knows.

You can see the valve cover had varnished oil all over it, in the photo I wiped I down a bit, but none the less it shows the dark "burnt on" oil.

[tnord]

not to stir this up again, but I'm getting rod bearings done before long and was looking around for what to put in. I've been on castrol TWS/Edge/Whatever since I got the car in 2010, using 7500 intervals when I was DD'ing it for a 3 years. Now I'm on annual OCI probably around 1500miles.

found this interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvYW5DWJBWE

sidebar; when I did my valve adjustment the head had the darker color to it I'm guessing from the OP 15k OCI. If I keep changing it on this short interval, will the detergents eventually clean it up?

[DropTopKingM3]

Whatever bottle has the design that you like the best. To be fair, the 15W-50 that BW recommends is Redline which is probably about the same as the 10W-60 oils once they shear down.

But seriously, whichever one you like the idea of the most. What year is your M3? Is it pre- or post-recall?

Mine is a 2001 with the recall performed but the rod bearings are being done now as part of maintenance.

[r4dr]

70k mile M3 here. I’m about to have my rod bearings replaced for piece of mind. My car doesn’t get driven more than 1k miles per year and I change it once a year. Never tracked and proper warm up procedure every time. Few bolts ons - euro headers, cats, eventuri intake and exhaust, HTE tune.

Ive been using liqui moly 10w60 but was thinking 15w50 as per Bimmerworlds recommendation. I even see some s54 owners using 5w50 and Troyjeup swears by it for all his s65 builds.

what would you guys recommend for my car?

Whatever bottle has the design that you like the best. To be fair, the 15W-50 that BW recommends is Redline which is probably about the same as the 10W-60 oils once they shear down.

But seriously, whichever one you like the idea of the most. What year is your M3? Is it pre- or post-recall?

[DropTopKingM3]

70k mile M3 here. I’m about to have my rod bearings replaced for piece of mind. My car doesn’t get driven more than 1k miles per year and I change it once a year. Never tracked and proper warm up procedure every time. Few bolts ons - euro headers, cats, eventuri intake and exhaust, HTE tune.

Ive been using liqui moly 10w60 but was thinking 15w50 as per Bimmerworlds recommendation. I even see some s54 owners using 5w50 and Troyjeup swears by it for all his s65 builds.

what would you guys recommend for my car?

[Arith2]

Now these are the pedantic arguments I came into the oil thread for!!

Too bad these cars aren't LL01 specced, we could start wildly speculating on what exactly changed in the 2018 update and why M1 0W-40 suddenly doesn't have it, but does it even matter? Is LL01 even a current spec? Will my car blow up with LL01FE?

It's better to put sand in your engine. Certifications mean everything. Especially from BMW. It has nothing to do with them switching to Pennzoil in 2018.