E36 M3 Evo engine oil? - advice needed

You had to ask didn't you! Search the forums for 'oil'
and you'll get a half dozen diff. grades recommended.
My dealer(Williams Man.) put in GTX Magnatec for years
on my old Blue M3 Evo.I questioned them,and spoke face to
face with the Service Manager.He told me when the M3E eng. was designed,(S50B32 BTW)it was to run on Semi Synthoil and showed me on the service sheet they worked off.
After the many VANOS failures BMW began rec. Castrol TWS10W-60 oil but It's not clear if that was for S54
engines only(Z3M,E46M3).

I have a 96 EVO which has done 71k, all the services have been done by BMW and I assume they have used Castrol GTX Magnatec 10W 40. I have no engine issues, the car runs sweetly and pulls like a train to the limiter.

My dealer BMW Chelsea and Munich Legends reccommend it aswell - I'm happy.

No problems, looks like you pretty much nailed it with your reply.

5w-40 fully synthetic is a good all year round solution. A BMW Approved one would be preferable though.

Cheers

Simon

 

 

smash312 wrote: Went to my local stealer for an iol filter and some oil for my 97 evo. He gave me the castrol 10W-60 grade. This is a thick oil when cold and i can even hear the tappets on initial start-up which goes after the oil has warmed up. Not entirely convinced that this is the correct oil.

I am not suprised you have noticed a difference, the 10w-60 is very much the wrong oil for your car.

The dealer should have used 5w-40 or 0w-30 depending on what service interval the car is on.

I would make a telephone call to the dealer if I was you.

Cheers

Simon.

Simon,

 

On the E36coupe forum, the 10W 60 seems to be the 'norm & reccomended' for the M3. A few ppl seem to be pushing this oil on there.

10w60 was originally recommended for e39 M5s of a certain age before being extended to all M5s then all e46 M3s. BMW recently changed the recommendation for all M cars and it now covers e36 M3s also (from a dealer).

I have a 97 M3 Evo and at the last service, the dealer (Dick Lovett) changed it to the 10w60 TWS dealer only oil.

I am happy with the oil and have had no adverse effects thus far.

Hope this helps!

edit: I should add that it wasn't Dick Lovett that gave me the full brief on the oil above. Like you I did some calling and the general consensus was that 10w60 was what should be used...

Edited by breeze

Thanks for that oilman.

Last owner did the oil change at the dealer so he may have specified that 0w60 was put in...

Who knows?!?

Luckily the engine is leak free. If the car started burning even a little 0w60, at the rate that the dealer charges it would cost more than the petrol...

I'm sorry but I have to disagree with you.

"Thin oils break down at high temps"

This is just not a true statement as it's the basestock that matters. Thin oils are normally synthetic (pao/ester) basestocks and they are in fact less prone to thermal breakdown than petroleum based thick oils.

The point here is that you don't need to use proper synthetic basestocks in thick oils (10w, 15w, 20w etc) as these oils can meet the pour points and flash points required by API or ACEA by using a petroluem basestock with Viscosity Improvers. The problem with viscosity improvers is that they are prone to "shearing" (thermal breakdown) with use. The wider the viscosity range, the more VI Improver required and the less thermally stable the oil becomes!

Thin oils on the otherhand 0w or 5w need synthetic basestocks to meet the API pour points of -35 and -30 degC and to meet the required flashpoints (over 200 degC). These wide ranges cannot be met by using petroleum based oils.

This explains more clearly:

VISCOSITY INDEX IMPROVERS

 

As a lubricant basestock is subjected to increasing temperatures it tends to lose its viscosity. In other words, it thins out. This leads to decreased engine protection and a higher likelihood of metal to metal contact. Therefore, if this viscosity loss can be minimized, the probability of unnecessary engine wear will be reduced.

 

This is where viscosity index (VI) improvers come in.

 

VI improvers are polymers that expand and contract with changes in temperature. At low temperatures they are very compact and affect the viscosity of a lubricant very little. But, at high temperatures these polymers "expand" into much larger long-chain polymers which significantly increase the viscosity of their host lubricant.

 

So, as the basestock loses viscosity with increases in temperature, VI improvers “fight back” against the viscosity drop by increasing their size. The higher the molecular weight of the polymers used, the better the power of "thickening" within the lubricant. Unfortunately, an increase in molecular weight also leads to an inherent instability of the polymers themselves. They become much more prone to shearing within an engine.

 

As these polymers are sheared back to lower molecular weight molecules, their effectiveness as a VI improver decreases. Unfortunately, because petroleum basestocks are so prone to viscosity loss at high temperatures, high molecular weight polymers must be used. Since these polymers are more prone to shearing than lower molecular weight polymers, petroleum oils tend to shear back very quickly. In other words, they lose

their ability to maintain their viscosity at high temperatures.

 

Synthetic basestocks, on the other hand, are much less prone to viscosity loss at high temperatures. Therefore, lower molecular weight polymers may be used as VI improvers.

 

These polymers are less prone to shearing, so they are effective for a much longer period of time than the VI improvers used in petroleum oils. In other words, synthetic oils do not quickly lose their ability to maintain viscosity at high temperatures as petroleum oils do.

 

In fact, some synthetic basestocks are so stable at high temperatures they need NO VI improvers at all. Obviously, these basestocks will maintain their high temperature viscosities for a very long time since there are no VI improvers to break down.

 

Cheers

Simon

I'm really the wrong person to talk about additives to.

I'm personally dead against them and for the life of me can't understand why the major oil companies don't sell them as it would be in their interest to do so.

I'm informed that the oil companies are wary of the performance of these products and their claims and simply do not want to end up in court.

Read into it how you will but, personally I wouldn't touch them and reading as I do prolifically about these things, I wouldn't recommend or sell them apart from octane improvers which in some cars are a benefit when low octane fuel is the only available.

Cheers

Simon

535i sport wrote: Oilman: Im using Silkolene pro-s 5w40 in my '95 E36 M3 3.0 which you supplied to me. Is this the best oil for my car with 89k miles on it,if not is there a better oil that i can use ? Also,how often should i change the oil ? Cheers,Simon

Simon,

The Silkolene Pro S 5w-40 is as good as it gets, and ideal for your car.

Depending on the use of the car you are looking at 9,000 miles oil changes.

Cheers

Simon.