323i Engine oil help

Post Sun Sep 15, 2019 3:18 pm

Afternoon all,
Help please my 323i is ready for an oil change I have the genuine filter just need help with grade of oil and which is everybody’s choice of maker please,
My 323 has covered 92k Miles and is a really quiet motor,
Thanks as always in advance for everybody’s help,
Cheers Tim.

Post Sun Sep 15, 2019 3:20 pm

I will bet any oil from your local supermarket will be better than the spec when your engine was made so I would not worry too much about spec, Mr Moooooooore will say as much.

Mart.

Post Sun Sep 15, 2019 4:42 pm

Cheers Mart,
Would you put synthetic in it or a straight normal oil,
Cheers Tim.

Post Sun Sep 15, 2019 8:13 pm

martauto wrote: ↑
Sun Sep 15, 2019 3:20 pm
I will bet any oil from your local supermarket will be better than the spec when your engine was made so I would not worry too much about spec, Mr Moooooooore will say as much.

Mart.

It will be indeed, but I still use only full synthetic in any engine I care about. Daily driver will turn over to 300,000 miles sometime in the next week.

Post Sun Sep 15, 2019 8:51 pm

Thanks Brianmoooore,
Much appreciated,
Tim.

Post Mon Sep 16, 2019 8:43 am

It says somewhere in my E30 handbook that sustained high speed driving - for example 8 hours at 80mph requires you to use the next weight up - they say 15W40 for UK then 20W40/50 for long spirited drives.

I'm not convinced that running 5W40 in hot weather for hours on end is the best approach - even the oil pump is designed for thicker oil no?

Paul

Post Mon Sep 16, 2019 9:04 am

I always used cheap mineral oil for running in a new or newly built engine, swapped it a couple of times then switched to a good synthetic at around 1000 miles.

I put 110K miles on my 323i after rebuild with Mobil 1 (as it was when synthetics were less common) and when we looked at it at the end it had not worn at all. Not just within spec but bang on. Still slapped like bitch but was exactly as it came out of the factory.

As Paul says you ideally pick the weight of oil to the conditions you see and use (abuse) you give it.

Post Mon Sep 16, 2019 6:30 pm

Thanks all much appreciated as always,
Tim.

Post Thu Oct 03, 2019 11:05 pm

This is an interesting and sometimes contentious subject it seems. I've always wondered why the Zone WIKI recommends 5w 30 for our beloved engines.Surely this is way too light for European use and probably not too favourable for older engines either, which all of ones undoubtedly are.I roll with 10w 40 and my rockers are clean as a whistle, which as I understand it generally a good indication of oil circulation and condition.

I always thought the Bentley manual chart was quite interesting as according to that the ideal oil temperature wise for the UK would actually be 15w 40. Although I'm sure theirs more to it than that....

oil.png

Post Fri Oct 04, 2019 8:11 am

I noticed a reduction in valve train noise when using 15w40 so that's not a bad thing!

Paul

Post Fri Oct 04, 2019 8:29 pm

I agree Paul, engine was definetly quieter when I moved up to 10w, think next change I'm going to go to 15.Here's the spec from the actual original BMW spec for M20:

Screenshot 2019-10-04 at 13.24.51.png

This seems to indicate that at least 15w 40 is definetly what this engine wants.It certainly gets a bit chilly in blighty sometimes, but certainly not below -10c on a regular basis!