RE: <E36 M3> Mobil 1 15W-50 or 10W-30?

["Jefrem M. Iwaniw" <jiwaniw@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Monday, October 26, 1998 2:01 PM, Steven Ritchie 
[SMTP:sritchie@domain.elided] wrote:
	<snip>
>
> I'm going to try 10W-30 next and see what happens.  IMHO 10W-30 Mobil 1
> should be fine all year around in just about any climate.  Maybe the M3
> engine runs hotter than other 6's because of it's tuning, but 10W-30 
should
> provide the same or better protection than dino 15W-40 and that's what 
they
> used to recommend for M3's.
>

Steve, please don't take the following personally -- its just that we both 
know that you were completely making-up what you wrote above, with no basis 
in fact.

To those of you out there that don't know anything about oil viscosity, 
please don't take Steve's opinion here as good advice, much less truth. 
 There are very good reasons that the BMW engineers chose higher viscosity 
oils, and those reasons have very much to do with design decisions within 
the engine.  Synthetic oils tend to be better than dino oils for a whole 
host of reasons, but they (should) not exceed their max viscosity specs, or 
they wouldn't be representing themselves very well, now would they.

Of course, if you'd rather have a couple extra horsepower at the cost of 
excessive engine wear, that's your decision....

- -Jefrem Iwaniw, '72 2002, '94 525i / Keller, TX

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