BMW HP "Synthetic" /5w-30 /9,800km's (6k miles) / '02 BMW 330ci

[Jim 5]

Here's my first UOA. This is at the completion of an ARX Clean Phase. 0.5 L of Make-up oil added (M1 15w-50) 3 track days. I drive this car VERY hard. Once warmed up, it sees redline/rev limited at least a few times in every trip.

Oil was in service 13 months including infrequent use in very cold Canadian winter.

Silicon/Iron/Nickle looks to be a problem. Air filter has been changed routinely. I'm going to check this as well as the connections on the intake. The lab didn't flag silicon as a problem.

The lab noted aluminum wear as moderate (see their (A), (B), (C) ratings below).

I believe the BMW 5w-30 starts out at a 12.2 cST @100. Seems to have stayed in grade (.5L of 15w-50 added as make -up).

TBN looks decent as well.

Oil was replaced with dino for 2k miles for ARX rinse, and now has been replaced with GC Green 0w-30 for an intended OCI of around 12k Km's or 7200 miles.

I was considering sending this to Terry for his thoughts if anyone sees any issues.

Am I on the right track with how I am interpreting this?

Thanks in advance

[ October 28, 2005, 07:56 PM: Message edited by: Patman ]

 

[Jim 5]

Forgot to mention. This car has a 7 quart sump.

 

[Jim 5]

Sorry about the external link. Maybe a moderator can delete my first post. Let's try this again.

Here's my first UOA. This is at the completion of an ARX Clean Phase. 0.5 L of Make-up oil added (M1 15w-50) 3 track days. I drive this car VERY hard. Once warmed up, it sees redline/rev limited at least a few times in every trip.

Oil was in service 13 months including infrequent use in very cold Canadian winter.

Silicon/Iron/Nickle looks to be a problem. Air filter has been changed routinely. I'm going to check this as well as the connections on the intake. The lab didn't flag silicon as a problem.

The lab noted aluminum wear as moderate (see their (A), (B), (C) ratings below).

I believe the BMW 5w-30 starts out at a 12.2 cST @100. Seems to have stayed in grade (.5L of 15w-50 added as make -up).

TBN looks decent as well.

Oil was replaced with dino for 2k miles for ARX rinse, and now has been replaced with GC Green 0w-30 for an intended OCI of around 12k Km's or 7200 miles.

I was considering sending this to Terry for his thoughts if anyone sees any issues.

Am I on the right track with how I am interpreting this?

Thanks in advance

Tin 1
Lead 3
Copper 5
Aluminum 8
Silicon 10
Iron 25
Chromium 0.6
Silver 0
Zinc 1000
Magnesium 32
Nickel 2
Barium 0
Sodium 6
Calcium 2000+
Vanadium 0
Phosphorus 869
Moly 116
Boron 32
Manganese 49

Visc @100 12.51
Water 0
Solids (% v/v) Glycol No
Fuel Dilution No

TBN 5.75

 

[shanneba]

I don't think your wear numbers look bad at all for as hard as you run your engine.

Compare my 2003 330Ci with the sanme oil at 5000 miles, mostly short trips.
2003 BMW 330Ci BMW 5w-30

 

[Jim 5]

Thanks for responding shanneba..

Wondering about that iron though...and why the lab flagged aluminum. Everyone's thoughts are very much appreciated.

Also..I noticed that your next OCI was GC. I filled the sump with 7 quarts of Green GC as well. When is your UOA due on the GC? I'd like to see the results!

 

[Alan]

"You drive a BMW,act like it

" (From the terrible movie Nothing But Trouble)

It seems like you do with all those redlines

!

Anyways the wear numbers look pretty decent overall considering your driving style.Was there any Vanos chatter or noises when the 15W50 was added?

 

[shanneba]

Jim 5,
I sent my sample almost two weeks ago.
It is a mix of 5 quarts of Gold GC and two quarts of green GC. I hope to post the results soon.

 

[Jim 5]

Alan,

bear in mind I only added .5 of a quart of 15w-50 to a 7quart sump containing oil that is pretty close to a 40wt. I did this halfway through a track day and the car was at full temp at the time. I didn't hear any vanos chatter. Earlier BMW engines run 15w-50 with no bad consequences. I wouldn't do this in the winter though...

I'm trying out the GC 0w-30 for that!

As far as how to treat a BMW, I'm not afraid of the redline. I make sure the car's been warmed up for at least 20 minutes first. I'll be installing an oil temp gauge here shortly, as well as a UUC lightweight flywheel with matching a spec 2 multi puck clutch specified for an M5 (good for 800hp). The achilles heel of the 330's is that weak clutch, and I'm anticipating perhaps an Active Autowerks Supercharger. We'll see. In the mean time...no more clutch slip with sticky tires...and higher rear tire budgets pending.

Thanks to all for your comments...

 

[Patman]

I think these numbers look pretty good. Iron might be a tiny bit high, but it could also be normal for this engine too.

 

[Alan]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jim 5:
Alan,

bear in mind I only added .5 of a quart of 15w-50 to a 7quart sump containing oil that is pretty close to a 40wt. I did this halfway through a track day and the car was at full temp at the time. I didn't hear any vanos chatter. Earlier BMW engines run 15w-50 with no bad consequences. I wouldn't do this in the winter though...

I'm trying out the GC 0w-30 for that!

As far as how to treat a BMW, I'm not afraid of the redline. I make sure the car's been warmed up for at least 20 minutes first. I'll be installing an oil temp gauge here shortly, as well as a UUC lightweight flywheel with matching a spec 2 multi puck clutch specified for an M5 (good for 800hp). The achilles heel of the 330's is that weak clutch, and I'm anticipating perhaps an Active Autowerks Supercharger. We'll see. In the mean time...no more clutch slip with sticky tires...and higher rear tire budgets pending.

Thanks to all for your comments...

---

Are you still running the CDV?

 

[Jim 5]

My car didn't have one. I took it in to have it removed, with a copy of the zeckhausen.com diy and they confirmed this. I then got it up on jack-stands at home and re-confirmed. I wish it did. That would have been a quick and easy fix for a mushy clutch!

 

[shanneba]

My GC OUA has been posted.
It is a mix of 5 quarts of GOLD and two quarts of the "GREEN".

Castrol Syntec 0w-30 5000 miles 2003 BMW 330Ci

 

[Jim 5]

Thanks shanneba. Very interesting. I'm noticing my Iron and Silicon significantly higher than yours. I have also taken in just about every UOA, that I could find, that was done in conjunction with an ARX treatment. I have noticed higher Iron levels associated with the majority of those posted here on BITOG.

I'm very hopeful that the ARX is causing an artificial elevation of iron and silicon as it is cleaning these out of the engine and putting them into solution. I am badly paraphrasing Molakule's thoughts here, but I am hoping that he is right.

 

[Jim 5]

Another point worth mentioning..I had to have two ignition coils replaced during this oci during a period of extremely cold weather. I was running on 4 of 6 cylinders for a several minutes before I shut it down and had it towed to the dealership for repair.

My understanding is that if the injectors were squirting gas into those cylinders that weren't getting spark, the cylinders could have been "washed" by the unburned fuel. I have read that this can cause elevated iron, but I don't know how significant this effect can be. Anbody have any thoughts on this?

 

[jaj]

Jim

Did your Check Engine light come on? If you drop even one cylinder from a spark problem (as my M5 did a while ago) the ECU shuts down the cylinder's fuel injector to prevent raw fuel finding its way into the catalytic converter.

There's nothing to worry about - back in May I did two track days with a defective insulator on one spark plug, and the result was the cylinder shutting down repeatedly (until I figured out how to feather the throttle just so) and then I drove it for another day before the dealer got it to fix it. The result? NO effect whatsoever on the next UOA. No fuel present, wear metals and oil condition exactly on trend.

So - don't worry - it's fine - the machine looks after itself in the name of emissions!

JJ

 

[shanneba]

Jim 5

What type of oil temperature gauge are you installing?
I just added an oil pressure, oil temperature and volt meter from Dakota Digital in my 330 Ci. I used the oil pressure / temp sender block from LeatherZ. It worked very well.

I took a 10 mile trip down the freeway at about 65 mph and the oil temp stayed around 172, it went up to a little over 180 when I slowed down heading back home.

I would be interested in what oil temps you see in your 330Ci.

 

[Jim 5]

I like the leatherz kit as well. I'm actually having someone make up one or more LCD displays to match the bmw dash and put it in the same location as the leatherz 3 gauge kit goes.

This is the display I'm planning to use. Of course, the readout will be for Oil Press and Temp.

I'm planning on using the leatherz billet sensor installation block with electronic VDO sensors and getting a techie type to figure out how to make the electronics work. I'll use an anodized black aluminum surround to make it look like it came from bavaria that way....matching the radio and HVAC controls.

Could be just a pipe dream though. Although I've got most of the details sorted out. I like the bar graph component of the picture.

 

[Jim 5]

Yep, the check engine light came on and stayed on. It felt like a tractor..it was running really rough. It's good to know the engine shuts off the injector if no spark is coming through.

 

[kendogg441]

Jim 5, not sure about E46's, but, does the E46 have a clutch delay valve like an E36 does? IF so, remove it!! You have no idea how much firmer your clutch will feel, adn how much you'll be extending the life of your stock clutch. The clutch delay valve 'delay's' fluid from leaving the slave cylinder, therefore making the clutch slip, and wearing it out pre-maturely. These were intalled to smooth out the shifts. We removed it on my old roomates 99 M3, whioch we thought had a slipping clutch. Turns out, clutch was still in decent shape. Ran it another 30k miles, still no problems yet. And thast with many hard shifdts/launches.

 

[Jim 5]

good point ken. Nope it didn't have it. Scroll up a little for that discussion. Thanks for the input though!