Good tech support from Nulon, a Fuches company Stage 3.5 BMW B48

[LordNilesStandish]

So I am about to assemble and tune the Stage 3.5 build of my BMW B48.
Stage 3.5 is the generic term for following mods:
Stock long block
Upgraded Turbo
Downpipe
Intake/charge pipe
Flex Fuel ethanol.

The race tune will be targeting about 400 wheel hp. About double stock.

Yesterday (Saturday) I sent an email enquiry to Nulon. I was totally shocked when I got a call back 20 minutes later.

He was very informative and helpful.

Firstly he wanted to know about oil cooling, and we discussed the max cooling option I use in the software I use which satisfied him.

He said because I was going to radically alter the engine that all the oil specs for the stock engine were now void, and to forget them.
Instead the focus is now on an oil which will give adequate film strength in the bearings after the effects of increased heat and ethanol have degraded it.
Based on this he wanted at least a 50 or even 60 oil.
We finally settled on a 15W50 which Is SP rated. The tech said it would shear down to a high 40.
He said a 30 would shear down to 10 cv100 and I'd blow my engine.
He also suggested I do an oil analysis (a service they offer) after a few thousand k and insisted that the oil is changed more frequently.
The big stand out was he primarily wanted a much thicker oil. Even the SP was a minor detail to him.
Even a straight mineral 20W50 or 25W60 was discussed, changed more frequently.

Posting because this is excellent customer service but also interesting advice.

 

[YZJB]

Yeah, the guys at Nulon are always awesome to deal with and give great advice. Lots of the techs are car guys so they really get it. Thanks for sharing.

 

[LordNilesStandish]

Yeah, the guys at Nulon are always awesome to deal with and give great advice. Lots of the techs are car guys so they really get it. Thanks for sharing.

Yeah, I would encourage anyone to contact their Tech.
When you do a UOA through them they also call you to go through the results.
I couldn't find anything anywhere wrt oil in worked over B series engines.

 

[LordNilesStandish]

So it's going in the shop to get the new turbo fitted Thursday.
I changed out the Castrol Edge 0W40 A3B4 LL01 for the Nulon 15W50 Street and Track with a new Sekura filter.
I took it for a test run and it ran exactly the same.
Today while driving I realised it had a variable displacement pump and would have just adjusted to maintain the same pressure.

 

[YZJB]

So it's going in the shop to get the new turbo fitted Thursday.
I changed out the Castrol Edge 0W40 A3B4 LL01 for the Nulon 15W50 Street and Track with a new Sekura filter.
I took it for a test run and it ran exactly the same.
Today while driving I realised it had a variable displacement pump and would have just adjusted to maintain the same pressure.

Yeah, it won’t run any differently. It will just have significantly more viscosity ‘overhead’ to protect the bearings and deal with some fuel dilution etc.

 

[LordNilesStandish]

Yeah, it won’t run any differently. It will just have significantly more viscosity ‘overhead’ to protect the bearings and deal with some fuel dilution etc.

Especially since I'm about to go through a custom tuning process with multiple maps as well.
After I have some UOA results etc. possibly I can go thinner but if I go too thin at this stage there is no coming back from that.

 

[LordNilesStandish]

OK I got it back from install yesterday.
I did some data logging of various parameters to check everything was happy.
Hot Oil pressure was 40 PSi at idle and 80 PSi at 6,000 rpm. Which is the normal operating range.
So looks like the oil pump is just hitting its oil pressure targets despite the thicker oil. So power use should be the same.
I know this is what should have happened but it is always good to have measurements to confirm.

 

[CruisinIt]

The Nulon 15w50 Street and track is a great oil especially for the $$ as well. Always have had good results running Nulon oils (much prefer Nulon over that other Aussie brand that starts with a “P”) and the Nulon tech department are great to deal with as well.

 

[LordNilesStandish]

The Nulon 15w50 Street and track is a great oil especially for the $$ as well. Always have had good results running Nulon oils (much prefer Nulon over that other Aussie brand that starts with a “P”) and the Nulon tech department are great to deal with as well.

I've switched two cars over to Nulon, so far so good .
Seems to be a smooth running oil.

 

[Titan]

The race tune will be targeting about 400 wheel hp. About double stock.

The B48 in my Mini Countryman JCW is just over 300 HP. It's an amazing little engine that is set up anywhere from 189 to 300+ from the factory...depending upon the model. I don't know if that is at the crank or at the wheel. Since the 300+ HP version has upgraded components (forged rods for example), I'd want to start with one of the B48's that had these upgrades, which should help. Did you start with a lower-level engine or one already with some upgrades from the factory? Although the USA manual indicates to use 0w20 oil, I run 0w30 in it.

 

[DV0993]

So I am about to assemble and tune the Stage 3.5 build of my BMW B48.
Stage 3.5 is the generic term for following mods:
Stock long block
Upgraded Turbo
Downpipe
Intake/charge pipe
Flex Fuel ethanol.

The race tune will be targeting about 400 wheel hp. About double stock.

Yesterday (Saturday) I sent an email enquiry to Nulon. I was totally shocked when I got a call back 20 minutes later.

He was very informative and helpful.

Firstly he wanted to know about oil cooling, and we discussed the max cooling option I use in the software I use which satisfied him.

He said because I was going to radically alter the engine that all the oil specs for the stock engine were now void, and to forget them.
Instead the focus is now on an oil which will give adequate film strength in the bearings after the effects of increased heat and ethanol have degraded it.
Based on this he wanted at least a 50 or even 60 oil.
We finally settled on a 15W50 which Is SP rated. The tech said it would shear down to a high 40.
He said a 30 would shear down to 10 cv100 and I'd blow my engine.
He also suggested I do an oil analysis (a service they offer) after a few thousand k and insisted that the oil is changed more frequently.
The big stand out was he primarily wanted a much thicker oil. Even the SP was a minor detail to him.
Even a straight mineral 20W50 or 25W60 was discussed, changed more frequently.

Posting because this is excellent customer service but also interesting advice.

Good chance you spoke with Michael - an absolute legend who has been sending me the uoa results for 6 years!

 

[LordNilesStandish]

The B48 in my Mini Countryman JCW is just over 300 HP. It's an amazing little engine that is set up anywhere from 189 to 300+ from the factory...depending upon the model. I don't know if that is at the crank or at the wheel. Since the 300+ HP version has upgraded components (forged rods for example), I'd want to start with one of the B48's that had these upgrades, which should help. Did you start with a lower-level engine or one already with some upgrades from the factory? Although the USA manual indicates to use 0w20 oil, I run 0w30 in it.

There's not huge differences except pistons really. They all get a forged crank and big forged rods, which are the same as the B58.
I forget the name of your engine but it get slightly lower compression at 9.5:1 and a bigger turbo. I have read it gets better crank and rods but IDK. They are not required.
I have the common garden variety gen 1 185 kW B48 with 10:1 compression.
The stock turbo is tiny! It starts running out of puff at 4,000 rpm.
The new Turbo is on and running from Wednesday and I'm just shaking it down on a Stage 2 tune with only 20 Psi. The engine loves the new turbo, I have lost a little spool but there is no lag, it feels stock, the power comes on linear and builds all the way to redline.
I think the Trans is limiting torque until I flash xhp but it's already shredding the rear 275 Bridgestones in a straight line. It didn't do this before with Stage 1 tune on stock turbo.
This tune is rated by the supplier at 250kw crank on stock turbo, I checked the fuel adaptations when I first started running it and it was pulling 2% at 2k rpm then adding 8% at 4 krpm, so it's flowing more air.
I need to order the flex fuel sensor then get the custom tunes done. At 28-30 psi and E40 I should hit my target.

I think your turbo is good for 400 hp, should get a downpipe and tune

 

[LordNilesStandish]

Good chance you spoke with Michael - an absolute legend who has been sending me the uoa results for 6 years!

Awesome good to know