Originally Posted by oil_film_movies
Originally Posted by AirBull
I don't believe there are any data sheets on BMW's new 0w-30, how do you know the HTHS is a 3.1?
The "FE" part of LL-01FE is from the lower viscosity. Any LL-01FE oil will be around 3.1, not much higher than that, if any. It's in the LL-01FE spec itself. Taking LL-01, that oil will be around 3.6, a higher visc product, again in the spec itself. ... You also asked about kv100 visc, and understand you
don't need to consider kv100 at all since HTHS is the best measure of oil film thickness, your protection from too much boundary lubrication during hard driving.
Here is the main point : BMW says 0w30 LL-01FE oil will work fine in an M5 S63 engine. Therefore, they say HTHS 3.1 will work fine. ...... We can go up another +0.5 if we really drive hard though, no problem. If you take it up to the high 3's or even 4's, you don't get anything except horsepower loss from excess visc. It won't
hurt your engine to have extremely high levels of HTHS like that, yet there is no benefit.
I'd say don't go overboard on HTHS. Simply add +0.5 to what BMW says will make your engine live nicely, and only if you drive hard (track, towing, arizona weather, you know).
When you say "any" LL-01FE will be around 3.1 HTHS, that's part of my skepticism with it, there is only one oil out there available with the spec, BMW by Shell/Pennzoil, and they aren't telling us much about what is in it. Technically, LL-01FE only says â¥3.0 HTHS and â¤1.3 SA, I'd be curious to learn more about it. Admittedly, it did appear to have excellent results in my UOA by the previous owner, but with all the oils out there that are available, with all the threads I've read here in this forum, it's just a big initial turnoff when the manufacturer doesn't share very much (and in this case, nothing) about it specs.
Most LL-01 oils are 3.5 HTHS minimum, but if I were to run an oil with an HTHS in the low 3's, I'd love to run Ravenol's DXG 5w-30: 3.1 HTHS, 256°C flash/-57°C pour, 6.0 Noack, 0.77 SA. Unfortunately, GM and BMW have different opinions on Ca; (look at my UOA and then look at Dexos1 Gen2.)
https://www.ravenol.de/uploads/tx_ravenol/pdf-print/RAVENOL_DXG_SAE_5W30_1.pdf