I have a 1998 BMW 528 (M52B28 engine) with about 174,000km on it. It is driven year-round west of Toronto. The last couple of years it sees more short trips and fewer long trips due to lifestyle changes (kids). I drive it "as designed" - I don't abuse it based on its heritage but I do enjoy driving and it is stick so, on average, revs are higher. My wife drives fairly sedately.
Over it's life it has seen:
I recently had the VC off for the first time and there's light varnish despite a short OCI and the use of quality synthetics. Yeah it's only cosmetic, but it shouldn't be there.
Link to pictures
Between M1 and GC I did a round of ARX a couple of years ago, mostly to quiet a noisy lifter. The ARX (old instructions) did 90% of the job. ARX in maint dose in GC hasn't improved it AT ALL over the last 2-3 years. I ran HDEO this past summer with maint dose (4oz) ARX and it immediately began to improve. I had a personal theory (JUST A THEORY) that ARX and GC don't play well together due to GC's ester content (since ARX and GC don't mix in a measuring cup - I started a thread on that years ago). I left the ARX out of my GC this fall and I think the lifter noise is continuing to improve. I'm also curious about the varnish occurring because of this factor.
Now to the Redline part. For some reason I'm thinking about giving Redline a try. Clearly the high ester formula should be good for cleaning, and I've read numerous accounts of RL being "smooth and quiet" yet "free revving" etc...
Being a BMW it needs ACEA A3 and it likes things a little thick. That being said, it also gets cold around here and I like GC's properties of cold protection. Looking at the PDS for Redline is looks like 0W40 is 81/15.1 cSt and 5W40 is 94/15.1 @40C/100C. GC is about 66/12.1 IIRC. I also noticed that they state 5W40 is recommended for BMW etc...
I am curious about other elements of the formula other than just viscosity which might weight into the decision. I'm not a Redline fanboy so I don't know every fact there is, nor do the PDS indicate it. Ordinarily the narrow visc gap would appeal to me in the summer as it would tend to be more "durable" and have less VII content. But I know things aren't always that simple.
1/ I've heard that one of the two formulas has no moly. While I'm not a moly freak this would be a large divergence from RL's norm.
2/ I've heard that there are some select weights of RL with a different formula basis, possibly making them superior than some of the others (it could have been 0W30?)
3/ If the basis differs significantly, and I switch to RL, I probably shouldn't flip between 5W40 in summer and 0W40 in winter since the ad-packs could be very different.
I appreciate any insights into the RL product line differences before my spring OC.
Over it's life it has seen:
- 50,000km on Pennzoil 5W50 syn @ 5-6k km (6month) intervals
- 60,000km on M1 0W40 at 6k-8k km (6 month) intervals
- 60,000km on GC @ 8k-9k km and sometimes Esso XD3 15W40 HDEO (ie. ARX cleaning or "just cause" in summer weather) (6 month) intervals
I recently had the VC off for the first time and there's light varnish despite a short OCI and the use of quality synthetics. Yeah it's only cosmetic, but it shouldn't be there.
Link to pictures
Between M1 and GC I did a round of ARX a couple of years ago, mostly to quiet a noisy lifter. The ARX (old instructions) did 90% of the job. ARX in maint dose in GC hasn't improved it AT ALL over the last 2-3 years. I ran HDEO this past summer with maint dose (4oz) ARX and it immediately began to improve. I had a personal theory (JUST A THEORY) that ARX and GC don't play well together due to GC's ester content (since ARX and GC don't mix in a measuring cup - I started a thread on that years ago). I left the ARX out of my GC this fall and I think the lifter noise is continuing to improve. I'm also curious about the varnish occurring because of this factor.
Now to the Redline part. For some reason I'm thinking about giving Redline a try. Clearly the high ester formula should be good for cleaning, and I've read numerous accounts of RL being "smooth and quiet" yet "free revving" etc...
Being a BMW it needs ACEA A3 and it likes things a little thick. That being said, it also gets cold around here and I like GC's properties of cold protection. Looking at the PDS for Redline is looks like 0W40 is 81/15.1 cSt and 5W40 is 94/15.1 @40C/100C. GC is about 66/12.1 IIRC. I also noticed that they state 5W40 is recommended for BMW etc...
I am curious about other elements of the formula other than just viscosity which might weight into the decision. I'm not a Redline fanboy so I don't know every fact there is, nor do the PDS indicate it. Ordinarily the narrow visc gap would appeal to me in the summer as it would tend to be more "durable" and have less VII content. But I know things aren't always that simple.
1/ I've heard that one of the two formulas has no moly. While I'm not a moly freak this would be a large divergence from RL's norm.
2/ I've heard that there are some select weights of RL with a different formula basis, possibly making them superior than some of the others (it could have been 0W30?)
3/ If the basis differs significantly, and I switch to RL, I probably shouldn't flip between 5W40 in summer and 0W40 in winter since the ad-packs could be very different.
I appreciate any insights into the RL product line differences before my spring OC.