What Oil do you Use in your 6'er

[Ethanh100]

I'm about to change the oil on my '87 M6. Ive been reading around and seeing lots of mixed opinions. I live in connecticut, but the car is a garage queen and only comes out in the summer, with temps above 60's. Im leaning towards 10w40 full synthetic liqui molley or mobil1, but what do you guys think. I hear of lots of people using 15w40, 15w50/20w50, even diesel oil.

[plip1953]

All of the ones you list will be ok for the conditions the car you will be use in, but I'd be inclined to stick to the manufacturer's recommended of 15W40.

[bpoliakoff]

I think you had better pay attention to the zinc(zddp) content in the oil. These engines thrive on it. So it is not just a matter of viscosity. Valvoline, BradPenn, Shell Rotella which is Diesel oil etc are some that come to mind. Valvoline is at any Auto Zone type store 15-40 should be good But do look for high zddp content

[635sharknose]

I do the same as Phil, use a quality 15W40 oil.
In my case I use the Kroon Classic mineral oil, developed for classic engines.

[Ethanh100]

Im trying to stick to oil that is regularly available. This puts me between either going 15w40 diesel oil like rotella, or I can just get 15w50 mobil 1. Which would be the better choice?

[euromaniac]

Valvoline VR1 20/50 with Zinc.

[BUELLRIDER]

15/40

[bpoliakoff]

Valvoline VR1 20/50 with Zinc.

++1 to keep it simple

[88m6]

+1 VR1 20/50

[86_6series]

http://www.kendallmotoroils.com/racing- ... -motor-oil

[plip1953]

Threads like these can always get a bit messy!

This article carries a pretty strong warning not to use VR1 other than in a race car...

https://myengineneeds.com/valvoline-vr1-racing-oil/

[bpoliakoff]

Brad Penn oil the same as Kendall These are made from Pennsylvania "green" crude. Google the brand and you can find a local dealer Also available on Ebay. These are top notch and have been around from back in the day and have plenty of zddp

[hornhospital]

This article carries a pretty strong warning not to use VR1 other than in a race car...

https://myengineneeds.com/valvoline-vr1-racing-oil/

I have my doubts about anyone claiming the exhaust headers can "malfunction", the spark plugs loosen and the oil turn to a large ball of sludge from using VR1. They claim the oil change cycle (under race conditions, obviously) should be 500 miles, give or take. That makes sense for a racing vehicle, but the rest of it is bordering on nonsense. Sounds like someone has an axe to grind against VR1. I'd take that article with a large grain of salt....about the size of a salt lick block.

FYI, I use Rotella T6.

[bpoliakoff]

I also am using Rotella. Inexpensive and mucho zddp. As you can see from my responses, I am major into zddp. Read up on it

[Doctorbeer]

I use whatever is the cheapest and on sale. Anything in the 15w-40, 20w-50, 15w-50 range. The opinions will be endless, but my opinion is it doesn't matter what brand as long as you do regular maintenance on your car. I manage to pick up 5 quart Mobil1 15w-50 jugs on sale at Walmart.

[smtguy]

Castrol GTX 20w-50. I have used this in all of my BMWs since my first E10 in 1975. I use heavier weight due to the warmer climate here in S. Cal. and I change it and the filter every 3200 miles. Cheap insurance.

[Ethanh100]

I use whatever is the cheapest and on sale. Anything in the 15w-40, 20w-50, 15w-50 range. The opinions will be endless, but my opinion is it doesn't matter what brand as long as you do regular maintenance on your car. I manage to pick up 5 quart Mobil1 15w-50 jugs on sale at Walmart.

This is what I decided to go with, $22 for 5 quarts of mobil 1, seems like a no brainier to me.

[konzelmann]

I was always taught that special brands and types of oil are more marketing than anything else, I'd say that's especially true as long as you're not dealing with anything exotic.

I think I've used everything from 15w40 to 5w50 - always synthetic.

I might be a bit more finicky if I owned an M car, but I think that considering I only put a few thousand summer only kilometers on the car per year and I change the oil annually, at the rate I'm going the M30 will likely out-live me even though we're similar age.

Oil change frequency and consistency of changes is the key according to the people I've talked to. You hurt the engine not by choosing motomaster instead of mobil 1 or 10w40 instead of 15w50 (or whatever) - you hurt the engine by forgetting or not bothering for a few years and driving 20,000km on old dirty oil.

So I do an annual or biannual oil change even though I never put more than maybe 3000km (usually closer to 1000 I'd say) on the car per year, and I suspect I'll never have a problem that could have been avoided by any special type of oil. Granted, with low use, you certainly wouldn't expect much wear - but I suspect that at this point in the car's age most E24 owners aren't really putting tons of miles on these cars. I suspect that most of us are committing overkill when it comes to our concerns about oil changes for our few thousand km annual usage.

[pgh880]

I’ve been using TOP 1 Synthetic Blend 20w 50 oil since 2001 until now . Engine oil is replaced once a year . Car is used once a week for 30 mins of spirited driving . No problem w/ the engine so far . Hope it stays that way.

[GAflyer]

Rotella. Seems like when I switched to synthetic for a couple of intervals, it worsened a little leak at the timing cover. Could've been my imagination, but I think it's better with the Rotella, and it's cheap.

[bpoliakoff]

++1^^^ Mucho ZDDP

[Da_Hose]

Well then,

I've posted scientific articles numerous times on this subject, inclusive of empirical oil sample testing that shows just how good the deisel engine oils are for use in regular ICE engines. Bottom line is that Rotella SuperT gives you the same high ZDDP as premium oils (Redline, Royal Purple) that cost 2-3 times as much. I do not believe you can beat the value you get from the quality of protection and service life of a good diesel engine oil.

However, the high levels of zinc do NOT play nice your catalytic. You must accept that you will have to replace you catalytic much more frequently than you are used to. I built my exhaust with a dropout catalytic section to make my expected replacement easier next time.

Here is a link with a Blackstone comparison of the flavors of Rotella T6.

https://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/t ... 40.307209/

blackstonereport.JPG (154.76 KiB) Viewed 8407 times

Notice that while the CJ-4 version has a zinc level of 1390ppm, and phosphorous of 1142ppm, the CK4 oil is almost at 1200 zinc, and over 1000 phosphorous. If you decide to run CH4, or CI4 oil, it will have even higher levels ZDDP, but also ash. All that will definitely gum up your catalytic pretty quick. All things considered, I think running CJ-4 is the best compromise. Highest ZDDP possible, with a (hopefully) decent catalytic lifespan.

Jose

[bpoliakoff]

Still, there are those of us that are cat free So Rotella it will be

[Da_Hose]

Dammit Bert! Even mis-spelled I know what you mean.

Ya just have to rub it in, don't ya?

Jose

[bpoliakoff]

I even graduated Hi School and still do that. I missed the no cat cut off by a year, but in AZ if you show classic car insurance they waive it, so I lucked out and have my nasty Billy Boat system