NY winters, what oil for M20?

[///M42 sport]

Well I just changed my oil to 15w 50 synthetic. We'll see out it holds up

BTW, I would drive my 318is but its in need of some routine maintenance that I dont have time for.

Also I'm gonna be coating my undercarriage with fluid film so hopefully will protect a little.

[bimmer_E30]

Good thread.

Switching to 10W40 Hopefully next month.

Also i have my winter tires, do you know how much the Undercoat is going to run you? i am going to winter drive my e30 too if it doesn't sell.

[Sagaris]

Make sure you take care of any rock chips, especially along the wheel arches. I just spent a few days touching up the undercoating and fixing every rock chip I could find just in case I do have to drive my car this winter (I hope I dont have to)

[///M42 sport]

thanks for the tip

Heres whats on the bentley manual. Its surprising how little info is on the web for such basic maintenence stuff. Looks like 15w 50 is plenty of coverage for subzero temp and summer.

[Don Stevens]

tell us which 0w30 you're running in your M20, so I can look it up and see if it's remotely close to acceptable for an M20 valvetrain.

Here is a good 0W30

https://www.amsoil.com/storefront/sso.aspx I have used this at Road Atlanta in an M20 in September. Ran fine and follow up oil analysis showed minimal wear.

Having said that I currently run 10W40 synth in my M20 street car and 15W50 synth racing oil in my Spec e30.

The following two vids show the fundamental differences in conventional vs synthetic oil cold flow properties.

Kendall conventional 20W50 at 10 degrees F flows like molasses.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEddECy0T0U&feature=related

Amsoil 20W50 synthetic at 12F flows slow but better than conventional and still as well as a conventional 20W50 at room temp. If you look closely you can see the frost on the bottle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQQqSColafk&NR=1

Your 15W50 Mobil-1 recommendation is fine for M42 sport for Watertown. Even so, I'd let it warm up for a minute or so in sub 10F temps and then keep the reves low for another 15-30 mins.

Good Luck

Don