Blackstone oil report - S65 engine @ 99k miles, after 2 track days, and an autocross.

[redpriest]

8600 RPM limiter increase, max RPM > 8700
BPM Tune, Stage 2
4000+ redlines

Car currently has +3000 miles and 2 more track days since this oil was drawn. Still purring with no unusual noises.

[///M Power-Belgium]

Wow , that's really one of the best reports I ever seen for our S65 , it's actually a dream report !
And this with a 99K miles engine and some track days ...
Soon I'm going for Backstone too , because my S65 consumes too much oil for the moment and started to run more rough at high rpm's even after a 2K oil change .
Good to see the 10W60 Castrol gives you this perfect report because I use this oil too .
Congrats with the result !

[redpriest]

My makeup oil is with the new shell BMW twin turbo branded stuff - same 10w60 - castrol has been treating me right though.

[dparm]

Pay for TAN next time as well. TBN is still decent, but without TAN, we still don't have the full story. I'd say you can go longer than 8,000 miles, but a TAN number might change my answer.

[redpriest]

Originally Posted by dparm

Pay for TAN next time as well. TBN is still decent, but without TAN, we still don't have the full story. I'd say you can go longer than 8,000 miles, but a TAN number might change my answer.

I thought TAN is rendered obsolete by TBN? I'll spring for it next run. I usually do 15k between oil samples since the majority of my miles are highway, but did a half-cycle here because of the tune change, RPM limit raise, and track days.

[dparm]

Originally Posted by redpriest

I thought TAN is rendered obsolete by TBN? I'll spring for it next run. I usually do 15k between oil samples since the majority of my miles are highway, but did a half-cycle here because of the tune change, RPM limit raise, and track days.

No. You need to know both. TBN is how much reserve alkalinity the oil has. TAN is how acidic the oil is.

TAN = total acid number
TBN = total base number

There are several schools of thought around this, but the popular one is as follows. If TAN > TBN, the oil has become acidic and was overdue to be changed. If TAN = TBN, the timing of the change was just about right. If TAN < TBN, you *in theory* could've left it in longer.

My opinion is that it should be changed when TBN is still higher than the TAN. Blackstone or other labs may not disclose the margin of error.


(It's worth noting that even virgin oil will not have a TAN of 1.0)

[Thik]

Wait so even Blackstone is recommending 15k oil change interval even with track use? BMW M engineers aren't morons after all with their recommended oil change intervals.

[Leonardo629]

It's actually 15000mi or 1 year, which ever comes first.

If you are racking up miles like OP, then I can see how 15000mi oil change is feasible.

[redpriest]

Yeah, it's because I'm putting on about 3-4000 miles a month on the car - so it's about 90% highway driving with about 6 or 7 redlines per day to get there My previous report, they actually recommended me going 16-17k miles between changes.

I'm going to do 7500-9000 miles per interval now that I'm heavily tracking the car. This was just a test sample to see how well it was doing - I wanted to see if me pounding the car hard at the track was causing any wear metals to show.

[Move Over]

Since you have a 2011, the bearings do not contain lead and copper - as I'm sure you already knew. What element about the report are you keeping an eye on? Reason I ask is that I have WPC bearings with no lead/copper too.

[redpriest]

Aluminum and tin - I believe it's an alloy of both rather than lead layer, copper layer.

[nholmes]

BUMP for some new reports!

[redpriest]

Originally Posted by nholmes

BUMP for some new reports!

I know, I'm lazy - I have like 5 bottles of oil sitting in the house that have yet to be shipped.

[nholmes]

Originally Posted by redpriest

I know, I'm lazy - I have like 5 bottles of oil sitting in the house that have yet to be shipped.

So then you see what I did there.

[admranger]

Originally Posted by redpriest

I know, I'm lazy - I have like 5 bottles of oil sitting in the house that have yet to be shipped.

Stuff those in a flat rate box (they'll actually deliver one to your house...) and off you go.

[CHE///MIST3]

When I first bought my '08 M3 at only 34,000 miles I was worried about a quart of oil being consumed every 1,000 miles, and the engine running a little rough at times...it was a garage queen and only saw short, infrequent drives. It was like this for the first 3 - 4,000 miles. Then, about 3 months ago I decided to make it my daily driver The engine now only burns 1 quart every approx 3,800 miles and the engine feels stronger and more smooth than before. The gas mileage is up from 16.2 to 17.1. I think these cars just need to be driven more !! Do you have any thoughts on this?

Anyways, I see your comment is about a year old, I hope since then yours is running beautifully as well !

GM

Originally Posted by ///M Power-Belgium

Wow , that's really one of the best reports I ever seen for our S65 , it's actually a dream report !
And this with a 99K miles engine and some track days ...
Soon I'm going for Backstone too , because my S65 consumes too much oil for the moment and started to run more rough at high rpm's even after a 2K oil change .
Good to see the 10W60 Castrol gives you this perfect report because I use this oil too .
Congrats with the result !

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by GMCHEM83

When I first bought my '08 M3 at only 34,000 miles I was worried about a quart of oil being consumed every 1,000 miles, and the engine running a little rough at times...it was a garage queen and only saw short, infrequent drives. It was like this for the first 3 - 4,000 miles. Then, about 3 months ago I decided to make it my daily driver The engine now only burns 1 quart every approx 3,800 miles and the engine feels stronger and more smooth than before. The gas mileage is up from 16.2 to 17.1. I think these cars just need to be driven more !! Do you have any thoughts on this?

Anyways, I see your comment is about a year old, I hope since then yours is running beautifully as well !

GM

My car is not my DD ,I drive it only in summer when the weather is nice and without rain , in winter I never drive it to avoid snow , ice and roadsalt .
Every weekend I charge the battery with my CTEK battery tender and for the moment I run with the new ///M Twin-Power 10W60 oil .
I have 33K miles on it and for the moment I can feel that my S65 runs smoother with the new ///M Twin-Power oil , before I always ran with Castrol-Edge 10W60.
Consuming oil all S65's do ..the more you step on it the higher the oil consumption is...
The only problem that I have is the cold start clunk noise because I don't drive it enough , DDs don't have this noise .
So actually it's still a garage queen with no problems

[CHE///MIST3]

Originally Posted by ///M Power-Belgium

My car is not my DD ,I drive it only in summer when the weather is nice and without rain , in winter I never drive it to avoid snow , ice and roadsalt .
Every weekend I charge the battery with my CTEK battery tender and for the moment I run with the new ///M Twin-Power 10W60 oil .
I have 33K miles on it and for the moment I can feel that my S65 runs smoother with the new ///M Twin-Power oil , before I always ran with Castrol-Edge 10W60.
Consuming oil all S65's do ..the more you step on it the higher the oil consumption is...
The only problem that I have is the cold start clunk noise because I don't drive it enough , DDs don't have this noise .
So actually it's still a garage queen with no problems

That's great to hear! And I wish her many more happy, summer miles. it's a good thing that the twin power turbo is a nice oil. It's what available to me locally.... until Castrol supplies run out someday... since I've been ordering that online. I'll definitely always stay with 10W-60 as was intended, although I will try extending my interval from 7,000 miles to 10,000 assuming no track events.

GM

[redpriest]

Originally Posted by GMCHEM83

When I first bought my '08 M3 at only 34,000 miles I was worried about a quart of oil being consumed every 1,000 miles, and the engine running a little rough at times...it was a garage queen and only saw short, infrequent drives. It was like this for the first 3 - 4,000 miles. Then, about 3 months ago I decided to make it my daily driver The engine now only burns 1 quart every approx 3,800 miles and the engine feels stronger and more smooth than before. The gas mileage is up from 16.2 to 17.1. I think these cars just need to be driven more !! Do you have any thoughts on this?

Anyways, I see your comment is about a year old, I hope since then yours is running beautifully as well !

GM

140k miles + original bearings + 35 track days and running strong as ever. These cars want to be driven. I do everything "wrong" other than waiting until the car warms up to let it rip past 4000 rpm:

1) Engine brake like crazy - I use gearing to slow down + brakes. Car has no problems with this.
2) Redline to 8600 RPM daily - like 8-10 times a day. She wants to be revved out, I rev her out.
3) Track the car

Daily driven, and no garage queen. When I first got the car, I would do oil changes at 15,000 mile intervals. Now I'm doing it every 3-4 track days and 5000 miles. Mostly because I'm fitting 4 track days in before it even gets to 5000 miles in between.

[E90M3velocity]

I'm starting to think the only way to keep the motor healthy is to work it. That's probably the reason why BMW didn't have any rod bearing problems during durablity tests on the ring

[CHE///MIST3]

Originally Posted by redpriest

140k miles + original bearings + 35 track days and running strong as ever. These cars want to be driven. I do everything "wrong" other than waiting until the car warms up to let it rip past 4000 rpm:

1) Engine brake like crazy - I use gearing to slow down + brakes. Car has no problems with this.
2) Redline to 8600 RPM daily - like 8-10 times a day. She wants to be revved out, I rev her out.
3) Track the car

Daily driven, and no garage queen. When I first got the car, I would do oil changes at 15,000 mile intervals. Now I'm doing it every 3-4 track days and 5000 miles. Mostly because I'm fitting 4 track days in before it even gets to 5000 miles in between.

Great reading this! You are driving it as it was tested from both the factory and on the track The engine is doing exactly what it was designed for.

GM

[CHE///MIST3]

Originally Posted by E90M3velocity

I'm starting to think the only way to keep the motor healthy is to work it. That's probably the reason why BMW didn't have any rod bearing problems during durablity tests on the ring

Agreed, and thus no real "design flaw", rather some manufacturing tolerance stack-ups (explains early engine failures), and some cases of engine abuse.


GM