[Ozzie335i]

Forget what's approved, pretty much everybody used the BMW oil at least early on with these engines and there are major issues happening. Unless BMW steps forward (I know, unlikely) and says "Oops, our bad" its all BS, LL.. aproved or whatever we're screwed. More than likely BMW got creative and made changes to the bearing formulation, otherwise why aren't the N54 cars having issues.

[bbnks2]

Originally Posted by Ozzie335i

Forget what's approved, pretty much everybody used the BMW oil at least early on with these engines and there are major issues happening. Unless BMW steps forward (I know, unlikely) and says "Oops, our bad" its all BS, LL.. aproved or whatever we're screwed. More than likely BMW got creative and made changes to the bearing formulation, otherwise why aren't the N54 cars having issues.

Not a single thing you just said makes any sense. N54s are no more reliable, None of this has anything to do with BMW oil, and N54s use the same exact bearings as N55s and many other BMW engines.

People don't seem to realize that pretty much the only people that post on this forum are N55 owners LOL and 2011 unlocked DME N55 owners at that... 99% of the N54 community are elitists that make fun of this forum and hang out on Facebook or other shitty forums.

If people want to actually prove that there is some kind of issue then they need to start tearing down their cars BEFORE they fail and prove there is excessive wear. Like the S65 community is doing. And they still haven't successfully sued BMW yet with their 100page long threads, unfortunately. Does the rate of failure appear high on S65 engines? Certainly does if you look at all the threads. But, what is the actual statistical relevance vs the number of cars produced? It's probably insignificant <1%.

[feuer]

bbnks2 how can one figure out the reason for failure? What should one look for? Especially in engine that isn't damage yet.

[bbnks2]

Originally Posted by feuer

bbnks2 how can one figure out the reason for failure? What should one look for? Especially in engine that isn't damage yet.

Not sure what you mean... If you pull apart an engine because you are speculating that you're going to find excessive wear on the bearings and then you don't find any then the engine isn't damaged and there is nothing to look for... You can then use that data to make inferences about whether or not widespread bearing wear issues exist on the platform.

If pull apart an engine that hasn't "failed" yet (no knock, no seizure, no metal, etc.) but you find excessive wear (like OP did and S65/S85 owners are doing) then you can analyze the wear on the bearings to hopefully glean some insight into whats causing the wear. A warped journal, insufficient crush, stretched rods/bolts, and oiling issues are all going to produce different wear. OP bearings look like normal wear to me from oiling (intermittant starvation, cold start wear, fuel dilution, poor oil quality, a combination of all the above,etc.). Nothing crazy excessive about the wear on those bearings really... Just my subjective opinion based on pictures I've seen. The picture you posted were much worse...

http://www.substech.com/dokuwiki/dok...earing_failure
http://www.kingbearings.com/wp-conte...6/07/bf-en.jpg
https://www.mahle-aftermarket.com/me...s-brochure.pdf

Our cars use Tri-layer bearings which rely on the outer babbit material for anti-seizure properties. Once the bearings wear down to the copper it's only a matter of time before you end up with a seized engine.

http://kingbearings.com/files/Engine..._Materials.pdf

This is literally 1 post where someone actually showed excessive wear on N55 bearings BEFORE any major failure. There is also 1, yes literally 1, person who pulled apart an N54 at 60k miles (bimmerowrld) and found the same type of excessive wear. Everyone else is just posting up knocking piles of junk that are way too far gone to glean any useful information from.

Look at what S85 has done to show that 10w-60 oil was just too thick for those tight tolerance engines: https://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/e6...re-thread.html

Since everyone starts talking about oil when bearings failures come up, here is some interesting and easy to understand research from Dr. Dmitri Kopeliovich of king bearings on oil film thickness:
http://kingbearings.com/wp-content/u...t-08-29-21.pdf

There is a chart of basically an N5x (high load and 2" crank) which shows the relationship between the minimum clearance and oil film thickness for each oil weight.

[feuer]

Originally Posted by bbnks2

Not sure what you mean... If you pull apart an engine because you are speculating that you're going to find excessive wear on the bearings and then you don't find any then the engine isn't damaged and there is nothing to look for... You can then use that data to make inferences about whether or not widespread bearing wear issues exist on the platform.

If pull apart an engine that hasn't "failed" yet (no knock, no seizure, no metal, etc.) but you find excessive wear (like OP did and S65 owners are doing) then you can analyze the wear on the bearings to hopefully glean some insight into whats causing the wear. A warped journal, insufficient crush, stretched rods/bolts, and oiling issues are all going to produce different wear. OP bearings look like wear to me from oiling (intermittant starvation, cold start wear, fuel dilution, poor oil quality, a combination of all the above,etc.). Just my subjective opinion based on pictures I've seen:

http://www.kingbearings.com/wp-conte...6/07/bf-en.jpg

Our cars use Tri-layer bearings which rely on the outer lead babbit material for anti-seizure properties. Once the bearings wear down to the copper it's only a matter of time before you end up with a seized engine.

http://kingbearings.com/files/Engine..._Materials.pdf

This is literally 1 post where someone actually showed excessive wear on N55 bearings BEFORE any major failure. There is also 1, yes literally 1, person who pulled apart an N54 at 60k miles (bimmerowrld) and found the same type of excessive wear. Everyone else is just posting up knocking piles of junk that are way too far gone to glean any useful information from.

This is exactly what I mean. Whether engine is still running OK or has an issue it will be almost impossible task to determine the cause. Also, even oil labs won't detect the issue early as they all look at these bearings are aluminum. If you have lead into the oil they might speculate fuel additive or track fuel. This is because most of people who send in oil for test are somewhat mechanical inclined and run their car harder then others.

[Ozzie335i]

"Not a single thing you just said makes any sense. N54s are no more reliable, None of this has anything to do with BMW oil, and N54s use the same exact bearings as N55s and many otherkush BMW engines."

Ok bbnks, I'll elaborate. I brought up people using BMW oil as it is at minimum used on the first few oil changes due to CPO and free maintenance. People rightly then focus on buying only LL approved. Didn't BMW change the approval, and drop some manufacturers (Mobil1?) from it a few years ago? Any specific reasons why? People are using the "approved" LL01 oil. Even following BMWs recomendation still there are problems. I was not insinuating the issue was due to BMW oil. Just stating that even though people are using what is BMW approved, they are having premature bearing failures. I believe that BMW knew that there was a design problem and decided to wait this out. If there are less failures from 2012 on perhaps BMW once again changed the bearing composition again after realizing a problem existed. My brother in law had an early 740i. Literally overnight 3 cylinders lost compression. It was found that the sulphur content in the gas in the regional Tejas formulation was the cause. At the risk of being flamed by some know it all kid here maybe it is something similar, e.g. an odd chemical reaction between the oils or minute residual gas in the oil with the bearing formulation of the day.

I am probably guessing here, but I believe the bearings used in the early N55s (spring summer 2010) likely are the same as those used in the later (for you bbnks, non iS cars) N54s. For example there are similar parts such as the connector to the MAF that the design was later changed. If there aren't any early early 2010 build N55 failures that may explain why there aren't N54 bearing failures other than those attributed to leaky fuel injectors.

On the other OFHG thread the focus is now on pre priming the oil galley. As the OFHG tends to fail at mileages over 50 K, could premature bearing wear already have existed, then after a slight dry period when the engine is first turned over the wear is past the point where imminent failure occurs?

[bbnks2]

Originally Posted by Ozzie335i

I am probably guessing here, but I believe the bearings used in the early N55s (spring summer 2010) likely are the same as those used in the later (for you bbnks, non iS cars) N54s. For example there are similar parts such as the connector to the MAF that the design was later changed. If there aren't any early early 2010 build N55 failures that may explain why there aren't N54 bearing failures other than those attributed to leaky fuel injectors.

On the other OFHG thread the focus is now on pre priming the oil galley. As the OFHG tends to fail at mileages over 50 K, could premature bearing wear already have existed, then after a slight dry period when the engine is first turned over the wear is past the point where imminent failure occurs

Bearings didn't change from 2006-2012 and Build dates on the failures posted recently are all over the map date wise and most likely geographical manufacturing region as well. Seeing as how no one is interested in data around here you'll never know for sure though!

[Pladi]

Originally Posted by Ozzie335i

"Not a single thing you just said makes any sense. N54s are no more reliable, None of this has anything to do with BMW oil, and N54s use the same exact bearings as N55s and many otherkush BMW engines."

Ok bbnks, I'll elaborate. I brought up people using BMW oil as it is at minimum used on the first few oil changes due to CPO and free maintenance. People rightly then focus on buying only LL approved. Didn't BMW change the approval, and drop some manufacturers (Mobil1?) from it a few years ago? Any specific reasons why? People are using the "approved" LL01 oil. Even following BMWs recomendation still there are problems. I was not insinuating the issue was due to BMW oil. Just stating that even though people are using what is BMW approved, they are having premature bearing failures. I believe that BMW knew that there was a design problem and decided to wait this out. If there are less failures from 2012 on perhaps BMW once again changed the bearing composition again after realizing a problem existed. My brother in law had an early 740i. Literally overnight 3 cylinders lost compression. It was found that the sulphur content in the gas in the regional Tejas formulation was the cause. At the risk of being flamed by some know it all kid here maybe it is something similar, e.g. an odd chemical reaction between the oils or minute residual gas in the oil with the bearing formulation of the day.

I am probably guessing here, but I believe the bearings used in the early N55s (spring summer 2010) likely are the same as those used in the later (for you bbnks, non iS cars) N54s. For example there are similar parts such as the connector to the MAF that the design was later changed. If there aren't any early early 2010 build N55 failures that may explain why there aren't N54 bearing failures other than those attributed to leaky fuel injectors.

On the other OFHG thread the focus is now on pre priming the oil galley. As the OFHG tends to fail at mileages over 50 K, could premature bearing wear already have existed, then after a slight dry period when the engine is first turned over the wear is past the point where imminent failure occurs?

Did you see the S85 bearing thread ? Clearly BMW is no stranger to issues with bearings in their engines. Whether if its wrong spec'd oil like in the S85 OR maybe bad vendor batch or quality in assembly of the engine.

Either way OP's bearing looked BAD for the mileage. You cant even see the primary coating.. we need more people's pictures to confirm that its a matter of time for most of us. (what i always feared)

I have seen high mileage bearings that come out of engines looking still very silvery and almost like new. OPs bearings for low mileage look nothing like that.

Look at this 944 engine.. bearings look amazing except for a bad one which still looks better than what we saw here :

Skip to :10: 36

[feuer]

Originally Posted by bbnks2

Bearings didn't change from 2006-2012 and Build dates on the failures posted recently are all over the map date wise and most likely geographical manufacturing region as well. Seeing as how no one is interested in data around here you'll never know for sure though!

Per TIS they stopped using blue-purple combo at some point and perhaps materials in red-yellow combos was changed as well. Who knows? Gathering data will be incredibly overwhelming. Too many virables. Oil grade, oil brand, the OCI, how the vehicle was driven, where was it driven, air filter info, number of cold starts, repairs.....It also useful to analyze examples of n54/5 that have covered a lot of miles and running still. What have those owners been doing? Most bearings failures on n54/5 to me look like is oil starvation. What is your observation?

[TheGoodTheBadTheUgly]

BMW seems to have issues with bearing. Fine I'll go machine my own lol.

Nah but for real, it took me so long to catch up to this thread. First of, is there any higher quality aftermarket bearing?

Other than that, for the oil part of the thread (which is actually almost 50% of the thread) I am using Castrol Edge 0W-40. I should be switching this for 0W-30? Especially fot cold arse temperatures like in my city?

[9krpmrx8]

No, you're fine with 0W-40.

[Ozzie335i]

I had a good chat with Mauricio Madrid of MMP today. He confirmed the 1 1/1000ths gap is the optimal clearance that BMW had chosen. He believes it may have been chosen due environmental decisions. May have. I'll leave it at that. He also confirmed that when the engine is put together each journal is first miced, then the appropriate bearing colour (for you Canadian guys) was chosen to keep the target 1/1000th. Similarly the main bearings may or may not have different color combinations.

For the standard King bearings you want to pick the STD bearings unless and crank machining is done. Do not go with the coated bearings as they require a crank turn. The standard King bearings have an optimal gap of 1.5 to 2 thousands. I trust that variance is due to crank journal size differences versus bearing size tolerance differences. The increase in gap allows thicker oil, thus improved protection. He pretty much concurred with those of us here that said the bearings are running dry. The stock size is far too tight for high HP or RPM conditions. Another good thing about the standard King bearings is that at 200 dollars a set they are hundreds of dollars less than the stock BMW variety, and 100 + less than the coated Kings.

He told me to go with 10w-40 in the summer and 5w-40 in the winter here in Dallas. He said no concerns with my having an external oil cooler and the oil thermostat cheat. So that answered that question. I recall a brother here having both, and still having a bearing spin.

All in all it is my suggestion to others here is to change these as soon as you can afford to. At about 1000 with my mechanic doing it is cheap insurance versus my engine having metallic particles throughout, as well as my oil cooler and Pure two.

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

Originally Posted by Ozzie335i

I had a good chat with Mauricio Madrid of MMP today. He confirmed the 1 1/1000ths gap is the optimal clearance that BMW had chosen. He believes it may have been chosen due environmental decisions. May have. I'll leave it at that. He also confirmed that when the engine is put together each journal is first miced, then the appropriate bearing colour (for you Canadian guys) was chosen to keep the target 1/1000th. Similarly the main bearings may or may not have different color combinations.

For the standard King bearings you want to pick the STD bearings unless and crank machining is done. Do not go with the coated bearings as they require a crank turn. The standard King bearings have an optimal gap of 1.5 to 2 thousands. I trust that variance is due to crank journal size differences versus bearing size tolerance differences. The increase in gap allows thicker oil, thus improved protection. He pretty much concurred with those of us here that said the bearings are running dry. The stock size is far too tight for high HP or RPM conditions. Another good thing about the standard King bearings is that at 200 dollars a set they are hundreds of dollars less than the stock BMW variety, and 100 + less than the coated Kings.

He told me to go with 10w-40 in the summer and 5w-40 in the winter here in Dallas. He said no concerns with my having an external oil cooler and the oil thermostat cheat. So that answered that question. I recall a brother here having both, and still having a bearing spin.

All in all it is my suggestion to others here is to change these as soon as you can afford to. At about 1000 with my mechanic doing it is cheap insurance versus my engine having metallic particles throughout, as well as my oil cooler and Pure two.

Okay but if we can conclude it's an oiling issue since they're running dry (meaning oil getting to the bearings right?) just swapping them out isn't fixing and you might have the issue again even earlier or later?

So technically the issue isn't the bearings but something with the oiling system?

[bbnks2]

Originally Posted by Ozzie335i

I trust that variance is due to crank journal size differences versus bearing size tolerance differences. The increase in gap allows thicker oil, thus improved protection. He pretty much concurred with those of us here that said the bearings are running dry. The stock size is far too tight for high HP or RPM conditions. Another good thing about the standard King bearings is that at 200 dollars a set they are hundreds of dollars less than the stock BMW variety, and 100 + less than the coated Kings.

This is why you don't bring an engine to MMP to be rebuilt. KING STD bearings do not result in extra clearance. They SHOULD produce the standard clearance of .0015".

Again you assume BMW has a wide machining variance when in reality the they are using different color shells for as little as a <.0003" variance. It's not necessarily journal variance either. It's combined stack-up across multiple parts (rods bore, shell thickness, and crank diameter). BMW was targeting a .0015" resulting clearance. Clearances that measured out to a hair wider (like around .0018") were given a different color bearing set to tighten up the clearance to get that target of .0015." This is consistent with everyone who has ever posted up actual clearance measurements including my own engine.

Chances are that at one point BMW even went one step further to run "mis-matched" uppers and lowers where clearances fell between .0015" and .0018". By mixing a standard shell and an undersized shell BMW can bring a .0016" or .0017" clearance down to .0015" without making them too tight. I think that is where TIS has a typo in saying "blue/red" shells are no longer used together. It should probably state "red/violet" as that is an upper and a lower. It probably wasn't worth the time/effort to have builders using 3 different combinations of shells for such marginal differences.

https://bmw.spool "REMOVE ME" street.com/threads/bearing-clearances.4506/ (not mine but someone else who was asking about what bearings they should run).

For example, take a crank stamped with rrrrrb bearings. If you use BMWs bearings, and follow the color code, you should end up with around .0015" clearance across the board. If you use KING STD bearings you will end up with .0015" on rod 6-2 and rod 1 will measure out closer to .0018." Technically you should then polish the crank rod journals for 6-2 to produce .0018" across all rods. Most people would just ignore such a minuscule rod bearing clearance variance and "send it" using STD bearings without machining the crank.

BMWs target of .0015" is still considered "tight" on a 2" crank. King calls for .0015 -.0025" so most people taking the time to build an engine would turn the crank to produce closer to .002" clearance or maybe even .0025 if doing a high whp build. So no, I don't think anything Mauricio said to you was accurate. I would definitely use a 0w oil as well given your location if you do any kind of daily driving. If all you do is drive in the summer with 100f heat then yeah sure run 10w oil...

[Ozzie335i]

By the tone of the conversation it seemed as though it simply may be due to the tight bearing gap is somewhat insufficient for adequate fluid flow. Especially in extreme situations. Even if the bearings in my ride are found ok as it is after the swap I will have the peace of mind that all is ok and I installed a more optimal bearing set. For my thousand dollars that is cheap insurance.

Coincidentally the engine if my wife's 2011 engine seized up a couple of years ago. It was covered under a recall. The reason given was due to some residual material from the machining process ended up in the bearing journal gap, thus led to the seizure. This happened after 119,500 miles on the odometer, 500 miles short of no coverage. So it took all that small metalic particulate > 100 k miles before it caused catastrophic damage? At the time I didn't buy it, but we chose to trade the car in, along with a generous amount we were to be given for the engine on a new car. She loves it. It has me now reflecting whether or not similar decisions may have been made by Hyundai, thus the engines simply seized up versus had the rod bearings spin.

[bbnks2]

Originally Posted by Ozzie335i

It has me now reflecting whether or not similar decisions may have been made by Hyundai, thus the engines simply seized up versus had the rod bearings spin.

What do you mean? People use the term "spin" pretty loosely when talking about rod bearing issues.

The tone of the conversation also comes off like MMP was misleading you into believing they were giving you something special with their "engine build" program when in reality they are just slapping in a new set of standard bearings. I've also spoken to MMP. They come off as nice enough people. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that they were just trying to keep the conversation simple. The comments about oiling clearance point me more to either he didn't know what he was talking about or he was intentionally being misleading like a worker at autozone up-selling people on K&N filters.

[9krpmrx8]

MMP doesn't know shit. I wouldn't let them rebuild a lawn mower engine. Hell, when they first announced they rebuilding (farming out) engines, they stole the pictures from Motiv's website and put them on their own site and got called out on it. Never take advice from a shady MF.

[Pladi]

Originally Posted by Ozzie335i

I had a good chat with Mauricio Madrid of MMP today. He confirmed the 1 1/1000ths gap is the optimal clearance that BMW had chosen. He believes it may have been chosen due environmental decisions. May have. I'll leave it at that. He also confirmed that when the engine is put together each journal is first miced, then the appropriate bearing colour (for you Canadian guys) was chosen to keep the target 1/1000th. Similarly the main bearings may or may not have different color combinations.

For the standard King bearings you want to pick the STD bearings unless and crank machining is done. Do not go with the coated bearings as they require a crank turn. The standard King bearings have an optimal gap of 1.5 to 2 thousands. I trust that variance is due to crank journal size differences versus bearing size tolerance differences. The increase in gap allows thicker oil, thus improved protection. He pretty much concurred with those of us here that said the bearings are running dry. The stock size is far too tight for high HP or RPM conditions. Another good thing about the standard King bearings is that at 200 dollars a set they are hundreds of dollars less than the stock BMW variety, and 100 + less than the coated Kings.

He told me to go with 10w-40 in the summer and 5w-40 in the winter here in Dallas. He said no concerns with my having an external oil cooler and the oil thermostat cheat. So that answered that question. I recall a brother here having both, and still having a bearing spin.

All in all it is my suggestion to others here is to change these as soon as you can afford to. At about 1000 with my mechanic doing it is cheap insurance versus my engine having metallic particles throughout, as well as my oil cooler and Pure two.

So oiling issue and STD bearings but use out of spec thicker oil ? 10w-40... No logic there i am sorry.

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

Originally Posted by Pladi

So oiling issue and STD bearings but use out of spec thicker oil ? 10w-40... No logic there i am sorry.

Exactly! You would want something that gets to the bearings as quickly as possible and having 10w doesn't help unless you live where it's always somewhat hot.

[Pladi]

Originally Posted by TheMidnightNarwhal

Exactly! You would want something that gets to the bearings as quickly as possible and having 10w doesn't help unless you live where it's always somewhat hot.

Even then it doesnt help. Because the 10 w will not have an advantage in hotter climate since it will be thicker at start until car warms up. Regardless of what is outside.

Even if its 40 degrees (celc). At that temp it will be thicker than a 5w.. and its out of bmw spec for these engines. Its BAD advice. Because the oil is not there to satisfy bottom end only. The vanos works on oil pressure and 10w was not spec'ed by BMW. For n55.

That advice alone would make me question them. I know nothing about mmp..

I am not convinced changing bearings to king and changing oil spec will solve anything..

A well done bearing replacement is good practice and will prolong life. But why mess with oil ? Dont get that.

[Ozzie335i]

I knew each and every one if you 4 would collectively jump my shit. Keep up your search, I'll minimize my risk by taking corrective action. Some replies are due.

bbnks, Agreed on the spin thing. But the reality is that is the symptom, as most brothers here all of a sudden hear the tell tale sound that we all fear. As far as a rebuild, that was not what I was after. I wanted answers to a few questions. I got them. I do recall hot rod builders way back in my misspent youth making high powered engines a tad looser. Maybe they were on to something.

9k, I asked questions, I got answers. I'll weigh the information given, and make my own decisions. I'd much rather do something, anything, versus continue in this circle jerk we have going on here until my engine blows up, only to later wonder why.

Pladi,
"So oiling issue and STD bearings but use out of spec thicker oil ? 10w-40... No logic there i am sorry." It seems I can always count on you to be the least rational, and most emotional here. You've got the new little one, I get it. If none of you guys thought that it was an oiling issue, why the back and forth about what one to use? I know, it is a temporary oil starvation issue. We can all at least agree on that. I personally think it is temp oil starvation over many times, then that one event happens, and ring. The STD bearings I referenced were slightly looser than BMW bearings by 1/1000th or so. You guys have questioned that 40 weight is too thick, maybe it is not flowing on the stock bearings. I don't disagree with thst. But guys have said that it has more protection in higher heat. So why not increase the gap ever so slightly and use the slightly thicker oil. Flow and protection. I know you'll have an answer for that. Debate on.

Midnight, bearings are designed to be pourous for a reason. Give me some reasons why.

Pladi again, I was given the 10w-40 value by MMP specifically as I live in Texas. I think I pointed that out here a few times. Still, I may go with the 5w-30 Liqui Moly as my engine immediately ran smoother after putting it in. And it wasn't due to old oil being replaced by fresh oil. And if my engine felt smoother, maybe there was friction going on. Maybe. My last Blackstone was excellent for an untuned engine. I guess they missed the Pure 2 and port injection comment. Still, good on the cylinder and piston health.

You guys collectively put a lot of weight on BMW engineers and their specifications. In some shape or form it was poor design choice(s) by them that put us all in this situation in the first place. I am guessing for both gas mileage and environmental requirements. While you guys all search for answers I will change the bearings out in my ride. In risk management sometimes you must make a band aid decision to minimize your exposure until a permanent fix is available. By changing the bearings out I'll either have the peace of mind that wear conditions to them are not happening, or at minimum buy myself time, as in years, until a final solution is found. That would require BMW to come clean, which ain't going to happen. Have any if you taken the time to write BMW for answers? I think not. Maybe they'll give an answer, say get lost, or not even respond. I can say that I at least contacted someone more in the know than people who would rather bleed out and bitch that they had died versus put a turniquet above the wound. Hell, any action is better than inaction. In this case inaction can cost thousands.

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

Originally Posted by Ozzie335i

I knew each and every one if you 4 would collectively jump my shit. Keep up your search, I'll minimize my risk by taking corrective action. Some replies are due.

bbnks, Agreed on the spin thing. But the reality is that is the symptom, as most brothers here all of a sudden hear the tell tale sound that we all fear. As far as a rebuild, that was not what I was after. I wanted answers to a few questions. I got them. I do recall hot rod builders way back in my misspent youth making high powered engines a tad looser. Maybe they were on to something.

9k, I asked questions, I got answers. I'll weigh the information given, and make my own decisions. I'd much rather do something, anything, versus continue in this circle jerk we have going on here until my engine blows up, only to later wonder why.

Pladi,
"So oiling issue and STD bearings but use out of spec thicker oil ? 10w-40... No logic there i am sorry." It seems I can always count on you to be the least rational, and most emotional here. You've got the new little one, I get it. If none of you guys thought that it was an oiling issue, why the back and forth about what one to use? I know, it is a temporary oil starvation issue. We can all at least agree on that. I personally think it is temp oil starvation over many times, then that one event happens, and ring. The STD bearings I referenced were slightly looser than BMW bearings by 1/1000th or so. You guys have questioned that 40 weight is too thick, maybe it is not flowing on the stock bearings. I don't disagree with thst. But guys have said that it has more protection in higher heat. So why not increase the gap ever so slightly and use the slightly thicker oil. Flow and protection. I know you'll have an answer for that. Debate on.

Midnight, bearings are designed to be pourous for a reason. Give me some reasons why.

Pladi again, I was given the 10w-40 value by MMP specifically as I live in Texas. I think I pointed that out here a few times. Still, I may go with the 5w-30 Liqui Moly as my engine immediately ran smoother after putting it in. And it wasn't due to old oil being replaced by fresh oil. And if my engine felt smoother, maybe there was friction going on. Maybe. My last Blackstone was excellent for an untuned engine. I guess they missed the Pure 2 and port injection comment. Still, good on the cylinder and piston health.

You guys collectively put a lot of weight on BMW engineers and their specifications. In some shape or form it was poor design choice(s) by them that put us all in this situation in the first place. I am guessing for both gas mileage and environmental requirements. While you guys all search for answers I will change the bearings out in my ride. In risk management sometimes you must make a band aid decision to minimize your exposure until a permanent fix is available. By changing the bearings out I'll either have the peace of mind that wear conditions to them are not happening, or at minimum buy myself time, as in years, until a final solution is found. That would require BMW to come clean, which ain't going to happen. Have any if you taken the time to write BMW for answers? I think not. Maybe they'll give an answer, say get lost, or not even respond. I can say that I at least contacted someone more in the know than people who would rather bleed out and bitch that they had died versus put a turniquet above the wound. Hell, any action is better than inaction. In this case inaction can cost thousands.

I'm not bitching.

Actually I wanted to get Liquy Moly oil and I asked them what would be best for me and they told me to use 0W-40 and not 0W-30 and that 0W-30 is more acceptable in newer cars. Yeah you live in Texas I guess 10W isn't to much of an issue but here sometimes it's -25c without windchill so I don't think I wouldn't run without 0W, I heard 5W is fine but still.

BITOG also say Castrol 0W-40 is a top notch oil and nothing wrong with it.

I really don't think it's an oil viscosity issue. Actually I have no clear idea what the issue and I'm mostly just lurking this thread and from time to time I add input.