[9krpmrx8]

Speaking oil, saw this yesterday, who is gonna be first?

[feuer]

^ is this approved by your local M guru lol?

[9krpmrx8]

Originally Posted by feuer

^ is this approved by your local M guru lol?

Nah, by some dipshit who supposedly rebuilds engines and just wings it when it comes to torque specs and sequences.

[feuer]

Originally Posted by 9krpmrx8

Nah, by some dipshit who supposedly rebuilds engines and just wings it when it comes to torque specs and sequences.

.

[Pladi]

Originally Posted by feuer

.

LOW LoWW class. Lol

By the way Feuer a really off topic one ; u gonna change it from Macedonia soon to North Macedonia ? Lol.

[feuer]

Originally Posted by Pladi

LOW LoWW class. Lol

By the way Feuer a really off topic one ; u gonna change it from Macedonia soon to North Macedonia ? Lol.

I'm sorry if my post offend you. To answer you question, politics don't interest me so I won't be changing the logo.

[fatty335]

Well, it's been a week and I'm happy to report that the n55 is running normally. In retrospect, I wish I had logged oil pressures in different conditions before and after the rod bearing change to see if there is any difference (monitoring via MHD). If you have any "normal" values for the n55, feel free to post them up! Otherwise, this was a fun and, hopefully informative exercise to demonstrate that the home mechanic can swap these out in the garage with hand tools. Thanks to everyone who offered advice along the way!

[Pladi]

Originally Posted by fatty335

Well, it's been a week and I'm happy to report that the n55 is running normally. In retrospect, I wish I had logged oil pressures in different conditions before and after the rod bearing change to see if there is any difference (monitoring via MHD). If you have any "normal" values for the n55, feel free to post them up! Otherwise, this was a fun and, hopefully informative exercise to demonstrate that the home mechanic can swap these out in the garage with hand tools. Thanks to everyone who offered advice along the way!

glad to hear sir ! If my N55 reaches 150 K ill be doing this work but at 63k i just cant justify. Good for you though. I am too much of a wimp to attempt messing with a running engine, lol

[Pladi]

Originally Posted by fatty335

Well, it's been a week and I'm happy to report that the n55 is running normally. In retrospect, I wish I had logged oil pressures in different conditions before and after the rod bearing change to see if there is any difference (monitoring via MHD). If you have any "normal" values for the n55, feel free to post them up! Otherwise, this was a fun and, hopefully informative exercise to demonstrate that the home mechanic can swap these out in the garage with hand tools. Thanks to everyone who offered advice along the way!

another thing u can do is use a caliper (not standard type but C type) to measure the thickness of ur old bearings to see how far the have been consumed.

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

Originally Posted by Pladi

glad to hear sir ! If my N55 reaches 150 K ill be doing this work but at 63k i just cant justify. Good for you though. I am too much of a wimp to attempt messing with a running engine, lol

Same thoughts here. I would change them at a higher KMs and at the time I will also have my own place and can leave my car in the garage for as long as it takes.
Although I have a N54 so I don't know.

[Pladi]

Originally Posted by TheMidnightNarwhal

Same thoughts here. I would change them at a higher KMs and at the time I will also have my own place and can leave my car in the garage for as long as it takes.
Although I have a N54 so I don't know.

I am wanting to think that this is an issue with the quality of manufacturing or parts from a specific time period. Because if this is some type of design issue with the N55 (which is unlikely) then id never buy a BMW EVER again.

Its looks like so much wear for such a short period of time for the ebarings he pulled out. Its alarming honestly. Even the M3 bearings they were pulling out for routine replacement after 100k didnt look like that. If that car was well maintained (which OP says it was) then its a big mystery as to why ALL 12 CAPs looked not very good. So its not like one bearing was kinda bad. IT was all of them... its like WTF.

For now i am convinced any 40 weight oil and above is too viscous for these engines. And not beneficial. Unless maybe ur racing.

Daily driving ill stick to 5w-30 and 0w-30 for a piece of mind..

[cahme]

It's looking like I'll be doing this very soon ...
No knicking, bit I did find metal in my oil . I'm at 167k mi and my car is up 8n the air waiting for me.

fatty335, can you give some advice on the subframe drop? Did you leave it hanging from the struts or ?


Thanks for any advice here.

[Pladi]

Fatty please also confirm and this is important that you were running quite a bit of boost on ur car. That will def impact bearing life.

Stock N55s have failed also.. but urs was tuned.

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

Originally Posted by Pladi

I am wanting to think that this is an issue with the quality of manufacturing or parts from a specific time period. Because if this is some type of design issue with the N55 (which is unlikely) then id never buy a BMW EVER again.

Its looks like so much wear for such a short period of time for the ebarings he pulled out. Its alarming honestly. Even the M3 bearings they were pulling out for routine replacement after 100k didnt look like that. If that car was well maintained (which OP says it was) then its a big mystery as to why ALL 12 CAPs looked not very good. So its not like one bearing was kinda bad. IT was all of them... its like WTF.

For now i am convinced any 40 weight oil and above is too viscous for these engines. And not beneficial. Unless maybe ur racing.

Daily driving ill stick to 5w-30 and 0w-30 for a piece of mind..

Yeah I agree it does seems like it's 2011 model cars.

FYI my car produced date is april 2010 so I guess we will see.

And yeah I was thinking 40 for additional protection and less oil consumption but 30 weight must be easier to get in there I suppose? I might switch to taht to but 0w-30 LL01 is more difficult to find I think, don't think it's at CT.

[Kev0]

Originally Posted by Pladi

I am wanting to think that this is an issue with the quality of manufacturing or parts from a specific time period. Because if this is some type of design issue with the N55 (which is unlikely) then id never buy a BMW EVER again.

Its looks like so much wear for such a short period of time for the ebarings he pulled out. Its alarming honestly. Even the M3 bearings they were pulling out for routine replacement after 100k didnt look like that. If that car was well maintained (which OP says it was) then its a big mystery as to why ALL 12 CAPs looked not very good. So its not like one bearing was kinda bad. IT was all of them... its like WTF.

For now i am convinced any 40 weight oil and above is too viscous for these engines. And not beneficial. Unless maybe ur racing.

Daily driving ill stick to 5w-30 and 0w-30 for a piece of mind..

Then I'll be a guinea pig and continue to use 5w40 and will keep you updated with my rod bearings/car. Oil change about 50 miles ago with 5w40. My car is reaching 55k soon and been on stage 2+/91acn for 25k miles.

[fatty335]

Originally Posted by cahme

It's looking like I'll be doing this very soon ...
No knicking, bit I did find metal in my oil . I'm at 167k mi and my car is up 8n the air waiting for me.

fatty335, can you give some advice on the subframe drop? Did you leave it hanging from the struts or ?


Thanks for any advice here.

Yes, I elected to do this job with the subframe hanging as low as possible (steering shaft and end links disconnected). In retrospect, completely removing it would have allowed for more working room.

[fatty335]

Originally Posted by Pladi

Fatty please also confirm and this is important that you were running quite a bit of boost on ur car. That will def impact bearing life.

Stock N55s have failed also.. but urs was tuned.

Hi, Pladi, I am using MHD 1+ which typically commands 15 psi. However, there is no evidence the previous owner ran any kind of tune (but could have). As for the car being "well maintained," it was maintained per BMW recommendations at the time which was 15K OCIs (documented). I suspect that was a major contributor to bearing condition in my case.

[Ozzie335i]

10/10 build date, 67 k miles. Running Liqui Molly 5w -
30 in Texas. The oil pan gasket is leaking ever so slightly. Odd since the oil pan had to be opened in order to retrieve a broken Vanos bolt back at 25 k miles. In a year or so if it gets worse I may knock two birds off with one stone, and swap out the bearings.

[bbnks2]

Originally Posted by fatty335

Well, it's been a week and I'm happy to report that the n55 is running normally. In retrospect, I wish I had logged oil pressures in different conditions before and after the rod bearing change to see if there is any difference (monitoring via MHD). If you have any "normal" values for the n55, feel free to post them up! Otherwise, this was a fun and, hopefully informative exercise to demonstrate that the home mechanic can swap these out in the garage with hand tools. Thanks to everyone who offered advice along the way!

N55 uses an electronically controlled (MAP) solenoid to keep oil pressure on target so you likely won't see any difference in oil pressure even with significantly wider clearances. The oil pump has lots of overhead volume.

You should see around 36-38psi at idle and 80psi under load/high rpm:

[bbnks2]

Originally Posted by Pladi

I am wanting to think that this is an issue with the quality of manufacturing or parts from a specific time period. Because if this is some type of design issue with the N55 (which is unlikely) then id never buy a BMW EVER again.

Its looks like so much wear for such a short period of time for the ebarings he pulled out. Its alarming honestly. Even the M3 bearings they were pulling out for routine replacement after 100k didnt look like that. If that car was well maintained (which OP says it was) then its a big mystery as to why ALL 12 CAPs looked not very good. So its not like one bearing was kinda bad. IT was all of them... its like WTF.

For now i am convinced any 40 weight oil and above is too viscous for these engines. And not beneficial. Unless maybe ur racing.

Daily driving ill stick to 5w-30 and 0w-30 for a piece of mind..

That's a bold statement.

Tolerances are not that tight on these engines... 2" crank and .0015" is not crazy where you need to run a crazy thin oil. There are plenty of LL-01 40wt oils which are only marginally thicker than the next best LL-01 30wt which are all on the thicker end of the 30wt spectrum. But yeah I wouldn't put a 60wt racing oil in this engine or a 40wt diesel oil like many do.

[Pladi]

Originally Posted by bbnks2

That's a bold statement.

Tolerances are not that tight on these engines... 2" crank and .0015" is not crazy where you need to run a crazy thin oil. There are plenty of LL-01 40wt oils which are only marginally thicker than the next best LL-01 30wt which are all on the thicker end of the 30wt spectrum. But yeah I wouldn't put a 60wt racing oil in this engine or a 40wt diesel oil like many do.

The marginally close 40-30 weight oils are not marginally close at cold temps..

If we can say that a lot of the wear happens when cold then its not really the operating temp which i am worried about, its all the time in between that temp.

So that as you probably know is a factor of the VI ( Viscosity index) of oil and not necessarily the final viscosity at operating temp. Because yes at that temp it doesn't really matter 40-30 or even 60 weight.

But how fast an oil gets to that point and how "thin" it remains is what i am concerned.

At 164 VI for 0w-40 from Casterol, a lot of oils will do a lot better. Not to say that their oil is not good but for this engine some other weights are i think a better fit. Esp for cold climates.

[TheMidnightNarwhal]

Originally Posted by Pladi

The marginally close 40-30 weight oils are not marginally close at cold temps..

If we can say that a lot of the wear happens when cold then its not really the operating temp which i am worried about, its all the time in between that temp.

So that as you probably know is a factor of the VI ( Viscosity index) of oil and not necessarily the final viscosity at operating temp. Because yes at that temp it doesn't really matter 40-30 or even 60 weight.

But how fast an oil gets to that point and how "thin" it remains is what i am concerned.

At 164 VI for 0w-40 from Casterol, a lot of oils will do a lot better. Not to say that their oil is not good but for this engine some other weights are i think a better fit. Esp for cold climates.

Since you are also in Canada like me what oil will you be getting? I'm interested in trying 0W-30 LL01 but except from the dealer I think it won't be findable.