What do you use as Preference or Suggest between?

Standard or Synthetic Engine Oil!

Is Standard/regular Oil better than Synthetic Oil?

Mobile 1
Castrol
Purple Stuff

840ways to C

On my ex 840Ci, I used to use BMW Synthetic 5W-30 in the winter and Mobil1 15W-50 in the summer.

One caution however that if your oil lines are old and leak prone, using synthetic will accelarate the leak. So be prepared.

I run Mobil1 15-50 year round.

Mobil1 0w40

lets be sensible here..............unless you are running turbos there is absolutely no need to use synthetic IF you change your oil every 3000 miles or so............dino oil is perfect for regular oil change intervals and syn is only needed when you have longer change intervals or higher heat and stress with turbos, S/C's, etc.........

I am being sensible here. :)

Synthetic is great for the early BMW V8. If you have any cylinder wall damage from the high sulphur gas, non-synthetic oil turns the car into a mosquito fogger at start up and until the cats get up to operating temperature.

5000 to 6000 mile change interval and the costs are about the same as changing dinosaur blood oil every 3000 miles.

Having started in the era where you could get 65,000 miles out of an American engine before it started to use oil. 100,000 miles max before it was so loose that the pistons were changing holes as it ran. Sludge that would fill the rocker covers in 50k miles even if you used name brands of motor oil.

So now I am a firm believer in anything that reduces wear on the moving parts. Synthetic is my answer to that.

ok.........then lets clarify........go with Terry's suggestion IF you have the early V8 nikasil fogger otherwise dino at regular intervals should be just fine but then it IS your car and to each his own..........my .08.......

TerryY,

I have a '94 840Ci w/112K miles w/Nikasil engine (no cyclinder wall damage and no Sulfiur used fuel). However, I was informed/told by some techs that work specifically on early BMWs (Dam good Mech.) that the Synthetic oil would preserve/protect against wear on moving parts.

I want my engine to last longer!

My engine Starts quick / runs smooth & run hard. I have driven several lower mileage 96 & 97 models 840ci.

My '94 840Ci pulls much harder. It definetely has more power!

840ways to C

Mine is hopefully going to be even more fun in a bit.

I like the ability to tune the '94 without a lot of hassle.

Mine has 146,000 miles on the original Nicasil without signs of damage. Southern California car originally with their mandated low sulphur fuel.

I totally agree on the synthetic point of view. If it is going to give you less wear...? why not use it. It is a high maintenance car to start with so why not use an oil that is prone to less wear in the long run. BTW...I am also using the bmw synthetic and like it pretty well.

my understanding (as explained by my room mate who is a mechanic, among others) is that if your car has always had regular (non-synthetic) oil, it's fine to keep using it. or you can switch to synthetic if you want to pay more. but once synthetic is used you'll have to keep running synthetic; if you change back to non-synth it'll deteriorate your seals.

for the record, the previous owner of my car used synthetic, so i use synthetic 20w-50 (owner's manual's recommended weight for hot-weather driving; i'll probably be doing some desert driving).