[edycol]

Originally Posted by Blue By You

I know, weird...

Up to you. But I've done some research before and over the past few days. There are a couple of Motul and Red Line oils that have better specs than the Liqui Moly 0W30 as far as I could tell. (I looked it up because I'm in the middle of an oil switch myself...)

FWIW if you're inclined, check out:

- Red Line 0W30 (Not BMW approved, but performance designed to replace LL01-FE oil with an extremely low pour point and other numbers are good)

- Motul 8100 X-Max 0W40 (Not BMW approved but on par with LL01 and seems like an excellent oil with a great HTHS)

- Motul 8100 X-Cess gen2 5W40 (BMW LL01 approved, same flash point and pour point as the 0W40 - pour point is one reason why we buy the 0 weight? - with a higher HTHS, this seems like the silver bullet go-to from now on especially in summer and/or if tuned)

Oil can be debated for weeks, so not trying to impose my views on your oil choice. Just wanted to share what I've learned over the past few days.

No, pour point is not related to 0W or 5W.
Pour point is measurement that uses gravity to determine flow. Irrelevant from engine start point as your oil pump is pulling oil. Pour point is good indicator of base stocks used. Generally oils with pour point -35 to -45 have a lot of Group III oils or are 100% Group III (hydrocracked mineral oil base). I say generally as some Ester based or PAO based oils also have that pour point but that is bcs. they use very heavy base stock to bump HTHS (for example Motul 300V).
What determines 0W or 15W etc. ratings are Cold Cranking Pumpability values. They are measured at different temperatures. Basically 0W has to have same CCP value at -35 as 5W at -30. Pour point is not indicative of good CCP.
But, you still can get good idea about winter performance.
Castrol 0W40 has Pour point of -57, and Redline 5W40 of -60 (I think). But, Castrol has better pumpability. Reason why Redline has such low pour point are ester base stocks (Castrol is PAO).