Performance Technologies for a Clean Planet

Archive for the ‘News’ Category

As GL-5 Motor Oil Warranty is Released the Inequities of GF-4 are Revealed

Friday, February 26th, 2010

Whenever a new motor oil warranty standard is released by the oil industry, which is based on specifications required by the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) such as Ford, General Motors, Chrysler, etc. marketers begin selling the improvements over the last specification or in this case GF-4. This exposes the pitfalls of GF-4 and the problems that millions of car owners are experiencing with their engines in their vehicles. The results are out and there seems to be a real problem with GF-4 and cleanliness. Here are the improvement areas:

One of the main areas there was no improvement in wear protection. Imagine that the OEM’s still want their cars engines to wear out so you will buy a new vehicle.

The Group I petroleum base oils are being phased out as synthetic motor oils will be the future.

So is everything good on the horizon?

Well, maybe not as General Motors doesn’t like the new specification so that they have designed their own called dexos 1. Yes that is how its spelled with lower case letters. Their main focus is a full synthetic requiring low volatility. The dexos 1 motor oil is to come out slightly ahead of GF-5 which debuts in October for official licensing.

In conclusion, if you want to know the problems of motor oil just look at a new specification when it is proposed as that is what the oil guys must address. SFR has been putting more additives in their products for 20 years, but when you only have one specification such as GF-4 there is no incentive to improve beyond that. Too bad, if you want maximum performance then you must turn to aftermarket additives to do the job.

Posted in News | No Comments »

Castrol/BP Lubricants gets Crushed Again by the U.S. Oil Cartel

Friday, August 7th, 2009

Many of you probably do not remember when Castrol went against the all-powerful U.S. oil cartel made up of the major oil companies. The oil companies are competitors and thus are at odds some of the time. Thus, they use the API or American Petroleum Institute as their spokesman and watch-dog for regulating and keeping peace in the industry.

Castrol several years ago went against the API, stating that the Buick single cylinder mileage test that still used leaded fuel, even ten years after it had been phased out, was no longer valid. The API sued Castrol, as representative of the cartel, and won a judgment. To fight Castrol all of the oil companies through in royalties off of their motor oil sales.

Not only did the API win, they amassed a war chest of some $240 million dollars. This was the coming out of the API and they bought a building close to the white house in Washington D.C. to monitor and lobby anything that might hurt the large cartel.

Castrol has More than Enough Information to Justify Advertising Claims

Now Castrol, in an effort to differentiate their brand, advertised nationally that they had superior sludge protection over other motor oils. Their ads boasted it was 57 percent better than other products and that it passed the industry’s toughest sludge standard.

Since the API sets the standard specifications for motor oil, at least they certify all motor oils for commercial sale, this didn’t look good to the rest of the U.S. oil cartel. Pennzoil/Quaker State the leading seller of motor oils in the United States filed a complaint with the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus. This was even though Castrol had performed the Mercedes-Benz M111 sludge test known in the industry as the toughest test available. The NAD found there wasn’t enough support for the claim so Castrol voluntarily pulled the entire national ad campaign.

The public doesn’t realize this is another attempt by the cartel to control the industry. If this was an additive company the FTC would be filing an order against Castrol/BP Lubricants and there would be a class action civil suit. But no, not in this case, the big boys settled their differences and everybody is happy.

Oil Companies Snuff out Competition just as they did with Oil Additives in the 90s

I believe this is not another case of false advertising but the oil cartel stepping on Castrol in a behind the scenes regulation. When buying a major oil companies motor oil product do not expect to be able to buy a competitive best product, as the cartel makes sure everyone’s product is close to the same!

The oil cartel doesn’t need big brother and the government regulating them as they already regulate themselves. The industry creates the tests and all of the interests and their lobbies are involved, then when someone wants to use such tests to make claims, the oil companies say no don’t do that! What a shame free enterprise is controlled in this manner by the U.S. oil cartel and holds down companies not to innovate and improve on their products. Oh well, politics as usual with the oil companies.

Posted in News | No Comments »

Politically Driven Sequence VID Fuel Economy Test for GF-5 due in 2010

Friday, June 19th, 2009

In the past tests for North American engine oils took years of technical work to get approved. Such tests make up the motor oil warranty sequence that everyone has to pass to get their motor oil warranty certified.

The new test is muddled with politics as the format changed to pay-to-play. In other words if you dished out $300,000 each you could set the standard for the new test. Ten companies, almost all representing major oil companies took part. They include Chevron, Exxon/Mobil, Shell, Afton Chemical the old Ethyl Corp., Infineum, who is Exxon/Mobils additive division, Chevron Oronite, who is obviously Chevron’s additive division, Lubrizol a well known additive company and R.T. Vanderbilt a supplier of friction modifiers. Sounds like a loaded deck, and gives these companies that joined the effort for a new VID test certainly a head start to market their products, when the next engine oil category and 2011 model year cars are introduced.

The committee voiced concern with accepting the Sequence VID as “fit for purpose” at this time. In the test’s current state, said Tom Olszewski technical advisor at Exxon /Mobil, “from analysis of the data to date, fuel economy improvement of the aged test oil is primarily a function of engine age and only weakly responds to viscosity or formulation efforts. “In addition, an engine-age correction factor is new territory for a fuel economy test, and we’re concerned that the data generated thus far does not fully ensure that this method of adjusting results is appropriate.

So ten companies paid over $3,000,000 dollars to participate in the fuel economy test as pressures on engine oils to contribute to fuel economy are not new, but they’ve never been more intense. The major oil companies are pushing out the independent producers as smaller companies like Amsoil, Royal Purple, Red Line etc. could never sell enough oil fast enough to get their money back so they will have to buy the additive packages from the oil companies. The oil companies have created their own cartel that resembles the middle-east oil barons.

Posted in News | No Comments »

Leading Oil Additive and Lubricant Manufacturer Seeking Manufacturers Representitives

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

SFR Corporation, a registered trademark in the U.S. and many countries internationally, are seeking manufacturers representatives. SFR, after 25 years in business, is changing its marketing channel and seeking manufacturers representatives. Several states are open and this is a unique opportunity, as SFR is a well established company with many distributors already in place. SFR, and its product line is one of the most intensely tested of any in the industry. Its packaging and support materials are second to none.

With excellent profit margins and a full line of products, SFR can provide an opportunity to add a line to your existing products.

For more information contact:

Robert H. Sanborn, President
P.O. Box 457
Whitehall, MT 59759
sfrcorp@sfrcorp.com
800-735-6438.

Posted in News | No Comments »

SFR Oil Fortifier Demonstration Video

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009

SFR, a registered trademark in the U.S. and internationally since 1987, has a video available on line. SFR has utilized the Timken Friction Machine for many years because of its reliability in determining extreme friction. Backed up by more serious bench tests namely the Step Up Wear Test, ASTM D-2783 Extreme Pressure Test, and Falex Pin and Vee Test. SFR is probably the most tested product for aftermarket fortifiers.

SFR has completed the Nissan KA24E Wear Test, which is the standard for motor oil warranty testing. This test alone costs over $100,000 per run. SFR ran against the leading brand Pennzoil with a 17% overall reduction in wear and as much as 90% on exhaust lobes. In addition, SFR has run the L-38 Corrosion Test, which is the warranty standard for motor oils. SFR had a whopping 37% reduction in corrosive wear compared to Citgo.

Posted in News | No Comments »

The Real Truth About Motor Oils

Monday, April 27th, 2009

Motor Oil Companies Don’t Create the Standard

Motor Oils are big, big business. The major oil companies have revenues, when added together, of well over 1 Trillion dollars annually. With such staggering power one would think that they make the specifications for motor oil, but they do not. Motor Oil warranty specifications are created by the International Lubricant Standardization and Approval Committee (ILSAC), which are headed up currently by Bob Olree, who works for General Motors Corporation. Makes sense when you think about it that the car manufacturers, who engineer how long their cars will last, dictate the standards. (more…)

Posted in News | No Comments »

Should I buy Lucas Oil Treatment or SFR’s ProTecta Engine Treatment?

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

ProTecta Engine TreatmentIn researching the two products we found that the Lucas Oil Treatment, which is more popular than SFR’s Engine Treatment, is not as effective when it comes reducing friction. On an American Society of Testing Materials (ASTM) D-2783 4 Ball Test, the Lucas had a weld point of only 125 kilograms, which is just over the test being run with no lubricant. The ProTecta Engine Treatment, went the maximum amount tested of 880 kilograms with much less wear. The ProTecta Engine Treatment by SFR is synthetic, whereas the Lucas is petroleum. Studies have found that synthetics will last longer and outperform petroleum oils. So if you want to reduce wear in your engine, select SFR’s ProTecta Engine Treatment for the maximum bang for your buck.

ASTM D-2783 4 Ball Test

Posted in News | No Comments »

NASCAR Uses Additives for the Winning Edge

Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

Now even NASCAR is getting on the additive bandwagon, as performance seekers are blowing the doors off of regular motor oil. In an article appearing in the Wall Street Journal some 10 million dollars has been spent on perfecting motor oil through additives. The Joe Gibbs racing team has squeezed out some 10 extra horsepower. This confirms what SFR found out when it went on the Canadian Truth or Dare Show and got an amazing 12 horsepower increase with its proprietary synthetic additive system on a new Ford 150. We are not talking about an older car we are talking actual dyno tests on a brand new vehicle. (more…)

Posted in News | No Comments »

Major Oil Companies Once Again Prove Additives Work

Friday, March 27th, 2009

Countless articles have been written about additives and how they do not work, but the major oil companies continue to prove their effectiveness constantly. Every time a new motor oil warranty specification is created it increases the additives and addresses the problems that the last specification didn’t take care of.

GF-4 Needs Improvement With More Additives

GF-5 the latest motor oil warranty specification that intends to come to market in 2010, is loaded with additional additives. The additive suppliers have found that the current GF-4 specification doesn’t fully address the following problem areas: greater sludge protection, which means more detergent/dispersants; more engine durability then what the current additives provide, which includes more anti-wear agents; rust protection, which means more TBN or similar additives to reduce corrosive wear due to high heat in modern engines; turbo chargers are still failing thus additional extreme pressure agents are needed to address this problem that has been going on for many years, and finally additional fuel economy, which equates to more friction modifiers. This adds up to a healthy increase in the use of additives. So much for all the people that write don’t use additives as it will cause upheaval to the fine chemical balance. With all of increase in additives this would certainly upset the balance as they call it. (more…)

Posted in News | No Comments »

Trends for 2009 in regards to Engine Oils

Wednesday, February 18th, 2009

Research has shown that drivers are keeping their cars a lot longer, and that means more and more high-mileage vehicles are on the road. In 2003, according to R. L. Polk the average car was 9.1 years old, but now the average vehicle in the U.S. is 9.7 years old.

With that in mind, vehicle production has decreased as well as drivers are putting off the purchase of a new vehicle as long as possible. With gasoline peaking at $4.23 per gallon in July of 2008 motorists delayed changing their oil and extended their drain intervals. With gasoline falling, motorists should change their oil sooner in 2009, however with the tough economy, many are playing Russian Roulette with their oil changes, inevitably slowly wearing out their engines at an accelerated rate. The use of Oil Boosters such as ProTecta’s Engine Oil Booster can delay the oil change and for less than $5 per oil change. (more…)

Posted in News | No Comments »