• Engine Sludge Protection
• Piston Cleanliness
• Oxidative Thickening
• E85 Rust Protection for Ethanol
• E85 Emulsion Retention for Ethanol
• Fuel Economy
• Seal Compatibility
• Emission System Durability

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.

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the Buick single cylinder mileage test that still used leaded fuel, even ten years after it had been phased out, was no longer valid.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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

GF-5 the newest motor oil warranty specification, which will be licensed in 2009 by the American Petroleum Institute (API), is another powerful giant. With their main headquarters near the White House in Washington D.C., the API is one of the most powerful lobbies in the U.S. today. The oil companies as competitors do not get along all the time, thus the API comes into the picture to eliminate anyone not following their agreed upon rules, or trying to go around them.

Castrol can tell you all about this when they questioned the mileage test years ago as it used a one cylinder Buick engine with leaded fuel. At the time unleaded had been on the market for years, and they questioned the validity of the test. The API sued Castrol and stepped on them like a bug. They got the major oil companies to quick in a slush fund of royalties off motor oil sales to fight Castrol. They emerged victorious and with a 240 million dollar slush fund.

Motor Oil Companies Formulate with the Least Amount of Additives Possible

What the public doesn’t realize is that motor oil warranty standards contain a minimum standard for a series of 36 tests. As long as your product beats that standard you can advertise that it surpasses the highest standard in the land. You may run the test up to three times and not have to reformulate. So, if you fail the test twice and pass once you can go on to the next test. Why is this significant? The test is run against a reference oil, so once you surpass the minimum standard on the first test, you can cut down your additives to get them as close to the minimum standard as possible.

Why would an oil company do this you might ask? Because additives cost money and obviously they are responsible for achieving most all of the results. Since an oil company cannot advertise any more than their product exceeds the highest standard there is; remember its also the lowest, there is no incentive to go over the standard in any significant fashion. With the revenues of the major oil companies a quarter penny of additives could mean millions of dollars of savings. For this reason, most all of the motor oils made by the majors are the same. The only thing that is different is the marketing. For example, Connoco/Phillips just came out with a new motor oil called liquid titanium, however when testing the product you will find that there is no titanium in the oil, it just sounds good.

If you want real performance beyond what the car manufacturers intend for you, turn to additional additives as they are the workhorse that can improve your mileage and wear. The oil companies even advertise their performance additives to the aftermarket additive companies, and provide testing to validate their benefit. Additives are the future of high performance lubricants.

ASTM D-2783 4 Ball Test

The Gibbs NASCAR Team is Using Additives

The Gibbs team calls their secret developer “William the Chemist” to keep the secrecy as they do not want anyone one to know about their improvement in performance. We know who that is and what they got isn’t rocket science, but patented additives. They go on to say they thinned the oil for better performance in terms of mileage, but this cannot be accomplished without the use of Extreme Pressure agents, not found in motor oils. The Gibbs team say’s “their formula is a secret combination of its retail brands.” They wouldn’t give the recipe. Where have we heard this before only to be ridiculed by all of the bloggers’ stating these are bogus products.

Motor Oil Can be Improved with Additives

The oil companies only make their products to the specifications of the car manufacturers and thus regular motor oil, though obviously functional, just don’t get it on when you want to stretch the limits of performance. This article only confirms the performance one can achieve using additives. So for all of you that have said additives do not work and never use an additive, keep using your average motor oil and we will blow past you on the road. Your car will be in the junkyard as ours will be going strong. This article appearing Friday April 10, 2009 in the Wall Street Journal is another confirmation, in a list of many, substantiating the value and use of additives in your vehicle.

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.

Major Oil Companies Continue to Bring New Additives to Market

The public is generally unaware that it’s the additives that do the work not the mineral or synthetic base oil. Marketers spend millions telling the consumer not to use additives but the major oil companies continue to bring new additives to market for increased performance as due the many aftermarket additive companies. What’s most interesting is that when a new category is created it exposes the shortcomings of the previous specification. Additives are the life-blood of any engine oil or aftermarket treatment. Since additives cost a lot of money, they are not used fully to their potential by the oil companies’ as they only need to meet the specification at hand. Detergents alone cost as much as $40 per gallon so they are the ones cut the closest to meeting the specification but not going over, as they do not want to hurt profitability.

Additives Will Continue to Become Increasingly Popular

Will additives continue to be popular? With the new government regulations to further improve fuel economy and reduce tailpipe emissions, the Federal CAFÉ (U.S. Corporate Average Fuel Economy) Regulations requirements have set an average target of 35 miles per gallon for passenger cars sold by 2020, you can bet there will be a lot more use of additives in the future. So when someone tells you additives do not work, think again as you now know better.

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.

Continued use of a product loaded with detergents, dispersants, anti-oxidants, anti-wear agents, and extreme pressure agents, will decrease the slow grinding away of contaminants in your engine due to longer drain intervals. Without the addition of additional detergents/dispersants motor oils become heavy with additional contaminants due to delaying the oil drain interval. The average oil filter, which is rated at 20 microns, can only hold so much contamination, before the oil begins dumping the particles, which becomes sludge.

According to market research, the second most important factor to the average motorist (next to longer engine life) is to get “greater performance of their vehicle”. This is where the use of an aftermarket oil booster or synthetic additive package can help you not only prolong your engines life, but to realize better performance and for that matter better mileage. ProTecta Engine Oil Booster comes in a quart bottle and is good for five oil changes.

In conclusion, if you are going to keep your ride longer, and increase the drain interval, consider using a synthetic oil booster such as ProTecta Oil Booster or synthetic motor oil that is fortified with extra additives to withstand the extra miles.