Quality, Controlled?

OEMs in turn are challenged by government requirements for lower emissions and higher fuel efficiency. They look to improvements in lubricants to help meet those challenges as well as maintain engine protection.

Meanwhile, more consumers are looking at greener products, but wonder about performance of biobased or recycled oils and whether or not the extended drain intervals and enhanced protection advertised by synthetic products are worth the higher cost.

These factors gave rise to some interesting questions from LubesnGreases. How have engine oils changed over the years? What improvements have been documented in published tests? After a new engine oil standard is introduced, how long does it take before we see a shift in products on the retail shelves? How is this information tracked? What resources are available to consumers interested in engine oil product testing?

Tracking Performance

In 1984, a decade before the American Petroleum Institutes After Market Auditing Program was launched, the Institute of Materials Inc. started collecting and testing off-the-shelf engine oils. The data gathered from testing was published in an annual engine oil database available on a subscription basis.

CEO and founder Theodore W. Selby offers some insight into the inception of the IOM program. Reasons for creation of the database were primarily related to the growingly apparent need in the early 80s for greater understanding of both oil performance in the engine and, on another note of concern, how well the contents of the can met the industry classification carried on its label. It had been found and reported a year or so earlier by others in the automotive industry that some marketed engine oils fell considerably shy of the classification on the label.

In short, there seemed to be need for clear information on how the comparative physical and chemical properties of engine oils affected their response to consistent laboratory tests of performance. A reliably consistent, professionally generated engine oil database seemed desirable for lubrication professionals. Several years later, seeing the level of interest of automobile and truck owners in such information, we decided to provide some of this information in a more quickly read form to these consumers.

The IOM engine oil database began with 100 engine oils collected from the North American retail market and evaluated with 12 laboratory tests. In subsequent years, the North American database was increased to sample 250 oils per year, and its reach extended beyond the continent.

Today IOM collects 650 engine oil samples each year from markets throughout Asia-Pacific, Western Europe and North America. A three-liter sample of each oil collected is blind-coded and transferred to a laboratory specializing in engine oil testing. A battery of over 30 analyses is conducted on each, permitting direct comparison of physical and chemical qualities important to OEMs, oil manufacturers and additive suppliers. In addition, 50 blind-coded reference engine oils are sent among the market-collected samples, to assure IOM of the consistency of laboratory analyses.

With 26 years of tracking and reporting on engine oil quality in the retail market, the IOM data can be tapped to reveal trends and unexpected changes in formulation and marketing. For the purposes of this article, IOM has depicted and graphically illustrated some of these findings, all of which are based on the North American portion of the database.

Changes Over the Years

Without objective, consistent measurement of many engine oils, it is difficult to determine whether or not there has been broad improvement in oil quality over time. The fact that the IOM engine oil database has continuity in providing such information is part of its value.

For example, a long-used, well-known oxidation test developed during the oil embargo of the 1970s, called the Thin-Film Oxygen Uptake Test (TFOUT, ASTM D4742) has been a part of IOM testing since its beginning in 1984. Figure 1 (page 18) shows that by averaging the TFOUT results of all oils collected each year, we find that oxidation resistance of engine oils in this test has improved considerably – 66 percent – in North America over the past 25 years of testing.

Volatility also has improved, for reduced engine oil consumption and evaporative losses. Engine oil volatility test results have been reported in the IOM database since 1993 when the Noack Test (ASTM D5800) was proposed for ILSAC GF-1 and API SH. Figure 2 shows clear evidence of improvements with time and formulation experience, under the stimulus of changes in specifications since then.

In 2001, IOM added the Thermo-oxidation Engine Oil Simulation Test (TEOST, ASTM D7097). This bench test correlates with the oils ability to control high-temperature deposits, and has been specified by both ILSAC and API. Figure 3 shows results obtained over the nine years of its application under changing ILSAC/API standards. It is evident that some improvement has been gained over time, as deposit-forming tendencies have decreased.

Shifts in the Retail Market

At what point does a new specification grow to dominate the market, and how quickly do old ones fade? Thats of strong interest right now, as oil marketers this month may begin offering GF-5 oils commercially. For insights, IOM used its data to look at how rapidly the last three oil upgrades became widely available at retail.

Remember that products meeting the ILSAC GF-series specification (Starburst labeled) have a defined start and termination date, while API Service Categories (donut labeled) can be open-ended. Figure 4 shows the changes in oils licensed to the ILSAC and API service categories in the IOM collection from 2000 to 2009. API SJ and ILSAC GF-2 were the active categories as the decade began; API SL and ILSAC GF-3 were implemented for use in July 2001; and API SM and ILSAC GF-4 came in November 2004.

It is interesting to note the similar paths of the SJ and GF-2 categories, contrasted with SL/GF-3 and SM/GF-4. As the figure shows, the transition from API SL to SM oils was considerably slower than the prior change from SJ to SL.

By the third year of licensing, SJ oils represented 90 percent of the IOM collection. Similarly, SL oils represented 82 percent in their third year. However, in 2007, after three years of licensing SM oils, only 65 percent of the 250 oils collected were SM. As of 2009, their fifth year in the market, 79 percent of the oils collected in North America by IOM carried the SM classification, with 17 percent still identified as SL oils.

Making It Relevant

Spotting such trends in engine oil quality and market presence are just some of the uses for IOM data. OEMs, additive suppliers and oil manufacturers also recognize IOMs annual database of 650 oil samples as a cost-effective way to augment their own market research, quality assurance and testing programs. A few other known applications of the IOM database are for determining:

Competitive qualities of oils in a particular viscosity grade and/or specification such as ILSACs GF-series.

The range in variation of properties of a particular brand and formulation manufactured in various facilities around the globe.

The effect of changes in formulation of an engine oil on its more important performance properties.

Possible counterfeiting and the location of this practice. As would be expected, a number of governmental groups around the world have interest in the quality of engine oils sold in their domains, particularly if counterfeiting and misidentification of these products have been a problem.

Increasing Access

While most of IOMs work has been geared toward creating a technical knowledge bank, it has also provided consumer information since 1997, when IOM published a free pocket guide entitled The ABCs of Engine Oil. This booklet discussed in simple terms the key properties of engine oil and their effects on the engine as well as the engines effect on the oil.

IOM also created an inexpensive one-page consumer report on any product tested by IOM. It included tests results for operating viscosity, oxidation resistance, volatility, shear stability, acid resistance, as well as startability, pumpability and gelation tendencies at low-temperatures. A simple graph showed the consumer how the engine oil they selected compared with similarly classified engine oils in the IOM database for these nine key areas. In 2008, IOM took its expanded consumer information to the Internet.

Today www.EngineOilInfo.com is the entry point to two websites. Both provide information about engine oil, but in very different formats.

The first, www.EngineOil411.com offers quick, concise information. The recently redesigned site freely offers some data from the IOM database and a new, more robust report geared toward a particular consumer. The average Internet user wants quick and helpful information, and this approach helps meet that need. Additionally, there are niche market consumers hungry for data who participate in vehicle forums and engine oil blogs. They want to compare Brand A against Brand B, or learn if the new lower-viscosity synthetics will still protect their engines, or see how rerefined or biobased oils compare against other well-known products. With feedback from past customers and test groups, a report has been designed to help this type of consumer.

In comparison, www.IOMdata.com is geared toward those interested in technical data and comprehensive analytical reports. An IOM analytical report for an individual oil sample provides broad-scale data in viscometrics, elemental and chemical analysis, GC chromatograms, complete low-temperature values in an overlaid line graph, various oxidation tests and much more, including notations when results do not meet the specifications of the service categories listed on the label. (It is IOMs policy to retest to confirm results which are out of specification before publishing the data.)

Some of this data is also presented in graphical format for easier interpretation as well as comparison to other oils of the same classification. Test data can also be downloaded for interpretive research.

Looking Ahead

As new engine oil standards enter the market, IOM reviews and modifies its test matrix to include data relevant to the current market. This year IOM added the Emulsion Retention test (ASTM D7563) for all GF-4 oils being sampled, to provide a baseline comparison as the industry moves to GF-5 which requires compatibility with biofuels such as E-85. IOM will collect and test GF-5 and SN oils from the retail market as they become available this quarter.

IOM also plans to expand oil collection to Central and South America and parts of Eastern Europe, where consumer demands are increasing for quality oils.

Another growing area of interest is in quality monitoring of bulk oil, which by some estimates constitutes approximately 75 percent of the U.S. private-sector aftermarket. Bulk oil collection is more complex and more expensive. IOM has developed methods for obtaining clean samples of bulk oil for analysis, from past experience conducting secret shopper market sampling of quick-lube outlets for an independent study. Plans are in the works to begin collection and testing of bulk oil in 2011, with publication of the data as analysis is complete.

IOMs driving mission is to provide unbiased data on engine oil performance that will assist the development of quality engine lubricants. As OEMs, additive and engine oil manufacturers work to meet demands of the future, IOM will work to keep the engine oil knowledge bank relevant and accessible.