New Motor Oil Specs are Coming

Josh Kimmes|May 02, 2017 9:11 AM

As engine operating conditions grow more severe, so do the demands placed on your motor oil. New engine hardware such as turbochargers, direct injection and variable valve timing (VVT) place increased stress on your engine oil. You may find yourself asking, why do we need new engine hardware? What’s wrong with the tried-and-true equipment that has worked for years?

Well, automakers need every fuel economy gain under the sun they can get to meet tightening fuel-economy standards. And these new technologies help them get there.

More strict CAFE standards

The current corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standard requires a fleet-wide average of 54.5 mpg by 2025 in the United States, a five percent annual improvement. These requirements have spurred the automotive industry to turn to the hardware mentioned above to build smaller, more fuel-efficient engines. In fact, by 2020, industry experts predict that almost every new vehicle will feature direct-injection technology (GDI). The vast majority will also be turbocharged (TGDI).

All upside, right?

Smaller, more-efficient engines that make the power and torque of their higher-displacement counterparts is all upside, right? In theory, maybe. But, in reality, today’s advanced engines undergo more severe operating conditions that can lead to…

Severe engine knock, also called low-speed pre-ignition (LSPI)
Increased engine temperatures
Compromised fuel injectors
Increased wear and deposits if the oil isn’t up to snuff

The biggest motor-oil-related challenge on the horizon is LSPI, also known as severe engine knock. LSPI can destroy pistons and connecting rods.

What is LSPI?

LSPI is the spontaneous ignition of the fuel/air mixture before spark-triggered ignition. It is another version of pre-ignition. Pre-ignition (engine knock) has been around since the beginning of internal combustion engines. LSPI, however, occurs under low-speed, high-torque conditions in TGDI engines, such as when taking off from a stoplight. This scenario can create conditions where the fuel/air ignites too early in the combustion cycle, throwing off the engine’s timing. The expanding combustion charge collides with the piston as it’s moving up the cylinder, potentially destroying the pistons or connecting rods.

How Does LSPI Occur?

Experts suggest the cause is due in part to oil/fuel droplets or deposits in the cylinder auto-igniting randomly. The droplets and deposits contain enough heat to ignite the air/fuel mixture before the spark-triggered ignition. This means oil formulation can play a role in reducing LSPI.

Testing has shown that certain motor oil ingredients can promote LSPI, while others can help reduce it. It’s tempting to think, “Well, dump a bunch of ingredients into your formulations that help reduce LSPI!” But some ingredients that help reduce LSPI have been limited over the years in motor oil formulations for other reasons.

It truly is a scientific balancing act confronting us oil formulators. It’s no easy task to formulate motor oils that deliver excellent wear protection, resist the increased heat of turbocharged engines, prevent deposits, act as a hydraulic fluid and, now, combat LSPI. The performance of the entire formulation – not just one or two ingredients – is what counts.

Coming Soon: New Oil Specifications

Difficult or not, next-generation motor oils will need to fight LSPI. In fact, they’ll need to pass an LSPI test to meet the new API SP and ILSAC GF-6 performance specifications set to take effect in mid-2019. General Motors is ahead of the game and requires oils to pass its own LSPI test. Its updated GM dexos1 specification (known as dexos1 Gen 2) is scheduled to take effect Aug. 31, 2017. The table explains the specs in a little more detail.

Relax…for now

For now, you don’t have to worry too much about LSPI. Your vehicle’s computer is programmed to avoid operating conditions that lead to LSPI. But, operating your engine under those conditions does promise fuel economy gains. And, once oils hit the market that combat LSPI, you can bet the vehicle manufacturers will reprogram their vehicles to take advantage in their never-ending quest for better fuel economy.

AMSOIL Prepared for the Change

We’ve been hard at work reformulating Signature Series Synthetic Motor Oil, XL Synthetic Motor Oil and OE Synthetic Motor Oil to address LSPI. The early signs are exciting. Experimental formulations of AMSOIL synthetic motor oils provided 100 percent protection against LSPI in turbocharged direct-injected engines.* Expect to see them hit the market in the months ahead.

Check out this page to learn more about LSPI.

^*Based on the engine test required for GM dexos1 Gen2 specification.

What are CAFÉ Standards?

John Baker|May 08, 2017 1:22 PM

The energy crisis of the 1970s led to modern CAFE standards.

Back in March, news hit that the Trump administration was considering reevaluating the corporate average fuel economy (CAFÉ) standards that mandate fleet-wide fuel economy of 54.5 mpg by 2025.

Some claim the standards are too strict, will cost jobs and will take money from people’s pockets as vehicles become more expensive. Allegations of the Obama administration engaging in last-minute shenanigans to maintain the standard ensued.

On the flip side, others say that maintaining the current standard will strengthen our energy policy, reduce greenhouse gases and create jobs.

Either way, President Trump decided to re-examine the standard and determine whether or not to scale it back. A decision may not come until April 2018. Allegations of the Trump administration engaging in shenanigans have since ensued.

I’m not getting into any of that.

Instead, what’s the point CAFÉ standards and how did they begin?

Remember the Yom Kippur War of 1973? Me, either. I do, however, recall images of the gas lines of the 1970s. My parents occasionally dust off one of those stories about waiting hours for gas – if there was any – whenever we spoiled brats complain about $2.00/gal. gas.

Well, the U.S. decided to back Israel in the Yom Kippur War, and the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) expressed its disdain by shutting off the crude-oil spigot to America. The result? The price of oil quadrupled by March 1974.

Inevitably, the price of gas jumped, too, leading to widespread gas shortages and sticker shock when drivers rolled up to the pump in their massive, gas-chugging V-8s.

Things took another turn for the worse in 1979 after tempers again flared in the Middle East, this time involving Iran and Iraq, which pushed gas to record highs. The average price per gallon hit $2.64 in 1981, higher than today’s price.

By that time, the U.S. government had responded with its first set of CAFÉ standards, enacted in 1975. Each automaker’s auto fleet would have to deliver an average of 18 mpg by 1978 or face penalties. The standard, in theory, would reduce our dependency on foreign oil and mitigate future disruptions to the supply chain.

Take that, OPEC.

Better engines = better fuel economy

The CAFÉ standards have steadily grown more strict over the years. They also include trucks today, and the number is typically reported as the average between an automaker’s cars and light trucks.

Automakers have developed several new technologies to boost average fuel economy.

Vehicles today are much lighter than those of yesteryear, with the aluminum-bodied Ford F-150 representing the poster child for modern light-weighting.
Fuel injectors replaced the carburetor back the in 1980s, allowing for more precise fuel delivery.
Cylinder deactivation has evolved from fascinating space-age marvel to ho-hum technology, helping bigger vehicles squeeze a few more miles out of each gallon.
Turbochargers help smaller engines make more power, allowing automakers to use a four-cylinder engine where they once used a V-6.
Variable valve timing adjusts when the valves open and close in relation to operating conditions, boosting efficiency.
Direct fuel injection takes precision fuel delivery to another level.
Synthetic lubricants reduce energy lost to friction, while lower-viscosity lubricants reduce pumping losses. Plus, hybrid and electric vehicles are popping up in most automakers’ fleets to help increase their fleet-wide mpg average.
And, of course, most of these advancements wouldn’t be possible without computers now performing thousands of calculations per second as you drive, endlessly searching for the ideal confluence of performance and fuel economy.

And it all started with the Yom Kippur War.

Whatever happens in the latest battle of the CAFÉ standards, you can bet the automakers are going to keep ramping up their engine technology to get the most mpg possible.

Synthetic motor oil was made for strict CAFE standards

Many of these new advancements take a toll on the engine, too, which fellow blogger Josh Kimmes talked about recently. Modern engines run hotter, suffer increased stress and generate more contaminants in the motor oil, all on drain intervals much longer than the old 3,000-mile standby of years gone by. Is there any wonder why many automakers now use synthetic lubricants in their vehicles and recommend them as the service fill?

Upgrade your vehicle to AMSOIL synthetic lubricants to take full advantage of the amazing technology we’re seeing in the market today. They deliver outstanding wear protection and engine cleanliness, while maximizing fuel economy, too.

What good is driving the most advanced engine in the world if you don’t protect it with an oil just as advanced?

Wherever you stand on the issues, we can all agree on that.

Tag: amsoil