what oil to use

[scoobyxj]

My pop, and I where poking around Wally World today looking at oil. He uses the Super Tech, and says it's just as good as most others. What he told me is that the letter disination on the back is how to tell the quality. As we where looking over the verious brands I noitced that The Supertech synthetic did infact have the same letters as Moble-1 synthetic (same with the non syn's). He also said that certain oils have a second set of letters certifing it for diesels. Which the Moble-1 syn, and Supertech syn both had. I also noticed neather Pinzoil, or Q-State had the same letters as any of the other brands. However the Q-State syn blend had the same letters as the reguler Moble-1. IIRC the Pinzoil, and Q-State had CM, the Q-State syn blend had CL. The Moble-1, and the Supertech had CL as well. The Moble-1, and Supertech synthetics had CL- and another set (I can't recall) certifing it for diesels. Anyone care to add, or comment on this aspect.

 

[Rick Anderson]

Your talking about the API Donut on the back of the bottles of oil. Read the specs in the link below.

http://api-ep.api.org/filelibrary/API_MotorOilGuide_2004.pdf

Thats is considered the absolute minimum certification of quality and meeting the modern specs for best engine performance. If an oil DOES NOT have that label on it, or the Label has a certification for an outdated spec, then put it down and look for another.

Gasoline Automotive Engines have an API Service Designation of "S", followed by a letter for the Spec that it meets. The latter spec is assigned a letter farther down the alphabet. When you read that, all it tells you is the Oil meets the latest API spec, yes, if one oil only meets earlier specs and the other meets the latter spec, then the one with the latter spec is better quality. BUT, you shouldn't even consider using an oil that only meets earlier specs, its inferior oil. Almost all oil sold will meet the latest API Spec, so the speculation as too the better quality still holds true. Some oil may barely meet the latest API Spec and others may exceed the API spec drastically. The european specs are much higher than the US, so another clue is too read the bottle and see if they mention meeting European specs as well? Notice Mobil1 bottle will list all the European specs and says it meets and/or exceeds them.

 

[scoobyxj]

Rick that was exactly what I was talking about. Also to clear up a mistake in my earlier post the API service letter for the Moble-1, and Supertech syn was CM not CL.