Long Life Oil for the Saturn EcoTec 2.2 Liter Engine...

One problem with your hypotehetical example - long term tests of motor
oil show that the oil get thicker (viscosity increases) with usage - at
least in the case of engines in good conditions. If you have an engine
with a lot of blow-by, then all bets are off.

There are plenty of US and Japanese studies of motor oil that show there
is no wear advantage for higher viscosity oil.

I assume that Europeans recommend higher viscosity oil becasue of the
possibility of very high speed travel for relatively long distances and
the fact that there is not a European equivalent of the CAFE regulations
as we know them to offer any reason for specifying the lighter oil.


Regards,

Ed White

 

Thank you! Excellent information.
MN

 

Ah, if only that were true. Hummers and other SUV's are profitable vehicles,
but not quite that profitable.

The issue of 5W-30 vs. 0W-40 doesn't really have anything to do with the oil
change interval recommendations. As far as the oil goes, it is the additive
package that is put into the oil, driving what the oil costs and American
consumers like their oil like they like their gasoline, as in cheap. And yet
even when their cars come with oil change monitors that tell them they can go 6
or 7,000 miles between oil changes, they will still change it every 3 or 4,000
miles.

You can be as cynical as you want, but it still comes down to competing in a
marketplace and giving the customer what they want.

Alan King

 

Hmmm...

Then why did Mobil 1 0W-40 get the GM-LL-A-025 certification, and Mobil 1
5W-30 not get it?

Not a rethorical question - I'd really like to know. Especially when there
are different weight oils from different manufacturers that also meet the
GM-LL-A-025 specification. For example:

http://www.aral-lubricants.com/lubricants/com/international_news/two.content.html

Um, the original question that I asked was whether we could use an oil that
meets GM-LL-A-025 and go for on the order of 30,000 km as they can in
Europe. I understand that if you have a "cheap" oil that doesn't meet the
spec. that you shouldn't even try it. But, you can get oil (e. g., Mobil 1
0W-40) that meets the spec. in the US. So, would it be OK to do that?

I am NOT being "cynical" as you suggest. You conveniently snipped out the
explanation that I made regarding the economics between the US and Europe.

As an example, I know that the US has fuel economy standards that are
imposed on car companies. If they manage to improve the fuel mileage of a
large number of cars, they can use that mileage to legally sell some more
low mileage (and more profitable) large vehicles. This provides an incentive
for the automakers to recommend a thinner oil (to improve the mileage) on
their vehicles.

It still comes down to competing in a GOVERNMENT REGULATED marketplace and
MAXIMIZING PROFIT by giving the customer what they want SUBJECT TO THE
REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS IMPOSED ON THE AUTOMAKERS.

(This is the reason that firearms are legal, yet lawn darts are banned.)

 

But is the oil filter(s) in the USA able to be filtering oil for that long?
Or should there be a filter change with oil added for what is lost in the
old filter?

 

EcoTec 2.2 Liter engine has a cartridge filter that installs IN the engine
block, NOT a spin-on can type of filter. The cartridge resembles the innards
of a spin-on filter. My guess is that if you removed the cartridge, it might
be holding an ounce, or at MOST, two ounces of oil.

And, GM says nothing about changing the cartridge in-between changes.

 

Because they have different additive pacakges.

Not in my opinion.

I didn't "conveniently" snip out anything. America is a primarily capitalistic
society that is not willing to fund social programs by taxing gasoline and oil.
Europe has become primarily a socialist society and taxes the hell out of
everything, especially gasoline and oil. When British and European people move
over here, either temporarily or permanently, practically the first thing they
usually do is buy a large American car because they can A) afford the gas for
it; and B) it is so much more comfortable to drive than the small cars they
have had to drive all their lives because gasoline was so expensive.

Both the US and Europe are heavily (but differently) regulated marketplaces,
resulting in significant solutions by the automakers who compete in them.

Alan King