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

Reply to
C. E. White
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Reply to
NOSPAM

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

Reply to
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:

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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.)

Reply to
Kirk Kohnen

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?

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Reply to
<mcben

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.

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Reply to
Kirk Kohnen

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

Reply to
Alan King

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