Comparative Motor Oil Testing

IMPRESSED WITH AMSOIL – Austin Liles of Moore, Okla. uses AMSOIL XL Synthetic Motor Oil in his 2004 Honda Civic to get the best performance possible from the engine.

What do a 2004 Honda Civic and a 1990 Honda Accord have in common? AMSOIL XL Synthetic Motor Oil.

Austin Liles, installed AMSOIL XL 5W-20 and an AMSOIL filter in his 2004 Honda Civic at the engine’s first oil change at about 10,000 miles.

“I immediately noticed a few changes,” Liles reports.

The first time he started the engine, the oil warning light turned off as soon as the engine started. “There was no delay, like I’m used to,” he said. “Now the warning light turns off before the engine even starts, all it has to do is crank.”

The car ran better almost immediately, as well. “Before I even got out of second gear, the engine just seemed to run smoother,” he said.

Liles told a friend the AMSOIL XL 5W-20 made a big difference in his new car, but he didn’t describe what was different.

About a week later, the friend reported he’d installed the AMSOIL XL 5W-20 Synthetic Motor Oil in his 1990 Honda Accord, with 240,000 miles on the engine.

“His engine was running smoother than ever,” Liles said. “We have never been more satisfied and impressed with an oil before.”

Amsoil Fact
While it’s safe to install AMSOIL Synthetic Motor Oil in a new engine during the break-in period, most new vehicles come filled with petroleum oil. It only makes good sense to change to AMSOIL at the first scheduled oil change interval.

New engine components generate high levels of wear metals and can contain contaminants from assembly. By allowing the engine to operate with the petroleum oil until the first oil/filter change interval, the wear metals and contaminants are removed prior to installing AMSOIL.

High fuel prices are a hot topic of conversation. Significant price jumps over the last year have become an area of concern for motorists and businesses everywhere. Many consumers are taking steps to reduce the hit to their pocketbooks by consuming less fuel. Fuel efficiency has become a significant selling point for auto dealers. Fuel inefficient SUV sales have slumped, while fuel efficient economy car sales are on the upswing. Cities experience greater interest in public transportation, and car pools are gaining popularity.

Choosing AMSOIL Synthetic Motor Oil over a conventional oil also provides fuel savings.

Fluid Friction
Refined petroleum-based lubricants are composed of irregular molecules of various sizes. As they slip across each other, excess friction is created. The vehicle’s engine must burn extra fuel to overcome this friction, decreasing fuel economy. AMSOIL synthetic lubricants, on the other hand, contain only smooth, uniform molecules that easily slip across each other, reducing internal friction within the lubricant, allowing fuel to be diverted from the task of overcoming friction to reaching the drivetrain, decreasing overall fuel consumption.

Friction Between Moving Parts
Oil viscosity plays a critical role in reducing friction. If viscosity is too high, it contributes to fluid friction, while an oil with a viscosity that is too low cannot adequately maintain a complete, unbroken oil film between engine surfaces. Without this film, excess friction is created between moving parts, increasing wear and fuel consumption. AMSOIL synthetic lubricants maintain their viscosity for an unbroken oil film between engine parts that reduces friction and decreases fuel consumption.

Thermal and Oxidative Stability
Some of the chemicals in conventional lubricants break down at temperatures within the normal operating range of many vehicle and equipment components, coating components with varnish, deposits and sludge and leaving the oil thick and difficult to pump. This higher viscosity oil reduces engine and fuel efficiency because components must expend extra energy, and extra fuel, to do their jobs. Because AMSOIL synthetic lubricants do not contain these volatile chemicals, they resist thermal and oxidative breakdown. Components stay clean, oil viscosity remains constant and fuel efficiency remains high.

Volatization
Conventional lubricants also are susceptible to volatility. When an oil’s lighter molecules volatize, or burn off, during hot operating conditions, oil viscosity increases even more, again reducing fuel economy. AMSOIL synthetic lubricants with their uniformly sized molecules resist volatization much better than conventional lubricants, maintain their viscosities and allow more fuel to be used for vehicle propulsion to improve fuel economy.

How Much Can Be Saved With AMSOIL?
Using AMSOIL synthetic motor oils, gear lubes and drivetrain fluids can have a profound impact on fuel economy. It’s generally accepted within the industry that an average passenger car can conservatively decrease its fuel consumption by two to five percent by switching to synthetic lubricants. Many AMSOIL customers report even larger gains in fuel economy. According to data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, American vehicles consumed almost 75 billion gallons of gasoline in 2003. If all these vehicles switched to AMSOIL synthetic lubricants and realized a five percent fuel economy improvement, the U.S. would save 3.75 billion gallons of fuel. At a pump price of $2.30 a gallon, this equates to a savings of more than $8.7 billion.

Bureau of Transportation Statistics data also indicates the average passenger vehicle used 550 gallons of gasoline in 2003. Gasoline expenses can be a significant portion of the average family’s budget, especially with today’s prices. At $2.30 a gallon, 550 gallons of gas costs $1265.00. A five percent fuel economy improvement would save 27.5 gallons of gasoline and yield $63.25 a year in fuel savings. That’s enough to cover the price of a year’s supply of AMSOIL synthetic motor oil and Ea Oil Filters, with money left over.

In addition to fuel savings, AMSOIL synthetic lubricants also allow motorists to reduce oil usage through extended drain intervals, all while significantly reducing friction and wear, improving engine performance and extending equipment life.

Unstable gasoline and fuel prices in 2005 have riveted the nation’s attention. Crude oil prices rose to record highs during the summer, then climbed higher after the horror of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. US Energy Information Administration projected gasoline and diesel fuel prices would fall from record highs of more than $3 a gallon, yet remain high across the nation into 2006 and beyond. “With as much as 5 percent of refinery capacity expected to remain shut down for months, it will take time for the gasoline supply system to return to normal, implying that prices could remain elevated (the U.S. average retail price was $2.93 per gallon during the first week of October) for some time to come. With significant volumes of refinery capacity expected to remain out for an extended period, consumers should not expect prices to decline quickly, since the disruption to supply is still occurring,” the EIA said in a mid-September report.

Consumers looking to reduce fuel costs should start with lubricants. The “goal” of the engine and drivetrain is the maximum transfer of the energy released from fuel combustion to the wheels to move the vehicle. The engine and drivetrain accomplish their goal mechanically. Each mechanical component has moving parts that require lubrication for friction, heat and wear control. Ironically, while parts move with significantly reduced friction when a lubricant separates them, the lubricant itself contributes some friction to the system because of the way its molecules slip over one another. Conventional petroleum oils consist of molecules of varying sizes in long carbon chains that don’t easily slip across one another, which contributes to friction and reduces fuel efficiency.

AMSOIL lubes are engineered with uniform, smooth synthetic lubricant molecules that slip across one another easily. That reduces intra-fluid friction, which in turn improves power and fuel economy, because more of the energy released from fuel combustion reaches the wheels and movesthe vehicle. The vehicle accelerates more quickly and powerfully because more of the fuel goes to moving the vehicle instead of overcoming friction. The vehicle also works more efficiently, which increases fuel economy, or miles per gallon, because more of the fuel goes to moving the vehicle than to overcoming friction. Furthermore, the various sized molecules in conventional petroleum oils also are sensitive to heat at relatively low temperatures, which changes the oil’s viscosity.

Heat causes oils to oxidize, which forms sludge and deposits that cause the oil to thicken and create drag on moving parts. That drag reduces fuel efficiency. Likewise, heat causes the lighter molecules in petroleum oils to volatize, or “boil off.” Again, this leaves behind a thicker oil, which creates drag on the moving parts and increases fuel consumption.

Again, because AMSOIL synthetic motor oils are engineered with uniform molecules, they are significantly more resistant to the effects of heat and inhibit oxidation and volatization, which means they inhibit thickening and the formation of sludge and deposits that reduce fuel efficiency.

Research indicates synthetic motor oils can increase fuel efficiency by 2 percent to 3 percent. However, anecdotal reports claim even greater fuel efficiency. AMSOIL synthetic motor oils were the first fully synthetic motor oils on the market in 1972. AMSOIL uses only the very best synthetic base stocks and world-class additive packages formulated specifically for each engine oil and lubricant application. In fact, certified test results report AMSOIL Synthetic Motor Oil shows an Energy Conservation (EC-II) pass of the ASTM Sequence VI test for fuel efficiency at 3.72 percent. Minimum standards require an oil to pass by 2.7 percent.

“The 3.72 percent EFEI (Energy Fuel Efficiency Index) represents a 38 percent improvement over the minimum requirement for EC-II,” according to the ASTM report.

AMSOIL President Receives Award
AMSOIL President and CEO Albert Amatuzio was awarded the highest recognition possible by the Independent Lubricant Manufacturers Association. Amatuzio earned the 2005 Nachtman Award, an honor awarded to ILMA manufacturing member company representatives who have made unique and significant contributions to the independent lubricant manufacturing industry.

Recipients of the award are chosen by ILMA based on their vision, dedicated spirit and selflessness. The award is named after the late Elliott Nachtman, who worked for the benefit of ILMA and the industry, according to “Compoundings” magazine.

The monthly ILMA publication featured a story about Amatuzio in its “Movers and Shakers” section in the October 2005 issue.

Amatuzio has proven his mettle in the industry. After 25 years in the U.S. military as an award-winning jet fighter pilot and squadron commander, Amatuzio realized the synthetic lubricants that withstood the punishment of jet engines also would work in other internal combustion engines such as cars, trucks and more.

In the mid-1960s, Amatuzio assembled the industry’s most knowledgeable chemists and, after an intense period of research and development, directed the formulation of the world’s first synthetic motor oil that exceeded American Petroleum Institute service requirements, AMSOIL 10W-40. Amatuzio not only introduced the first API-rated synthetic motor oil in 1972, he created the synthetic motor oil industry and redefined the boundaries of lubrication performance.

In February 1994, Amatuzio was inducted into the Lubricant World Hall of Fame as recognition for his contribution to the lubricants industry.

Since the beginning, Amatuzio and AMSOIL have been leaders in innovation, through the development of synthetic transmission fluids, gear lubes, diesel oils, racing oils, four-cycle oils and two-cycle oils. Amatuzio also was the first to use the term “extended drain interval” with the introduction of AMSOIL Synthetic Motor Oil in 1972.

AMSOIL Opens New Center in Superior WI
Also in 2005, AMSOIL opened its new AMSOIL Distribution Center, a 374,000-square-foot building set on 55.5 acres near company headquarters and production facilities in Superior, Wis. It features 38 loading/shipping docks. The building has 30-foot ceilings, with racking throughout to hold product and 12,000 square feet of office space. The company has long-range plans for development of the new facility.

“AMSOIL is a company on the move,” said Director of Operations Scott Davis.

AMSOIL Dealer Lyle Antrobus of Fort Collins, Colo. has been sponsoring the Colorado State University RAM Racing Formula SAE team for many years. Antrobus graduated from CSU and worked with the university for 18 years, so he was eager to help the RAM team.

The 2006 Colorado State University RAM Racing team.

Each year, new classes of mechanical engineering students conceive, design and fabricate a small, formula-style race car. The students use in-house equipment to fabricate the body and many of the parts. Certain items, like the car’s Yamaha engine, are purchased off the shelf at local stores.

When the car is complete, the team takes it to competitions across the nation. The CSU team is required to demonstrate their car’s capabilities in acceleration, braking, autocross, endurance and other technical applications. While the team might evolve each year with some members graduating, the one constant is AMSOIL. Antrobus provides the team with AMSOIL motor oil, grease, suspension fluid and gear lube, something the team feels has been a big part of their success. “AMSOIL products have been a key factor in making our program a success,” said a spokesman for the team.

“Since using their products, we’ve never had an engine fail. They’ve provided us with the opportunity and flexibility to experiment with innovative designs, making us a program known for cutting-edge technology and ideas.”