Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

It's hard to review oil without access to the lab test results. I mean you put it in the engine of your car and your car still works, great. Not much to review. You'd have to set up two identical cars with different oils and run them for 100,000 miles to do a proper test at home without specialty test equipment. So for my review I'm going to focus on what those certifications on the bottle actually mean, because not all oils have the same certifications. Demystifying oil certifications A long time ago people had low standards for oil. Engines were simple, a coke was ten cents. Now oil is expected to help you get great mileage, work with crazy direct injection turbo engines, run E85 ethanol, not damage your emissions system, and keep your engine from wearing out. To do all this your oil is less about the oil itself and more about the additives package it is mixed with. Slipperyness enhancers, wear reducers, seal conditioners, and a whole lot more. Dexos 1 Gen 2 General Motors went out and made their own proprietary standard, and then they charge oil makers $0.36 / gallon to put the label on. Some oil makers have balked at the price and aren't paying. Amazon I guess decided that you care about it and paid up. What is interesting is that GM chairs the committee that did GF-5 (see below) and made their own standard so it would be more strict. So if oil has Dexos 1 Gen 2 it meets stricter standards than GF-5, but other oil might meet those standards too and just choose not to pay GM to say they do. GF-5 (better than GF-4, GF-3, GF-2, GF-1) October 2010. Improved high temperature deposit protection for pistons and turbochargers, better sludge control, improved fuel economy, enhanced emission control system compatibility, seal compatibility, rust protection, and protection of engines operating on ethanol-containing fuels up to E85. Pretty much anybody that meets GF-5 will say they do, the license is cheap. For GF-5: API service category SN (better than SA, SB, ..., SM) Has to meet cam wear, engine sludge, viscosity increases at temperature, bearing wear, aged oil low temp, rust, evaporative loss, sheer viscosity, flow reduction, phosphorus min, phosphorus max, sulpher max, foaming tendancy, high temperature foaming tendancy, high temperature deposits max, API service category SN Plus (New in Nov 2017) This is the same as SN but adds protection against low speed pre-ignition for direct injection gasoline engines. Again, oil that meets this will likely be labeled with it. SN Resource Conserving Tested to stand up E85 use (ethanol blend fuels) Tested to keep a minimum Phosphorus retention and to keep its viscosity better as it ages, which means you can theoretically go longer between oil changes. Again, oil that meets this will likely be labeled with it.