jumpinjan
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AMSOIL - Motor Oil Viscosity Grades
- Thread starter jumpinjan
- Start date
DanR
Diamond Level Sponsor
Interesting as you say!
I spent 5 years in Alaska from 1972 till '77 assigned to the Alaskan Air Command. Our main responsibility was providing logistics to the entire USAF facilities especially the outlying areas. The main method was by a Project named COOL BARGE. Most critical of those shipments was food stuffs and petroleum products. I recall some of the debates given on viscosity because of the critical needs of energy (power) for the Site.
Amsoil was part of that discussion and part of the supply provided especially for the Diesel engines .
65beam
Donation Time
Dan,
Amsoil went into business in 1972. FYI Dan,the founder was a fighter pilot. The engine oil spec at that time was an SE. That's a long way from today's SN spec. At that time none of the majors were marketing a synthetic. The synthetic Amsoil started blending had many advantages over conventional oils. As time went on and turbos came into use the oil companies had to start blending an oil with a higher soak down temperature to keep the turbo bearings from frying after engine shut down. As the required specs increased the turbo oil went by the wayside due to the temperature range of the new specs. They mention that the majors use a group 3 base oil refined from crude to blend synthetics nor do they mention the use by Shell of a base stock derived from natural gas. What they're not saying is that due to the quality of the new spec base oil is that synthetic oils blended using Group 3 base oil can meet the specs of synthetics blended using a PAO base stock as used by Amsoil. They're also not mentioning anything about the additives blended with the Group 3 to meet synthetic specs. Engine oil specs continue to improve. GM recently went to a world wide DEXOS spec for their vehicles that wiped out the ability of a 5/20 whether full synthetic or a synthetic blend to wear the DEXOS label. GM says to start using a 0/20 DEXOS oil in vehicles under warranty that originally required a 5/30. We now stock a 0/16 for the Honda dealers . Engine oils continue to evolve and that includes synthetics. Many private blenders are now packaging for other companies in order to survive. Amsoil has also branched off into blending conventional oil. I've been in the lube/fuel business a lot of years and I've seen a lot of changes to lubes and expect to see many more changes . I've also seen companies like Brad Penn that have gotten bought out by larger companies. Shell, Pennzoil and Quaker State are part of Sopus, Phillips owns Kendall, Conoco and Union76 and the list goes on. My point is that companies like Amsoil will continue to have a small niche in the market but they need to accept what is happening elsewhere including the fact that others have a comparable product that may be blended in a different manner at a lower cost.
Amsoil went into business in 1972. FYI Dan,the founder was a fighter pilot. The engine oil spec at that time was an SE. That's a long way from today's SN spec. At that time none of the majors were marketing a synthetic. The synthetic Amsoil started blending had many advantages over conventional oils. As time went on and turbos came into use the oil companies had to start blending an oil with a higher soak down temperature to keep the turbo bearings from frying after engine shut down. As the required specs increased the turbo oil went by the wayside due to the temperature range of the new specs. They mention that the majors use a group 3 base oil refined from crude to blend synthetics nor do they mention the use by Shell of a base stock derived from natural gas. What they're not saying is that due to the quality of the new spec base oil is that synthetic oils blended using Group 3 base oil can meet the specs of synthetics blended using a PAO base stock as used by Amsoil. They're also not mentioning anything about the additives blended with the Group 3 to meet synthetic specs. Engine oil specs continue to improve. GM recently went to a world wide DEXOS spec for their vehicles that wiped out the ability of a 5/20 whether full synthetic or a synthetic blend to wear the DEXOS label. GM says to start using a 0/20 DEXOS oil in vehicles under warranty that originally required a 5/30. We now stock a 0/16 for the Honda dealers . Engine oils continue to evolve and that includes synthetics. Many private blenders are now packaging for other companies in order to survive. Amsoil has also branched off into blending conventional oil. I've been in the lube/fuel business a lot of years and I've seen a lot of changes to lubes and expect to see many more changes . I've also seen companies like Brad Penn that have gotten bought out by larger companies. Shell, Pennzoil and Quaker State are part of Sopus, Phillips owns Kendall, Conoco and Union76 and the list goes on. My point is that companies like Amsoil will continue to have a small niche in the market but they need to accept what is happening elsewhere including the fact that others have a comparable product that may be blended in a different manner at a lower cost.
DanR
Diamond Level Sponsor
Yep! You provide lots of info...and as the industry moves forward all this will be in the past! What the future holds for lubricates is wide open - knowledge increases rapidly, as I said "way back then ('72- onward...) the debate on oils needed for our Diesel Generators was at times very heated. Amsoil was part of that discussion of which I was not partaker
thank goodness.
65beam
Donation Time
Dan,
There are many times that I rely on a team of engineers at the other end of an 800 number for answers concerning what should be used since they have a data base that includes exceptions to the rules. I have a couple mills that I sell to that have the same Ingersol Rand screw type compressors. Due to where it was located one was running much hotter than the others. The infra red gun was showing a temp of 450 F. Based on a previous event at another location some where the engineer came up with an oil that worked. Thirty years ago we would have been very worried with a diesel truck engine running at todays temps. Today's diesel engine oils have pour points of -20 f to as low as -40 depending on the "weight". Even though I'm supposed to be retired I hang around to see what will happen next.
There are many times that I rely on a team of engineers at the other end of an 800 number for answers concerning what should be used since they have a data base that includes exceptions to the rules. I have a couple mills that I sell to that have the same Ingersol Rand screw type compressors. Due to where it was located one was running much hotter than the others. The infra red gun was showing a temp of 450 F. Based on a previous event at another location some where the engineer came up with an oil that worked. Thirty years ago we would have been very worried with a diesel truck engine running at todays temps. Today's diesel engine oils have pour points of -20 f to as low as -40 depending on the "weight". Even though I'm supposed to be retired I hang around to see what will happen next.