LW-13-101 Potential Impact of the Proposed GF-6 Oxidation Test on Base Oil Selection

Description:

ILSAC GF-6 is the new North America gasoline engine lubricant specification scheduled to be launched around the year of 2015 with commercial products available in 20016. A new Sequence III high temperature oxidation engine test will be deployed for lubricant performance evaluation on oxidation resistance, oil volatility, and deposit control. The new specification requirements are planned to be more challenging than the current NA specifications in all of these performance areas. Base oils, which usually account more than 80% of the gasoline engine oil composition, will have significant impact on meeting the new engine performance requirements. In this presentation, we will report how the base oil properties, both physical properties and chemical properties, affect engine test performance parameters through currently available high temperature Sequence IIIG engine test. These properties will be important for future lubricant base oil selection because their influences on the oxidation engine test are significant and there are no easy technical solutions from additive packages. Our study also concludes that the high temperature oxidation test will continue to be the dominant force in driving the base oil choices for lubricants and that the increasing demand in the coming GF-6 specification will further strengthen the dependency of base oil properties.