Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
When one adds one of these additives to your engine oil is there any expectation that the oil may now not be capable of meeting the spec's listed on the bottle? To pour the entire contents of one of these bottles of what-ever-it-is additives into an average engine is quite a hit.
A tireless choir on this forum says that additives do nothing, short of taking your money. Given the small amount of additive involved, it's most unlikely that they would change the specs of the underlying oil, whether the additives do nothing or otherwise.
Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
As I understand it, formulating an engine oil for sale that meets these spec's required by the API and manufacturers is no small task and different formulators have different methods and resources to accomplish their work.
It's no small task in the minds of those doing it. I noticed you addressed this question to Molakule. That's rather like asking a restaurant or movie critic if his job is important. You are likely to hear that it is not only important but it is also so complicated that you could not possibly understand the questions, much less understand the answers.
Study the analysis done by
Petroleum Quality Institute of America on a variety of popular synthetic oils. First note that every oil in this table meets API SN and ILSAC GF-5. [BTW, if you don't want a synthetic, look around the PQIA site - they test just about everything oily.)
The first conclusion you might reach is that it's not that hard to meet the SN and GF-5 standards. Start with base oil stock and add calcium and magnesium (both necessary for the 'detergent' nature of the oil) and a good dose of phosphorus which comes from ZDDP - an anti-wear additive. If you did nothing else, you should have an API SN and ILSAC GF-5 compliant oil. If a company or its tribologist is not not smart enough to figure it out, they can just look at the PQIA figures - their work is done for them.
Pennzoil Platinum uses this formula (plus a small dose of molybdenum) as do several other oil companies (with or without the molybdenum). Virtually everything else in the mix is just a trace element or impurity.
Granted, some of the oils tested by PQIA are different - really imaginative. Castrol Edge and Schaeffer's Supreme are examples, but then Castrol has always marched to a slightly different drummer. Most motor oils are just copies of each other (very much like most consumer products). And, they're all API SN and ILSAC GF-5 compliant!
Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
How could one bottle of additive anticipate all these circumstances and still
perform as claimed even if they claim to treat the engine, not the oil. In other words, do these additive makers have some knowledge that is possessed by no on else in the business of lubrication? Do they know something that Mobil for example does not know?
How can a motor oil anticipate all those circumstances and still perform as claimed?
There is probably no unique or secret knowledge possessed exclusively by a large oil company or an additive maker. But that does not mean that 'big oil' uses all they know or makes the best product possible. Oil companies are in business to make money (and they are very good at that). If they make a decent product along the way, that's great, but that is not the business they are in. Else, why would auto makers have to specify Top Tier gasoline or the use of Techron or VW specify an MoS2 additive for its engines.
As for
perform as claimed that's rather subjective. Many additives will simply boost the oil's content of one or more ingredients - moly or titanium or ZDDP or boron. Maybe it's better, maybe not. Clearly the oil companies themselves don't agree. Maybe your favorite oil does not have enough boron to suit you? Just add a bit of
Motor Silk to the mix and you could turn your Pennzoil Platinum into Pennzoil Ultra (quite literally). BTW, boron is an anti-friciton additive - makes the oil slippery.
Some additive makers have more credibility than others... the same might be said for oil companies. Do you really want to buy a motor oil marketed by Lucas? How about a Lucas additive? And, in more than one case, e.g. Quaker State, the oil company and the additive maker are the same company. Do you trust them more now that you know this?