wemay
Site Donor 2023
Nice simple explanation of the differences:
http://www.carsmagazine.ca/features/european-oils/
"....Liqui Moly’s Kuhn adds that at the most fundamental level, the API ILSAC specifications and the additive packages the oil blenders use are based on gasoline engines only, which makes sense as gasoline engines are the most common engines used in passenger vehicles in North America. “ACEA, on the other hand, is for gasoline and diesel engines. An ACEA oil has to be suited for both fuel types. An ACEA oil suited only for gasoline cars is not permitted. Diesel creates more contaminants therefore the oil needs more detergents than oil for gasoline engines only. This extra amount of detergents interferes with the API testing scheme and would make an ACEA oil fail the API test...”
"...Eni added in their comments that the “API is concerned with preserving gasoline devices (three-way catalysts) only, and this is addressed by limits on phosphorus and sulphur. On the other side, ACEA has a sub-set of dedicated specifications with wider, more stringent compositional limits, to preserve also the life of diesel particulate filters. In order to meet these specifications, the oils have to be formulated with a completely different technology. These are the so-called low-mid SAPS oils. SAPS is an acronym for the chemical and physical parameters for which these limits are posed.
“Another difference is related to some aspects which are peculiar of more concern for one of the two realities only. Unlike the ACEA, API tests the impact on the oil of ethanol, being significantly present in U.S. gasoline, and other aspects such as turbocharger deposits, behaviour of used oil at low temperatures and phosphorus volatility. European specifications, on the other side, do not address the above ethanol issues, but – unlike API – include some tests for which gasoline with five per cent FAME is used.”
http://www.carsmagazine.ca/features/european-oils/
"....Liqui Moly’s Kuhn adds that at the most fundamental level, the API ILSAC specifications and the additive packages the oil blenders use are based on gasoline engines only, which makes sense as gasoline engines are the most common engines used in passenger vehicles in North America. “ACEA, on the other hand, is for gasoline and diesel engines. An ACEA oil has to be suited for both fuel types. An ACEA oil suited only for gasoline cars is not permitted. Diesel creates more contaminants therefore the oil needs more detergents than oil for gasoline engines only. This extra amount of detergents interferes with the API testing scheme and would make an ACEA oil fail the API test...”
"...Eni added in their comments that the “API is concerned with preserving gasoline devices (three-way catalysts) only, and this is addressed by limits on phosphorus and sulphur. On the other side, ACEA has a sub-set of dedicated specifications with wider, more stringent compositional limits, to preserve also the life of diesel particulate filters. In order to meet these specifications, the oils have to be formulated with a completely different technology. These are the so-called low-mid SAPS oils. SAPS is an acronym for the chemical and physical parameters for which these limits are posed.
“Another difference is related to some aspects which are peculiar of more concern for one of the two realities only. Unlike the ACEA, API tests the impact on the oil of ethanol, being significantly present in U.S. gasoline, and other aspects such as turbocharger deposits, behaviour of used oil at low temperatures and phosphorus volatility. European specifications, on the other side, do not address the above ethanol issues, but – unlike API – include some tests for which gasoline with five per cent FAME is used.”
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