DIESEL EMISSIONS
Why Engine Oils Are Crucial for the Diesel Emissions Industry
VERY OFTEN WHEN A DIESEL FILTER CLEANING business is processing fi lters, the technicians performing the work are mostly unaware excess contamination in the diesel particulate fi lter could be caused by inferior engine oil that doesn’t meet the latest standards for diesel engines. As with any products that are sold, less expensive products are attractive to truck owners and fl eet managers. Unsuspecting users of these less expensive oils end up seeing an increase in maintenance costs. There are two fi nancial numbers truck owners and fl eet managers are constantly aware of: the maintenance budget and the cost per mile or per hour of a truck or piece of equipment. Sometimes the correlation between an increased maintenance budget and a reduced cost per mile/ per hour to operate is not evaluated for the benefi t of reducing the cost to operate. This is not the case in all operations as there are very savvy fl eet managers who understand how all of the pieces of maintenance aff ect the equipment’s cost of operation and ownership.
As with everything that is new (which diesel emissions fi ltering systems can no longer be considered new since they were introduced in the 2007 HD diesel trucking model year), the learning curve can be steep and expensive for companies who are trying to achieve reliability to ensure their profi ts. Not only have there been changes to the diesel emissions fi ltering systems over the past 15 years, but there have also been updates to the engine oils that are used and recommended by the engine manufacturers. The diesel engine oils recommended today are far diff erent from diesel engine oils used 15 plus years ago. With the introduction of the diesel emissions fi ltering system came improvements in oil technology. Through advancements in oil the amount of ash that is produced in the diesel particulate fi lter is reduced.
Before we examine today’s latest and greatest diesel engine oils, let’s outline a basic explanation of what engine oil is. According to Lubricants and Related Products:
Motor oil, engine oil, or engine lubricant is any one of various substances that consist of base oils enhanced with various additives, particularly antiwear additives, detergents, dispersants, and, for multi-grade oils, viscosity index improvers. Motor oil is used for lubrication of internal combustion engines. The main function of motor oil is to reduce friction and wear on moving
10 | THE COOLING JOURNAL | September/October 2021 By: Mark Taylor
NARSA/IDEA Executive Director
mtaylor@narsa.org
parts and to clean the engine from sludge (one of the functions of dispersants) and varnish (detergents). It also neutralizes acids that originate from fuel and from oxidation of the lubricant (detergents), improves sealing of piston rings, and cools the engine by carrying heat away from moving parts.[1]
Over the years, oil technology has evolved so certain engine’s emissions outcomes can be infl uenced by the type of oil that is used. For decades, engine manufacturers have always looked for ways to improve fuel economy and extend the life of their engines. Even though synthetic oils have been around since the oil embargo of Germany during WWII, they were not widely used. Once the government started to mandate more stringent emission and fuel economy standards many OEMs started to use synthetic oils as original fi ll from the factory. The synthetic oil helped the manufacturers to meet the more stringent regulations being placed on them by the government. The OEM’s cannot ensure the consumer will continue to use synthetic oil since it is more expensive, but the engines and their rated performance characteristics are based on the factory fi ll of highly advanced synthetic oil.
Today’s synthetic oils are specifi cally designed for diesel engines. As was stated earlier, the diesel engine oils that meet the latest American Petroleum Institute (API) standards have been developed and rigorously tested to reduce the amount of contamination that is present in today’s diesel engines exhaust stream.
In 2016, API announced the introduction of two new diesel engine oil standards. API CK-4 and FA-4 fi rst appeared in the API service symbol donut on Dec. 1, 2016. According to API, these new service categories improved upon existing standards by providing enhanced protection against oil oxidation, engine wear, particulate fi lter blocking, piston deposits, and degradation of low- and high-temperature properties.
Here’s an expert from API’s press release:
API CK-4 describes oils for use in high-speed, four-stroke-cycle diesel engines designed to meet 2017 model-year on-highway and Tier-4 non-road exhaust-emission standards as well as for previous model-year diesel engines. These oils are formulated for use in all applications with diesel fuels ranging in sulfur content up to 500 parts per million (ppm). However, the use of these
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