ILSAC GF-5:  WHY

The proposed ILSAC (International Lubricant Standardization and Approval Committee) GF-5 specification is driven by needs expressed by the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs):

• To capture defined improvements in
  • Fuel economy
  • Fuel economy retention
  • Protection of emission control systems
• To service expanding use of new hardware technologies
  • Variable valve actuation (VVA)
  • Trubochargers
  • Spark ignition direct injection (SIDI) engines
  • Alternative fuels, particularly E85
• To affect engine oil robustness
  • Increased IIIG WPD limit
  • Increased VG AES, RCS and decreased OSC limits
  • Decreased TEOST MHT limit

ILSAC GF-5:  WHAT

ILSAC issued a draft specification – ILSAC GF-5 Standard for Passenger Car Engine Oils – on February 21, 2007, which stipulated:

• Tighter limits
  • Phosphorus maximum level reduced from 0.08% to 0.07%
  • Sludge (Sequence VG) and deposits (Sequence IIIG Weighted Piston Deposits [WPD])
  • TEOST MHT
  • Oil screening clogging (Sequence VG)
  • Foaming
• New tests
  • Phosphorus volatility/retention
  • Fuel economy (Sequence VID)
  • Rust and emulsion for E85
  • Seal compatibility
  • Aeration
  • ROBO (used oil viscometrics)

ILSAC GF-5:  HOW

Following is a comparison of the proposed new specification versus the current ILSAC GF-4 in terms of tighter limits and new tests

ILSAC GF-5:  WHEN

The following represents the original timeline for new specification development:

The impact of key items from the ILSAC GF-5 timeline will affect timing:

• Estimated industry funding of GF-5 precision matrices
• Biggest item will be the Sequence VID
• Official timing to run matrices is 2Q/3Q 2008
• Acc estimates cost range for precision matrices at $1.2-1.9M
• ACC estimate of cost range for BOI/VGRA test at $400K=$1M
• Historically, API, ACC and ILSAC split one-third each for precision part of matrix
• Estimate of individual trade association share for precision matrices at $400-620K

• Completion of Sequence VID test development
• Official timing end 1Q08

• Definition of category demonstration oil
  • Difficult to define without clearer picture about Gf-5, including chemical limits, and most likely tests and performance limits
    
    
• First license date targeted for July 1, 2010