Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/795447
32 commercial carrier journal | march 2017 New oil categories entering the mainstream BY JASON CANNON N ew diesel engine oil categories CK-4 and FA-4 have been on shelves for three months, and the market is shifting toward the new formulas. Formerly lumped together as PC-11, the two formulations replaced CJ-4 oils, and as of Dec. 1 following a late-fall so rollout, all engine oil manufacturers began shipping the new products. "Supply and demand [for CK-4] has matched our expec- tations," said Tony Negri, commercial products manager for Phillips 66. "Even though this was a fairly straightforward upgrade of CJ-4, enough criteria changed that it spawned one of the broadest education campaigns that I've witnessed." Len Badal, global Delo brand manager for Chevron Lu- bricants, said the company already has transitioned its bulk shipments to customers and marketers for Delo 400 XLE SAE 10W-30 and SAE 15W-40 and is slowly upgrading customers from Delo 400 LE SAE 15W-40 to the new Delo 400 SDE SAE 15W-40. "New API CK-4 and FA-4 products are moving into the market for most of the main suppliers," Badal said. "But it has been taking time for the products to show up for end customers and even marketers or retail channels as the pre- vious-generation API CJ-4 products are run down or moved out of inventory." Shell Lubricants introduced its Rotella CK-4 oils last fall as CJ-4 oils because they met both the new and old specifi- cations. Dan Arcy, global OEM technical manager, said the ensuing transition has gone smoothly for customers, with no problems reported. While the official launch of the new categories was late 2016, some products have yet to hit the marketplace. Chevron is rolling out its API CK-4 full-synthetic Delo 400 XSP SAE 5W-30 and 5W-40 products this spring. e company plans a full transition from the current API CJ-4 full-synthetic versions through the rest of the year. Some OEMs also are offering their own oil formulations for their 2017 engine lineups. Volvo and Mack say their respec- tive VDS-4.5 and EOS-4.5 factory-fill blends exceed API's CK-4 specification, with extended drain intervals that allow fleets to skip between four and 16 oil drains – depending on duty cycle – compared to prior maintenance schedules. "In oil costs alone, that represents a savings of hundreds of dollars per year, even for the lightest duty cycles," said John Moore, Volvo product marketing manager – powertrain. To-date, only Detroit has approved FA-4 for use in its new engines. Other OEMs still are having internal discussions on whether to adopt FA-4 for factory-fill or maintain an approval for service-fill use for a certain model, age or type of engine. "OEMs have different positions – some will be FA-4 facto- ry-fill out of the gate and may or may not mandate its use in service-fill," said Barnaby Ngai, Petro-Canada Lubricants' cat- egory portfolio manager for heavy-duty engine and driveline oils. "Some are going with CK-4 and are not likely to adopt FA-4 right away. With OEMs taking different approaches, that adds confusion in the marketplace." Badal said Chevron expects that process to evolve slowly. "No other OEMs have announced plans to move their fac- tory-fill to high-temperature high-sheer fluids at this point," he said. "ere is work by each of them to understand the benefits and durability of engines over the long term." Negri said FA-4 supply exceeds demand at this early stage of the first-ever diesel engine oil category for fuel economy. "As with many new technologies, early adopters are all-in to see how much improvement can be achieved, while others take a wait-and-see approach," he said. Negri said continuing education will be required before the majority of fleets reach a comfort level with the new category. Badal agrees. "Education and awareness are still at a low level for a lot of end users, technicians and maintenance personnel," he said. in focus: ENGINE FLUIDS API's CK-4 and FA-4 specifications were designed to help diesel engine OEMs meet stringent emissions requirements.