SE? SF? SL? Oil category alphabet soup.
Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 1:24 pm
My service manual states that I need SE or SF grade motor oil. This was very confusing to me. I could not find any automotive oils that are this grade. I wanted to switch to Rotella T, which is SM/SL/SG.
I *thought* this meant that the oil was perhaps not suitable for the engine.
So I decided to look up what these letters meant. Turns out that each "higher" one includes the ones below, essentially. SM is better than SL and can be used in all SL, SJ, and SF applications (etc).
Here's some more info:
http://www.api.org/certifications/engin ... de2006.pdf
I *thought* this meant that the oil was perhaps not suitable for the engine.
So I decided to look up what these letters meant. Turns out that each "higher" one includes the ones below, essentially. SM is better than SL and can be used in all SL, SJ, and SF applications (etc).
Here's some more info:
http://www.api.org/certifications/engin ... de2006.pdf