When this question came up, we pulled in Universal Lubricants’ expert formulator Mike Wyant, Technical Services Manager, to answer it.
The surprising thing about ECO ULTRA that a lot of people don’t understand, is that it’s exactly like motor oil made from virgin crude. Chemically they are almost identical, they perform identically and they are both held to the same high standards. Of course, there is one big difference. Instead of starting with a base of non-renewable virgin crude oil, ECO ULTRA’s base is reclaimed, recycled, re-refined oil.
Whether a manufacturer starts with virgin crude oil or re-refined oil as the base oil, the process to make motor oil is the same. Base oil must be blended with additional ingredients – additives, detergents and anti-foam – to become motor oil. The additives are what make base oil into usable motor oil.
After our re-refined oil has been blended with all the necessary additives to make ECO ULTRA, the American Petroleum Institute, the trade association for the oil and natural gas industry, licenses it – like they do all motor oil – within the parameters of the current licensing categories. Since ECO ULTRA meets these parameters, it is licensed as API SN.
API licensing also ensures that ECO ULTRA re-refined oil meets the same performance standards as crude-base motor oil in terms of cold-start ability, rust-corrosion control, engine wear and high-temperature viscosity. ECO ULTRA consistently meets all standardized testing developed for all high quality motor oil. Based on performance, there is literally no difference between crude-base motor oil and ECO ULTRA.