Because OEM oils exceeds – by a long shot – the minimum NMMA FC-W standard, it also costs more than an oil that just meets that benchmark. And the OEM will zero in on oil characteristics that protect any vulnerabilities of its engines, such as cam bearing wear or certain cylinders that run cold in some conditions. The OEM is responsible for evaluating a new oil in its engines, and they devise all kinds of torture testing – long hours of idling in very cold water is one of the most challenging.

Some additives may be proprietary to a single brand of oil. Additives add wear protection, inhibit corrosion, disperse carbon deposits, and improve heat transfer there are thousands of additive options with new additives being devised each year. The real magic of motor oil, and the key difference between one brand an another, lies in the additive package. Blending a formula of base stocks is one way to achieve a desired multi-viscosity character. According to industry standards, a semi-synthetic oil like ECSTAR V7000 is a mixture of mineral oil and synthetic oil, with no more than 30 percent synthetic oil. Group 4 polyalphaolefin (PAO) is the most refined, and most expensive.

Group 3 is more highly refined and called synthetic. Most marine oil begins as West Texas Light Sweet crude that is refined in the Southeast into one of four base stock groups. The facility I visited in the Midwest asked not to be named because it works with many OEMs in the powersports industry. None of the engine OEMs are in the business of manufacturing oil. Each OEM oil product is quite specific to the needs of that brand’s engines.

OEM oil invariably tests at the “high end of the scale” because an OEM oil has to back up the engine product. I’ve been in the facility where much of this oil is created and talked to the engineers. This all sounds like a lot of ho-hum hype but I can personally vouch for the fact that OEM oil, the stuff bottled for Suzuki as well as for the other engine builders, is the good stuff. All ECSTAR Oil and Chemical products will be available exclusively through authorized Suzuki dealers.

Suzuki outboard oil type