I apologize for the delay in responding to your email, I really wanted to give you the most informative response that I could and it took a little while longer than I thought in order to find the best way to word all of this for you. I got together with our other sales associate and we were able to put together a more detailed answer with more information for you to post on the forum.  

Just to give you a little background on the API, they change their specifications every four years as to what the criteria is in order for an oil company to meet the “API specs” and legally be able to put the API seal or donut as it’s sometimes called on a bottle of oil. Years ago, every four years when the new specs would come out they were usually an improvement from the previous spec, meaning an oil company had to put a little more work into meeting the API’s criteria. Well, recently the API has almost been going backwards in a sense when it comes to the additives and PPM’s (parts per million) of certain additives such as zinc, moly, phosphorus, etc……that are required in order to qualify as an API approved oil. The main reason(s) for this is because automotive manufacturers are basically demanding oils that provide better fuel mileage as well as cleaner emissions, which isn’t a bad thing by any means. Now, in order for an oil company to become an API certified oil, basically all that needs to be done it the oil company sends a sample off to the API where they will test and determine whether or not it is in compliance. If that was all it took, I can almost guarantee that pretty much every oil company would have the API certification on their bottles. Well, here is where it gets funky for a lack of a better word. The API charges thousands and I mean thousands of dollars in order to certify the oil and I don’t mean a one time fee, they charge you for each and every oil and viscosity. For example, if we wanted to have our SR-1 oil API approved we would have to have the SR-1 0w20, SR-1 5w30, SR-1 5w40 and so on all approved and we would have to pay for each of those viscosities. It can literally get into the hundreds of thousands by the time everything is said and done.

Another reason we choose to not have our oils API certified is because like I mentioned above, the API has lowered the requirements and that would mean we would have to remove a lot of the additives that we use and pride our oils on. Since we are a “high performance” or a “racing oil” company we really need to have those heavy additive packs in each of our oils. In order to become an API certified oil, we would have to cut out all of those additives which really sets us apart from most of the other oil companies. Our MPZ additive pack would have to be removed and that is our main and most popular additive that we use in just about all of our oil.  So as you can see, we can safely and legally say our SR-1 High Performance Street oils “meet and exceed” the API specs because they truly do meet and exceed the current API specs…….even though we chose not to go the route of paying to have the API seal applied to our bottle. About 6 years or so ago we did indeed pay to have the API test and approve one of our SR-1 oils…….the 5w30 I believe. We just felt that we really didn’t need to have that done since we are more of a racing oil company. Plus, just because you pay to have the API approve your oil…..its not good forever, you have to send it in for testing and pay the fee every four years.

I believe our bottles say exceeds API requirements…….(which they most definitely do) and they all say “intended for racing applications”. I guess the only way for you to 100% see and believe it for yourself would be to do an oil analysis on one of our oils and that would show a breakdown of all the additives and PPM’s. We probably have an old oil analysis somewhere around here and if we do, we can email it to you so you could take a look at it.

I really hope this has helped clear some things up and answered some of your questions. If you have any other questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to ask.

I apologize for taking so long to get back to you! Jason there is really no simple answer to your question. I will first start by giving you a little background on API certified oils. An API certified oil as you know means that it has a certain PPM (Parts Per Million) of different additive components, like Zinc, Phosphorus, and Molly, that it is not aloud to be blow or above. In doing this it certifies that this oils meets the API’s strict regulations. Over the past many years the amount of anti-ware and protection additives aloud in API certified oils has been drastically reduced due to emissions regulations. An API certified oil today is not the same, Nor dose it have the same protection, as an API oil ten years ago. Torco strives to have the highest quality and best performing product possible. In order for us to meet the API criteria we would have to remove and reduce components of our additive pack to what we consider to be an insufficient amount. Torco oils are not API certified because in doing so we would be reducing the quality of our oil. Torco oil is a performance built, racing oriented oil that is built to higher specifications than a standard, passenger car, API certified oil. One example is our racing line of TR-1, SR-1, and SR-5 oils target 1300-1400 PPM of Zinc and Phosphorus, as where a standard API certified oil can not exceed 800 PPM. If you do an oil analysis of one of our racing oils you will find a much higher additive pack than that in an API certified oil. I hope this has helped to answer some of your questions. If you have any other questions or concerns please let me know.

Hi Liqui Moly, I would like to inquire if you guys are still licensed/certified by the American Petroleum Institute (API) and is the mentioned API ratings/certification in your products legit? I remembered few years back i have verified that you guys were indeed in the directory however i can no longer find your company/nor your products anymore. (perhaps they have been renamed or i have searched incorrectly?) Appreciate your response in this matter which will restore my confidence in your products, thanks.

thank you very much for your mail and for your interst in Liqui Moly products.

We are a German oil manufacturer and in the German market and arround, there is no API licensing necessary. But we know for the Asian and American market it is very good to have. So wa are in work for API licensing with our "Special Tec" oils, which are very necessary in the Asian market!
Sorry, but you have to wait some time, till the licensing is official!

If you have any more question, contact us again!

Thanks for the reply.

I believe there are also european standards which Liqui Moly also meets such as ACEA right? Is there any way i can browse ACEA certifications/license directory similar to how i can publicly view API certifications?

there is no ACEA licensing as at API. The ACEA specifications are the basics for the european car manufacturer specifications. Also some Asian car manufacturer are using the ACEA spcification as basic or own car manufacturer specification!

on the first service i've used additives quite heavily: http://twitpic.com/drv0iv
Liqui Moly Ceratec http://www.liqui-moly.de/liquimoly/produkt...l?Opendocument& &
Nano Extreme WS2 http://nanoextremews2.com/

From my understanding ceratec uses ceramic particles and ws2 is basically tungsten disulfide, so are we able to find out the contents through this oil analysis? and whether these additives are useful (or even harmful) to my engine? Moreover I've been told (do correct me if I'm wrong) that most additives are using cheap mineral oil as additive carrier and that could cause sludge and other harmful issues despite using good/reputable synthetic engine oil as a majority.

https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1438525 <=-- do include the link to V1 in your 1st post.

I like the fact that this new threat is more geared towards fluids and lubricants in general. There are a lot of fluids that make a car tick and EO is just one of them and thus having a decent pinned thread to discuss them is definitely a good thing.

on the first service i've used additives quite heavily: http://twitpic.com/drv0iv
Liqui Moly Ceratec http://www.liqui-moly.de/liquimoly/produkt...l?Opendocument& &
Nano Extreme WS2 http://nanoextremews2.com/

From my understanding ceratec uses ceramic particles and ws2 is basically tungsten disulfide, so are we able to find out the contents through this oil analysis? and whether these additives are useful (or even harmful) to my engine? Moreover I've been told (do correct me if I'm wrong) that most additives are using cheap mineral oil as additive carrier and that could cause sludge and other harmful issues despite using good/reputable synthetic engine oil as a majority.