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Global environmental and economic concerns of today's world dictate strict requirements for modern heavy duty engines, especially in emissions, noise control, power generation, and extended oil drain intervals. These requirements lead to increased stresses imposed on lubricants in modern heavy duty engines. At the same time, the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) desire additional fuel economy from the lubricating oil, requiring the use of lower viscosity lubricants to minimize frictional losses in the engine. These lower viscosity oils are subjected to increased stresses in the engine and need to provide robust performance throughout their lifetime in order to protect engine parts from wear and damage. One of the most important lubricant qualities is to maintain viscosity throughout the drain interval and thus provide continuous engine protection.

Engine manufacturers have raised concerns at recent industry meetings regarding the effect that 2 mm porosity filters will have on low temperature operability. An All Weather Chassis Dynamometer (AWCD) program was carried out to address this concern and to extend our general knowledge of low temperature additive performance in 1998/9 model year Heavy Duty Trucks. Known laboratory tests were also evaluated as to their ability to predict vehicle performance. Four trucks equipped with Cummins M11, Detroit Diesel Series 60, Caterpillar C12 (Southern), and Caterpillar C12 (Northern) engines were leased and fitted appropriately to measure their performance under low temperature conditions using Imperial Oil's AWCD in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. Commercial Low Sulfur No. 2 and Low Sulfur No. 1 diesel fuels were purchased, and a series of blends were prepared representing fuels that would typically be sold during the winter.