GF-4 AND SL?

[BigAl]

I was in Menards this morning. They had a special on Shell motor oil for $1.07 per quart. I looked at the label on a bottle of 5w30, and it said that it met GF-4 but it was only rated SL, not SM. I always thought that GF-4 had stricter requirements than SM. So how can this oil be only rated SL?

 

[G-MAN]

During the transition period from GF3 to GF4, many oil companies were actually making oil that met the new spec, but ILSAC and the API hadn't released the GF4 spec for use. Hence, you got some bottles that were marked with the "official" GF3/SL doughnut, but that stated somewhere on the label "Meets the new GF-4 requirements" or words to that effect.