oil ratings
An SL rated oil is an SL rated oil. I have never seen anything that said SL rated, but do not use in a car with a cat.
Just for fun I have used Shell Rotella T in my 94 Ford escort with 170K miles, mostly because I also use it in my 01 Ford explorer and my boat's diesels. I buy it in 5 gallon buckets and it makes my shopping list shorter.
I pulled the head on the escort the other day. Shiny and clean as the inside of beer can. Not a trace of sludge or mud or tar. Zero oil use. I had it smogged today (thank you California) and it was still at the minimums for everything except Hydrocarbons. New injectors needed maybe? But there is not a hint of problem oil related. I still think that I would have the same results had I used the house brand oil from WalMart, Kragen, etc. and the dreaded Fram orange can filters , which I did for the first 100k miles before switching to Motorcraft.
Use the most modern rated dinosaur oil appropriate for the climate, and change it every 5 - 7k miles.
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