API TC is a

certification Certification is the provision by an independent body of written assurance (a certificate) that the product, service or system in question meets specific requirements. It is the formal attestation or confirmation of certain characteristics of a ...

for

two-stroke A two-stroke (or two-stroke cycle) engine is a type of internal combustion engine that completes a power cycle with two strokes (up and down movements) of the piston during one power cycle, this power cycle being completed in one revolution of t ...

oils An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturat ...

, awarded by the

American Petroleum Institute The American Petroleum Institute (API) is the largest U.S. trade association for the oil and natural gas industry. It claims to represent nearly 600 corporations involved in production, refinement, distribution, and many other aspects of the ...

. It is given after the product passes through stringent tests that determine the level of

detergent A detergent is a surfactant or a mixture of surfactants with cleansing properties when in dilute solutions. There are a large variety of detergents, a common family being the alkylbenzene sulfonates, which are soap-like compounds that are m ...

performance,

dispersion Dispersion may refer to: Economics and finance * Dispersion (finance), a measure for the statistical distribution of portfolio returns *Price dispersion, a variation in prices across sellers of the same item * Wage dispersion, the amount of variat ...

, and anti-oxidation. It is the only remaining, not revoked classification of the API Two-Cycle motor oil specifications (TA, TB, TC, TD). Being a very old standard itself, most currently produced 2T lubricants meet its specifications, even the lowest quality ones; current high-quality oils exceed them (often labeled "API TC+" although not based on actual measurements). The more current

JASO M345 Jaso or JASO may refer to: * Jaso State, a princely state in British India * Japanese Automotive Standards Organization (JASO), an organization that sets automotive standards in Japan ** JASO T904, a quality classification standard of four stroke ...

or the international

ISO ISO is the most common abbreviation for the International Organization for Standardization. ISO or Iso may also refer to: Business and finance * Iso (supermarket), a chain of Danish supermarkets incorporated into the SuperBest chain in 2007 * Is ...

two-cycle oil specifications are much better indicators of oil quality, with requirements based on modern two-stroke engines and environmental policies. API-TC has been removed from the API website. A higher grade, TD, was considered similar to the

National Marine Manufacturers association National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland ...

(NMMA) "TC-W" (water-cooled outboard engine) grade. The NMMA has now replaced this specification with the higher TC-W3 standard.

References

Lubricants {{material-stub