Engine oil additives
Discussion
There are loads of engine oil additives on the market these days, claiming to reduce friction and engine temperature and increasing performance and engine life. Have any PHers out there got any first hand experience of using engine oil additives? Do they really work? Are they any good?
I'm thinking of trying some in a mildly tuned Rover 3.5 V8 so any advice, comments or recomendations would be appreciated.
Many thanks
Bill Bob
I'm thinking of trying some in a mildly tuned Rover 3.5 V8 so any advice, comments or recomendations would be appreciated.
Many thanks
Bill Bob
bill bob said:
There are loads of engine oil additives on the market these days, claiming to reduce friction and engine temperature and increasing performance and engine life. Have any PHers out there got any first hand experience of using engine oil additives? Do they really work? Are they any good?
I'm thinking of trying some in a mildly tuned Rover 3.5 V8 so any advice, comments or recomendations would be appreciated.
Many thanks
Bill Bob
Waste of money !! unless you have a worn engine high oil consumption some of the stuff thickens your oil and helps a bit!! manunfactures spend milions formulating oil and engines run for 100s of thousand miles on it now ,IMHO you are far better changing the oil more often and fitting an oil cooler to add reliabilty and engine life..I'm thinking of trying some in a mildly tuned Rover 3.5 V8 so any advice, comments or recomendations would be appreciated.
Many thanks
Bill Bob
bill bob said:
Hi Powerstroke, thank you for your comment. Is your view based on first hand personal experience or on the same conflicting data and information that I have read in motoring magazines and the internet?
Personal expirance from 30 plus years of messing with cars trucks motorbikes plant and some motor sport as rally mecanic and some racing myself, realy it is about avoiding metal to metal contact with a film of oil in bearings and on cylinder bores, most engines in ok condition are fine as long as there is clean oil something close to the recomended grade at a safe temprature at about 10 psi or more per thousand revs.. These claims of redusing friction!!! my question is if there is all this friction without useing some adative why dosent the engine wear out in 1000 miles or 5 ????? and alot of vehicle and oil manufactures warn against using adatives as some of the ingredants may not mix with stuff already in the oil so it might even be detrimental to your engine !!!!
Edited by powerstroke on Sunday 6th May 16:44
Oil thickeners work by thickening oil... Does what it says on the tin.
Slick 50 'works' by coating parts in PTFE... I've not seen any proof that this actually does what it says. Has been proven to cause problems by blocking oil filters. reports of legal actions against the manufacturer in USA.
I've heard reports from personal friends who swear by Xado, which is supposed to coat hot moving parts with a ceramic coating. There are many threads on the interweb showing why this does/doesn't work.
My mechanic, who has always been sceptical about 'snake-oil', has tried Forte engine flush and fuel additive. Before and after tests on an old Ford gave very significant improvements in compression and emissions, but on an old engine with unknown history this may have been down to having a service.
On the whole I think the consensus of opinion from non-involved, clear minded people is that the main purpose of these additives is to generate revenue!
Slick 50 'works' by coating parts in PTFE... I've not seen any proof that this actually does what it says. Has been proven to cause problems by blocking oil filters. reports of legal actions against the manufacturer in USA.
I've heard reports from personal friends who swear by Xado, which is supposed to coat hot moving parts with a ceramic coating. There are many threads on the interweb showing why this does/doesn't work.
My mechanic, who has always been sceptical about 'snake-oil', has tried Forte engine flush and fuel additive. Before and after tests on an old Ford gave very significant improvements in compression and emissions, but on an old engine with unknown history this may have been down to having a service.
On the whole I think the consensus of opinion from non-involved, clear minded people is that the main purpose of these additives is to generate revenue!
Have used Wynns ,STP AND Forte first 2 on my personal stuff Forte as asked by the boss where I used to work .On older engines they all 'work to a greater or lesser degree and STP certainly kept a well loved but well used 1275 S A series ruunning till I could a fford a set of brgs etc .There are people out there will say that the stuff is s--t- but it worked for me! no experience on a new engine , never could afford one!
powerstroke said:
Waste of money !! unless you have a worn engine high oil consumption some of the stuff thickens your oil and helps a bit!! manunfactures spend milions formulating oil and engines run for 100s of thousand miles on it now ,IMHO you are far better changing the oil more often and fitting an oil cooler to add reliabilty and engine life..
Xado works we put it in our 97 4runner with 340000 miles on ut.The truck runs like brand new have put 1200 miles on the treatment and it has done all it says it does. Increased power (we can tell by the way it pulls up the 4 mile grade)
Sounds and runs like it just rolled off of the lot brand new.
ETA
Sorry but not allowed, you may wish to check out this members profile notes.
Edited by Big Al. on Monday 10th March 18:12
(shock) I'd never have guessed that Goatsmik could have had a vested interest in flogging snake oil!
Somewhere on the internet there is a piece that I can't find now but it explains things very well:
Suppose someone gives you a recipe for a cake, you try it and it's delicious. Now you decide to improve the recipe so you look at the ingredients and notice that it requires two eggs. Great! eggs are compatible with the other ingredients and they're cheap so you add two more eggs. Now, is the cake twice as nice? No, it's just a heap of goo!
Now, suppose someone gives you a can of oil, it has been carefully formulated and it does a great job. You decide to improve the oil so you buy a tin of stuff that claims to have more of the vital ingredients and add it in... (you know where the story is going).
Somewhere on the internet there is a piece that I can't find now but it explains things very well:
Suppose someone gives you a recipe for a cake, you try it and it's delicious. Now you decide to improve the recipe so you look at the ingredients and notice that it requires two eggs. Great! eggs are compatible with the other ingredients and they're cheap so you add two more eggs. Now, is the cake twice as nice? No, it's just a heap of goo!
Now, suppose someone gives you a can of oil, it has been carefully formulated and it does a great job. You decide to improve the oil so you buy a tin of stuff that claims to have more of the vital ingredients and add it in... (you know where the story is going).
I just love the marketing campaigns showing the pits and imperfections inside your engine being filled in by a wonder chemical.
Why would anyone want their honing filled in and bearing clearances reduced? Since that doesn't happen when using these chemicals, it's proof it's just a crock o shyte.
The car world is full of people who want to fix something that isn't broken and snake oil companies capitalise on it.
Why would anyone want their honing filled in and bearing clearances reduced? Since that doesn't happen when using these chemicals, it's proof it's just a crock o shyte.
The car world is full of people who want to fix something that isn't broken and snake oil companies capitalise on it.
Whilst on this subject...
The 1.6 16v in SWMBO's Meriva sludges itself up regularly due to the pottering about she does. I had the sump off the other week and cleared out all the oilways I could get to, and made it breathe again. Some pipes are still covered in mayo sludge (its not the HG)
Any of these oil additives any good for chucking in over a few thousand miles to clean out all the sludge and internals? I ran a bottle of engine flush through but the bottle said not to drive with it in, just 15 minutes at 3k revs then dump the oil and replace. Did some good, but not enough to bother with again IMO.
The 1.6 16v in SWMBO's Meriva sludges itself up regularly due to the pottering about she does. I had the sump off the other week and cleared out all the oilways I could get to, and made it breathe again. Some pipes are still covered in mayo sludge (its not the HG)
Any of these oil additives any good for chucking in over a few thousand miles to clean out all the sludge and internals? I ran a bottle of engine flush through but the bottle said not to drive with it in, just 15 minutes at 3k revs then dump the oil and replace. Did some good, but not enough to bother with again IMO.
beko1987 said:
Whilst on this subject...
The 1.6 16v in SWMBO's Meriva sludges itself up regularly due to the pottering about she does. I had the sump off the other week and cleared out all the oilways I could get to, and made it breathe again. Some pipes are still covered in mayo sludge (its not the HG)
Any of these oil additives any good for chucking in over a few thousand miles to clean out all the sludge and internals? I ran a bottle of engine flush through but the bottle said not to drive with it in, just 15 minutes at 3k revs then dump the oil and replace. Did some good, but not enough to bother with again IMO.
Just change the oil regulaly and give it a good run once in awhile, maybe worth checking the thermostat too maybe it is running a bit cold so the moisture doesn't evaporate out of the oil... If you want to flush it I've had success with half oil and diesel and run for 10 mins but you will need to change the oil a couple of times after to get rid of any diesel..The 1.6 16v in SWMBO's Meriva sludges itself up regularly due to the pottering about she does. I had the sump off the other week and cleared out all the oilways I could get to, and made it breathe again. Some pipes are still covered in mayo sludge (its not the HG)
Any of these oil additives any good for chucking in over a few thousand miles to clean out all the sludge and internals? I ran a bottle of engine flush through but the bottle said not to drive with it in, just 15 minutes at 3k revs then dump the oil and replace. Did some good, but not enough to bother with again IMO.
Edited by powerstroke on Monday 24th March 14:55
Best thing you can do to any engine is to change the oil more frequently and swap oil filters
The less you use a car ( mummy milage) or if you use the car very hard then change both more frequently than the manufacturers recommendation
I have a lot of gauges on my kit car particular oil pressure and temp, if oil pressure drops and temp goes up more than I expect the oil is cooked, whilst it goes back to normal (ish) after I stop and it cools down, I probably should consider new oil and filter
A magnetic sump plug is also helpful or a magnet round the oil filter, you'll be surprised how much fine metal particles are picked up, also bear in mind most bearings are ally faced and are not magnetic
The less you use a car ( mummy milage) or if you use the car very hard then change both more frequently than the manufacturers recommendation
I have a lot of gauges on my kit car particular oil pressure and temp, if oil pressure drops and temp goes up more than I expect the oil is cooked, whilst it goes back to normal (ish) after I stop and it cools down, I probably should consider new oil and filter
A magnetic sump plug is also helpful or a magnet round the oil filter, you'll be surprised how much fine metal particles are picked up, also bear in mind most bearings are ally faced and are not magnetic
Hi All,
I know this topic died some time ago but I wanted to add my twopenneth. In younger years I tried slick 50 in a number of cars. I investigated it thoroughly too and found that the canadian company that 1st used PTFE as a lubricant found that it degraded in too much heat. Of course engines are hot! I had some success in a moggy with a very worn engine. The engine was much quieter after the slick 50 but this wore off over just a few thousand miles. My friend who has been running diesels regularly since the 60s chnages oil more frequently than the manufacturer suggests and also always changes the filter. There was a time when some people said just chnage the filter regularly and the oil will last, whilst others said that if you change the oil ofetn enough then you dont need to chnage the filter every time.
He always changed both to be on the safe side and the results are that he now has three diesels with over 250,000 miles on the clock. (All PSA engines). Now I follow his direction and hope that the reliability of my cars will improve.
I know this topic died some time ago but I wanted to add my twopenneth. In younger years I tried slick 50 in a number of cars. I investigated it thoroughly too and found that the canadian company that 1st used PTFE as a lubricant found that it degraded in too much heat. Of course engines are hot! I had some success in a moggy with a very worn engine. The engine was much quieter after the slick 50 but this wore off over just a few thousand miles. My friend who has been running diesels regularly since the 60s chnages oil more frequently than the manufacturer suggests and also always changes the filter. There was a time when some people said just chnage the filter regularly and the oil will last, whilst others said that if you change the oil ofetn enough then you dont need to chnage the filter every time.
He always changed both to be on the safe side and the results are that he now has three diesels with over 250,000 miles on the clock. (All PSA engines). Now I follow his direction and hope that the reliability of my cars will improve.
jimmy987654321 said:
Hi All,
I know this topic died some time ago but I wanted to add my twopenneth. In younger years I tried slick 50 in a number of cars. I investigated it thoroughly too and found that the canadian company that 1st used PTFE as a lubricant found that it degraded in too much heat. Of course engines are hot! I had some success in a moggy with a very worn engine. The engine was much quieter after the slick 50 but this wore off over just a few thousand miles. My friend who has been running diesels regularly since the 60s chnages oil more frequently than the manufacturer suggests and also always changes the filter. There was a time when some people said just chnage the filter regularly and the oil will last, whilst others said that if you change the oil ofetn enough then you dont need to chnage the filter every time.
He always changed both to be on the safe side and the results are that he now has three diesels with over 250,000 miles on the clock. (All PSA engines). Now I follow his direction and hope that the reliability of my cars will improve.
That's a serious thread revival...and yes, you are right. The one thing that genuinely saves any engine is regular oil and oil filter changes; none of this long service interval rubbish either...all these cars suffers major wear in mid-later life. Just change the oil & filter regularly and sooner than manufacturer recommendations.I know this topic died some time ago but I wanted to add my twopenneth. In younger years I tried slick 50 in a number of cars. I investigated it thoroughly too and found that the canadian company that 1st used PTFE as a lubricant found that it degraded in too much heat. Of course engines are hot! I had some success in a moggy with a very worn engine. The engine was much quieter after the slick 50 but this wore off over just a few thousand miles. My friend who has been running diesels regularly since the 60s chnages oil more frequently than the manufacturer suggests and also always changes the filter. There was a time when some people said just chnage the filter regularly and the oil will last, whilst others said that if you change the oil ofetn enough then you dont need to chnage the filter every time.
He always changed both to be on the safe side and the results are that he now has three diesels with over 250,000 miles on the clock. (All PSA engines). Now I follow his direction and hope that the reliability of my cars will improve.
Back on OP's topic...oil additives? Unless a special brew for race/specially prep'd engines it's all snake oil [pun intended]. For his original 3.5 V8 engine [provided it's in good condition] use Valvoline VR1 20W50.
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