For those of you who like to use aftermarket oil additives...
 

For those of you who like to use aftermarket oil additives. No OEM or lubricant supplier endorses the use of aftermarket additives in fully-formulated products. A fully-formulated oil will balance the surface acting additives so that all will perform as expected. The addition of a supplemental additive package may impact this balance. Check out the designed experiment below that looked at various levels of additives and how they correspond to performance at various levels. If you mix certain chemistries you will have competing reactions that may lead to a very large decrease in performance.


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I've always believed in using a good oil with none of those aftermarket additives.

Nice to see some validity to my thinking. I've believed for a while that if you don't think your oil is cutting it, you're not using a quality oil.

I use dollop of blue STP in my oil can...just to make it sticky.
I use fuel stabilizer for storage.
I think that's about it.

I do think there's some oil that are better for AC engines, but I don't really buy into the expensive bouquet brands. I use Delo.

You mean Carrol Shelby was wrong about Slick 50 ? :rolleyes:

I used to get free slick 50. I ran so much of that crap in a really high mile small block for a couple of years. When I tore it down, it had the weirdest coating on all the cast internals of the engine . z I always thought it was gimmicky , even back then . What was its claim to fame, Teflon or something like that ?

How about in my hair?

I don't use additives in a healthy engine.

But I bought a Honda Civic of a young lady who advertised it as having a worn out smoky engine. I left it idling for a few minutes, reved it, then made her a crazy low offer. I gave it two oil changes and then two cans of slick 50. Wow, I don't think it smoked at all for the next four years that I owned it.

STP Oil Treatment hides worn valve guides in old Chevy engines. Ask me how I know! Stops the blue smoke and makes the exhaust invisible. Used car salesman's best friend back in the day.

I've always considered additives (oil, gas, transmission, anything else) as things to take advantage of people who don't know anything about it or those who a prone to brag about the (supposed) benefit of things they know nothing about. It's just a way to make money. Good products don't need additives.

Mike,

I know this sort of thing is your wheelhouse. Can you explain what this table represents?

The wear in mm makes sense but what was the coupon? Was this test conducted under temperature? Was it conducted under pressure (was there a radial load if the test was rotary)? Was the base stock consistent? What is the surface roughness? What is the test duration?

This table is just numbers without the basic parameters.

I am overseeing some friction testing on our in house friction tester and indeed the performance of various products is widely variable however under some conditions, some products significantly out perform.

I use certain additives for certain things. They certainly aren't for well maintained, good running cars. Can additives free up lifters, raise compression or reduce oil consumption ? Sometimes, maybe.


In any case, it isn't up to the oil manufacturer to certify additives, it is up to the additive manufacturer. And what is appropriate for a 911 under warranty really has no bearing on what someone might do to get a few more months out of a car that is next door to scrap.

In that case, how an additive might effect wear characteristics of a certain oil might go right out the window.

But maybe there is another way to look at this. If you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail. If you are an oil analyst, you analyze oil. If you work a Wall Mart, maybe using automotive products sold at Wall Mart makes sense. And works.

There, but for the Grace of God...

This has been my experience with Slick 50 as well. Back in the 80s I bought a very rough Alfa Romeo Alfetta.
I was a student at the time so money was tight. It had a smokey rattly engine and after adding some Slick 50 it quietened down and ran pretty well.
It still smoked some but it was a lot better. I kept that car for about 4 years and it served me well.

Eg. Mine was a 78 like this one.

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Timkin OK load test

weld is the amount of weight it took to damage the bearing surface (how much weight before the oil failed to lube)
wear is how much damage it did (how big of a scar it made at the fail point)
Cu strip is copper corrosion (IIRC I know it's copper (Cu) and I'm pretty sure it's corrosion but honestly I forget what it means)

That is if this is the Timkin OK test....

Okay, I'm getting off the subject here but why can't manufacturers build good looking basic transportation anymore? Here we have a simple four door sedan that happens to be fairly nice looking as well (I suppose because it's Italian).

Today's cars mostly look like crap - swooshy things with enormous headlights and gaping grills. Almost nothing looks interesting these days.

Sorry, rant over...

Edit: Actually, some of the German sedans are pretty nice, it's mostly the Japanese stuff that's a mess.

And WTF is with the pissed off eyes headlight treatment???
Like are all of today's car designers Hasbro Transformers nerds?
:confused:
I'd feel like a loser driving one of those cars. :rolleyes:

Honestly today's cars, at a glance, I have a hard time telling the difference between a Porsche and a Hyundai Accent.
Modern styling in one word...Boring.

Sorry off topic....