Snake Oil! About oil additives

johnydep · 25-08-2005, 11:51 PM

There are all sorts of info on oil additives, about whether they work or not. It's a hard one to prove, I've read all sorts of reports , and from those reports I'd have to sway to the side that says additives are not required.
But then there are the people that have used them and swear by them, and these are not sales people, I'm talking about people I meet everyday.

But when a company that sells one of these additives threatens to sue if an article about additives is not removed from a web site I get suspicious.

The web site is Neptune and the legal talk is here; http://neptune.spacebears.com/cars/legal/oiladd.html

If you want to read the article before it is totaly banned, go here;
Snake Oil: Is that Additive Really A Negative?
http://www.thegsresources.com/garage/gs_additive.htm

csv8 · 26-08-2005, 11:39 AM

My FORD owners manual states " do not use fuel or oil additives"

luke · 26-08-2005, 03:57 PM

three words: lucas oil stabilizer

johnydep · 26-08-2005, 05:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EIFERSUCHT

three words: lucas oil stabilizer

I've used that & similar products in old worn engines, diff's, trans, etc. But never again in something in good nik. http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/images/lucas/lucas.htm

xdclevo · 26-08-2005, 07:49 PM

The only one i have ever used, is FRC by Uniglide that goes in the oil. It isn't an oil additive, but rather a friction reducing compound(FRC) for the metal. It's not like the Lucas and Morey additives, but acually treats the metals, and is still there after an oilchange.

BigDoubleu · 15-03-2009, 09:30 AM

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AUXRVIII · 15-03-2009, 11:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xdclevo

The only one i have ever used, is FRC by Uniglide that goes in the oil. It isn't an oil additive, but rather a friction reducing compound(FRC) for the metal. It's not like the Lucas and Morey additives, but acually treats the metals, and is still there after an oilchange.

Do you work for the marketing dept of an oil additive company.

Bushbasher · 15-03-2009, 01:56 PM

I just read through that article; very interesting reading. So my question is - where does this now leave the new Nulon oils with their "AAT" (Advanced addative technology)?

Bushbasher

dave289 · 15-03-2009, 03:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by luke

three words: lucas oil stabilizer

one word: BITRON

svo347 · 15-03-2009, 04:19 PM

Over here we use EF. Eliminates Friction. sounds corny but from the testing by Perth Street car mag works..
Anyone got any info on Roil??..

**Silver Ghia** · 15-03-2009, 08:07 PM

I'm one who definitely does not agree with any additives made available for users to add to their engine oil.

And as Bushbasher mentions, where does that leave Nulon with their AAT additives? How much testing have they done to ensure no possibility of potential problems?

prydey · 15-03-2009, 08:14 PM

+1 for not using additives. oil companies spend a lot of money on developing their oil, only for some people to go and stick some other product in as well, having no idea how it will react with the ingredients in the oil they use. most of the time, whats in the additive will already be in the oil!

Whitey-AMG · 15-03-2009, 08:20 PM

Funny thing is that ALL oils have additives in them from the manufacturer.
Oil stabilizers , friction modifiers , anti caking agents etc etc.......

The issue with adding additional additives is that it can unbalance the oil and make it more alkaline or acidic etc etc.......Like a good steak with salt already in the marinade and then you go and drown it with additional salt because you weren't aware that there was salt in the mix in the 1st place !!!!!!!!!.........You can end up ruining a perfectly good product.

IMHO..............Best bet is to stay clear of any additives.

Stick with a good quality oil in the right weight for the intended application with regular changes ( including filter change )............and you can't really go wrong.

platinumXR · 15-03-2009, 08:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ESP

Funny thing is that ALL oils have additives in them from the manufacturer.
Oil stabilizers , friction modifiers , anti caking agents etc etc.......

The issue with adding additional additives is that it can unbalance the oil and make it more alkaline or acidic etc etc.......Like a good steak with salt already in the marinade and then you go and drown it with additional salt because you weren't aware that there was salt in the mix in the 1st place !!!!!!!!!.........You can end up ruining a perfectly good product.

IMHO..............Best bet is to stay clear of any additives.

Stick with a good quality oil in the right weight for the intended application with regular changes ( including filter change )............and you can't really go wrong.

[interesting analogy] but yeah, I'll second that.

If you use quality oil and reasonable quality filters, change them regularly and spend a minute or so warming the car up before you tear off down the road in a cloud of angry...then realistically you should not need ANY additives or treatments.

robertjp · 15-03-2009, 08:51 PM

Used to use Nulon in my old ZH, and the was no frothing and the oil looked like new when I did to oil change.

How many people kept on using the lucas additive, after noticing the frothing. What would the salesman say?

davids_gxl · 15-03-2009, 08:58 PM

A quality oil and filter change every 10,xxx is all u need,my au has done over 374,xxx and i use no additives.

GASWAGON · 15-03-2009, 09:16 PM

I threw a 'Lifter quietener' in and now got oil leaks from sump and i maybe even rear main.......And it stopped the noisy lifter for about a week lol!
Can't beat quality oil!!! Altho the Morey's is for a dif purpose of minimising friction really...

RIPGMH · 15-03-2009, 09:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EF_6

I threw a 'Lifter quietener' in and now got oil leaks from sump and i maybe even rear main.......And it stopped the noisy lifter for about a week lol!
Can't beat quality oil!!! Altho the Morey's is for a dif purpose of minimising friction really...

Most additives thicken your oil so I don't think you can blame them for additional leaks.

gazza414 · 15-03-2009, 09:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ESP

Funny thing is that ALL oils have additives in them from the manufacturer.
Oil stabilizers , friction modifiers , anti caking agents etc etc.......

Correct, the big oil labels all buy their "additive packs" from only a few suppliers around the world. They all mix and match to potentially provide an oil to suit an application(s) how they see fit

the oil companies supply the base oils only.

AUXRVIII · 15-03-2009, 10:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RIPGMH

Most additives thicken your oil so I don't think you can blame them for additional leaks.

You can if the chemicals in the additives react with the seal or gaskets. Early AU's which got the Sturaco anti chatter additive had to have the pinion seal changed for this reason.

MaTTe · 15-03-2009, 11:14 PM

svo347: have you used the new version of EF, Microglide?
I understand many people are sceptical of oil addatives, as there are alot of products on the market.
My Grandad has been working on heavy machinery of many sorts for 70 years++, and there are only a few addatives he swears by. he has built himself a pressure wheel - it gauges accurately the pressure it takes to make the wheel stop.
Your finger resting on the handle will stop the wheel near on instantly.
Most oils - regardless of price or quality will stop at 25-30ft/lbs.
Redline race oils have gone as high as 35-40ft/lbs.
All of these will scar the lifter used in the test.
PROMA (Grandad's preferred choice for MANY MANY years) will instantly protect the lifter, and make the wheel unstoppable. at 120ft/lbs the handle is bending and the horrible screeching that occurs with all standard motor oils is nonexistant.
EF (as used by svo347 - wise man!) takes a little longer to completely remove the screech, but will instantly protect the lifter like the PROMA, and again the wheel is unstoppable over 120ft/lbs. After 15-20 seconds the screeching is gone completely and you cannot physically stop the wheel.
With these two the lifter is 100% unmarked.
Microglide is the new version of EF. We've been using Microglide for the best part of the last 2-3 years. It is essentially the same as the EF, it's just been refined slightly in terms of maximum operating temeratures (2000 deg F++) plus a few other things to improve the product.
Microglide works exactly the same as the EF on the pressure wheel too.

I can go into more detail to explain the products if anyone likes, but the more I say the more i sound like a salesman..
The proof is in the use. We use it in the race car, all street cars, gearboxes, non LSDs, hydraulics, etc.
Once you've used it, you realise what you've been missing.

This being said, MANY other addatives have been tested on this pressure wheel and failed miserably.

A bit of food for thought

Simon_Koala · 03-04-2009, 12:00 PM

Where do you buy this Microglide from ?

AdsHEAT · 03-04-2009, 12:15 PM

wow, this post is really timely, i don't have a choke on my 68 302w, so warming it up means that i need to rev it a bit, and when it's cold it makes a hell of a tapping befrtoe the oil starts to do it's job.. i have used heaps of Lucas products with great benefits before (their power steering and autotrans repair stuff and their Fuel Treatment) so i was about to use the lucas oil stabaliser.. but after looking at that link (http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/images/lucas/lucas.htm) i really don't want to do that!!

irish2 · 03-04-2009, 08:36 PM

I had a bad tapping noise in my little proton runabout. It only existed when cold. It has 350 000k's on it. I change oil and filter every 7500k's. I tried a few additives until i found one that made the noise go instantly. It was nulon worn engine treatment. I have used this every oil change since and it is a quiet as a mouse cold or hot. I haven't done any scientific tests but this one product worked.

AdsHEAT · 03-04-2009, 09:11 PM

fair enough, might be worth a try..

mik · 05-06-2009, 10:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by svo347

Over here we use EF. Eliminates Friction. sounds corny but from the testing by Perth Street car mag works..
Anyone got any info on Roil??..

i started using Roil oil a couple of weeks ago, not enough time to give any real feed back but one thing i will say is my distance to empty on a full tank of juice has gone up, i did a trip to geelong from melb nth during the week , used the ring road medium traffic struck a few slow patches, anyway at the end of the run i calculated with km`s travelled and dte left on display holy ---- 920 k`s, i can say in all honesty in 4 years i`ve had my au on any economy test i`ve done about 800 is about the max dte,( i might add i filled up the same way/ filled at same servo as always) so at this stage the stuff is looking good it sounds a lot like Microglide mentioned, i`m going to put some in the diff on the weekend (the lsd is knackered anyway), i would like to mix some with the wheel bearing grease if they were`nt sealed, it does mention adding some to the auto oil i`ll try it out a little more and see how it goes.

pottery beige · 06-06-2009, 12:24 AM

Snake oil.. Wouldnt touch the stuff with a ten foot snake.. ha ha.. Pottery

Simon_Koala · 06-06-2009, 08:53 AM

Then you miss out on the benefits then I guess ....

pottery beige · 06-06-2009, 09:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Simon_Koala

Then you miss out on the benefits then I guess ....

Naahhh.. Just a firm believer that oil companys spend millions.. probly billions in developing their products.. additives etc are already in their products so that they can DO THE JOB.. dont believe the hype about this crap i reckon!!!! Just regular oil n filter changes for me thanks.. Pottery

Bushbasher · 06-06-2009, 10:19 AM

Re: Roil -

IMO, if this stuff is as good as it appears then the question of cost v savings becomes the issue I think. If it has to be added at every oil change then it effectively doubles the cost of that oil change. You'd have to make significant fuel economy savings to make it worth while or it just becomes a false economy considering a well serviced modern engine will go 500,000km easily if looked after properly. I've emailed the distributor and asked this very question so we'll see what he says. If it's something that only needs to go in every 50,000km ( lets say) then it would be good value but if it needs to go in at every change then unless your engine has some issue to start with, why would you bother.
I'll keep you all posted and let you know what the distributor has to say.

Cheers
Bushbasher