oil/fuel additives

Do any of them work?

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/1996/07/slick.shtm
http://www.ftc.gov/os/2000/05/duralube.do.htm
http://www.ftc.gov/os/2000/05/motorup.do.htm
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2001/11/gadget.shtm

ive seen some demo's done with an additive called "roya"l that were prety impresive. a metal conditioner

I worked on the slick 50 race team in the 90's, I read some amazing propaganda stories and heard amazing anecdotes as well. US FTC seems to disagree.

the tests are silly because they demonstrate that the additives add a property that isn't required.

One of the more popular test rigs they use is an extreme pressure test rig, and show that normal motor oil doesn't perform very well on it, but with their additive it works great.

That's because their additive is an extreme pressure additive, which you don't want in engine oil (as it doesn't have any extreme pressure contact). Normally the EP addittives have bad side effects such as being corrosion to engine bearings and bushes, which is why they aren't in the oil to start with.

my oil tribology lecturer at uni said the uni gets asked to test heaps of those additives all the time, and none of them are useful. He also said what they do depends on what brand oil they are put in, because they all have differing starting chemistry...

I use Roil in all my cars and it trully does what they state. Their test analysis was actually done by the university of Qld on their falex pin and block test machine. Something a lot of the other manufacturers cannot get done as I have been told by a close friend who works at the uni. they choose to test your product not you ask for it to be tested.

Have seen Roil used in race cars for years as well as seen dyno proof of the difference it makes..... believe it or not.....

Do you mean QUT (instead of UQ)?

The falex pin test is a standard ASTM D3233B test. It is an extreme pressure test. Like I said, useless for an engine oil.

I use pro-ma and have done for many years now. It lives up to its claims and has saved my wifes car engine twice. (VP commodore that has overheated bad enough to blacken the alloy and remove/destroy the bonnet lining) Other motors Ive had performed better than they claimed in terms of being smooth, reliable, lasting longer and coping abuse. Well the abused one being my 4wd hill climber/mud basher. Anyway I have also used some other products that have worked too. I guess you have to be reasonable in your expectations, after all there are no mechanics in a bottle. - Imagine the human rights people if you tried!!!🤪

[ Edited on 8-5-2007 by Adsman ]

FWIW I do like the nulon gearbox additive to encourage smooth shifting and quieten boxes. This is for older cars.

koolkarmakombi wrote:FWIW I do like the nulon gearbox additive to encourage smooth shifting and quieten boxes. This is for older cars.

That one has some merits and I have heard good things about it.

Same with stop smoke, it does stop the smoke, because it's a viscosity multiplier (makes the oil real thick). But don't put it in a new motor of course.

Be careful with telfon style additives in late model cars though, you can wreck stuff with small oil passages like hydraulic lifters if your unlucky.

Gearbox ones have always puzzled me. The job of a synchro ring is to grip yet you put teflon in there to reduce friction. I put the free slick 50 in my engine but passed on the gearbox.

I was referring to the quietening noisy boxes. I could see how they should be able to help in this regard, and have had people say it work on their noisy box.

a year ago we had an MG Midget with a rebuilt box, no noise noise, but the gearchange was stiff & notchy & had to be perfectly accurate for a clean change, I put G70 in & within an hour driving the car was a pleasure, fast slick smooth changes.
I used to use nulon in in non VW worn engines & had no problems, but steer clear of it now due to too many horror stories circulating, I put"motorup" in my Humber & the manifold vacuum & idle speed increased, manifold vacuum was still up after I reset idle

Speaking from a Proma perspective - the oil additive is unique to the market and provides a 10thou build up of copper and lead over pressured surfaces therefore adding pressure to the synchro rings and thus is why they recommend that you what for appox 5000km to bed in new parts before adding product. The copper/lead build up is designed to be a sacrificial wear barrier between surfaces so it make sense. It provides a more positive feel to gear changes especially in 32+ skylines wear double synchros apply. In terms of slick products they add a teflon type coating that coats parts until pressure is applied and therefore also add pressure to the synchros but what happens to teflon is that after pressure has been applied it becomes like a frying pan and breaks off leaving no protecton unlike the self-renewing coating that the proma adds. Don't get me wrong slick certainly works in my experience but not for the 80000km they claim, well not in my experience anyway. Works better if rerewed far more frequently.

Baja Wes wrote:I was referring to the quietening noisy boxes. I could see how they should be able to help in this regard, and have had people say it work on their noisy box.

I agree they reduce friction and therefore they will reduce noise generated by bearings and wear surfaces. Hence friction modifiers as the name state "reduces friction". An excellent example is landcruiser diffs and the wine that they get - unfortunately you cant just crack the diff and get the wine out to drink - like some popular belief.😂🤪