I'm thinking of trying them in my car this weekend.  For $20 I guess I can't get burned.

Anybody here use the stuff? Anything bad about using this in my car?    

Aproved by the faa for use in some aircraft engines... for a good reason...pat

In 1980 my father in law used this in a new Plymouth Horizon 4cyl vehicle. We all laughed and laughed and called it Scmuck 50

Car made it to 175,000 miles without an engine servie overhaul.


Was it the Schmuck 50 I do not know.

One of the local mechanics has a radio show where he occasionally gets asked the same question. He does NOT like the stuff. Says that some parts of an engine get hot enough to break down the Teflon, producing some really nasty sh*t that can plug up small oil passages. I think he may be right. The oil is exposed to some pretty hellish temperatures right below the piston rings, and is required to carry away quite a bit of combustion heat. Doesn't sound like a good place for Teflon to me.

Personally, I installed a Pre-luber pump on my lil' pickup. Wired to the seat belt warning buzzer, it automatically pressurizes the oil system every time I turn the key to "run", even before I hit the starter. Having full oil pressure before the engine spins a single revolution seems like one of the best ways to maximize engine life to me.

From what I know, Slick 50 and Microlon [url]http://www.microlon.com/[/url] are approved by FAA based on 150-hour test to prove it does not harm the engine.  Both contains teflon, which is quite controversial.

Avblend, aka Zmax aka Lenckite/Linkite is an interesting product.  I haven't try it yet, but go to [url]http://www.avblend.com[/url] and zmax.com and check out the endorsement page and "at work" page.  The formula initially available to the racing market in the late 40's.  FAA initially tested and approved Lenckite in 1980, after the market brandname changed to Avblend in 1997, it was apporoved again by FAA using various aircraft engines.  According to avblend.com, the FAA test is based on a 7700+ hr test w/ tear down and inspection at each 1000 hr interval.  Also check out the independent labortory report on the site (you wouldn't stick a failed test on you frige, would you?)

If you're interested in putting this stuff in your car engine at 6000-mile interval, contact them about the "small engine formula" (marketed to snowmobile, lawnmower, etc).  I was told all bottle in the zmax kit contains the same formula, so if you only want to put it in the engine, you can just order the small engine formula (instead of buying the whole zmax kit at $40 or Avblend at $20 per bottle) for cheaper price.  btw, i dont sell Avblend/Zmax for a living... [:)]  I would be interested to see how it perform...

There's a lot of "snake oil" out there. Yes, flourocarbon derivatives can burn/decompose and create nasty solid residues. Plus, my BSME/race car engineer (and ex-Calif. air Board engineer) friend says the "slickness" may actually reduce the filtering ability of the oil filter.

Contrary to uninformed popular opinion - and esp in this competetive market - car mfgrs really don't want their engines to wear out early: they'd spec it if it were really helpful. Oil mfgrs would then include it as an additive and could charge more. Mnay cars wear out in other ways - and owners get bored with 'em and want fresh'n'new - that engine wear-out is not a big thing for lotsa folks.

Change the oil every 3k-4k mi, less if driven in dusty/heavy service (stop & go, heavy load) environments. But many people now are religious on changing engine oil and forget to change their tranny or gearbox fluid or diff lube, causing problems down the line. I change my tranny fluid+filter every 20k, along with the diff gearlube.  Never had problems anywhere.

Pre-oilers are prob the best thing out there. Legitimate need for this on all cars but it costs too much to add as a regular mfgr system and is thus an aftermarket part.

[Skibane, whose preoiler did you use? Easy to install? How much?]

-Bill Wiese
-San Mateo, CA

There's so many kind of oil/engine addictives out there..., some of them may actually contains snake oil [:D]  Most people I know just stay away from them.  Avblend, from what i was told, does not contains a lot of chemicals like chlorine, TCP, etc that may harm the engine--adds some confidence in the product for me.  I heard when synthetic motor oil first came out, there're also people who regard them as snake oil.

Car and oil mfgrs recommend against those oil addictive because there're just so many of them coming out and going, they can't possibily test them all; I presume they also would have no trouble recommending their customers against using OTHER companies' products.

I don't know much about oils and engines, but have anyone treid the Amosoil [url]http://www.amsoil.com/[/url] by-pass filter?  It claims to remove sub-micro particles and "virtually eliminating engine wear."

Spend your $20 on another mag or more ammo.  If you must put it into your car, you're better off sticking with good routine maintenance.  That is my best advice.

We have used Slick 50 in everything from Water cooled VWs to street rod engines.
Hubby is a master mechanic...he loves the stuff.
The engines seem *quieter*, and last almost forever.
But we change the oil frequently too.
No major engine work yet on even the Rabbit with 200k on it.

Bill, the pre-luber I bought was from Lubrication Research, which I understand is no longer in business under that name. However, I have recently seen essentially the same product advertised by a company called Engine Lubrication Systems in Frazer, PA (800-836-8601, www.enginelube.com). They seem to be more popular with Diesel owners (due to oil cokeing problems in the turbocharger shortly after engine shutdown), but mine is on a small 4-banger gas engine.

As I recall, it cost me around $300 for the basic kit (the "timer box" was optional and not needed in my application). I figure if it makes the engine last an extra year or, it's paid for itself —  that's a year I don't have to be making payments on a new engine or vehicle! I have a little under 150K on the engine so far, and it runs just fine - no noise or oil consumption.

The pump wasn't all that hard to install. The basic kit includes hoses, barbed fittings and a oil pan pickup fitting that replaces the engine's existing oil drain bolt. The pump output is tee-ed into the engine at the oil pressure sending unit. A relay connects the pump to the seat belt buzzer indicator light on the dashboard.

I have to agree with you on the real reason why most people eventually get rid of their vehicles - they just get tired of them and either trade them outright, or stop maintaining them like they used to. Most modern vehicles are easily capable of delivering several hundred thousand miles of service, if you don't mind maintaining and repairing them.

Also agree that the auto transmission fluid is indeed critical. Fluid flushes are a great thing every 20-30K, and some of the synthetic ATFs are cheap insurance, too.

Joel

what about Marvel Mystery oil? that stuff has been around longer than most of the newer snakeoils.
anyone use Prolong? or Duralube?
i know they sponsor race teams and have races named after them (ie duralube 500).
so they must be doing something right if there able to get all that.

i used duralube once in my car, after a night of clubbing about 4 years ago and coming home at 2am my oil light comes on in my car for a split sec, and a couple more times that night usually when i came to a stop. i was able to make it home, and found that i only had 1-2 quarts of oil left in the engine, did duralube help?  dont know, probably doesnt hurt. and my cars till runs very strong to this day, but i havent put any duralube in since then, so im sure all the protective properties are gone by now.

If you must use something, I suggest a adding a bottle of STP oil treatment at $1.64.  

Get some "Monica's Myster Mouth" or even some "Cilly Hillary", both are as good as Slick Willy 50.

Stay away from anything that has teflon in it.  All it does is gum up your oil filter.

As opposed to an additive, the next time I change my oil I'm going with Royal Purple.  Heard nothing but good things.  Nopi has just started carrying their products.

Amsoil is a good company too.

We put lots of miles on our vehicles out here in the middle of nowhere.
I have put it in all of them every 50,000 miles and my comutter car has more than 260,000 miles on it. A truck has 130,000 on it also.
I'll stick to it.

See [url]http://www.ftc.gov/opa/1996/9607/slick.htm[/url]

I can't find the review, but there's a report by an independent testing lab about 12 pages long that reviews most of the oil additives out there (and there are a BUNCH) and concludes that you should save your money and just keep changing your oil regularly.  If you really want to spend more money, use synthetic oil (it really is better, but if you change your oil often enough and don't severely abuse your engine, synthetic doesn't buy you any advantages).  

DuPont, the manufacturer of Teflon (and the source of all oil-additive manufacturers "PTFE resins") does not allow them to use the trademark word "Teflon" in their advertising and does not support [i]any[/i] claims of those manufacturers.  

The conclusion is that Slick 50 and all the others may not be harmful to your engine, but they don't buy you much either.  (Oh, they do mention the race teams that use it - in extremely high-performance engines the addition of a dry lubricant does seem to help, but these engines see a very narrow type of operation and are rebuilt on a regular basis anyway.  I wish I could find that damned article!)

A co-worker actually called one of the major engine oil manufacturers (don't recall which one)and asked them this specific question.

Their response was something like "We spend $XXXXXX and XXXXX hours testing different formulations for our motor oils.  If we thought
the teflon (or whatever ingrediant) was needed
it would already be in the oil.  I believe the
guy, the addition of slick 50 wouldn't hurt their oil sales, would it?

I'll tell my story, and you can draw your own conclusions.

I used Slick 50 in my '82 Honda Accord that I drove all through college.  The card had about 130,000 miles on it when this happened.  One night, a 3am, driving home on the interstate from the bars, my oil light came on.  I instinctively pushed the clutch in and switched the engine off within seconds.  Rolled to a stop, and got out and checked my oil.  It was full.  I assumed it was a oil sending unit failure, got in my car, and drove the remaining THREE MILES (yes, three miles) at 70 MPH back to our family owned  machine shop (I lived next door)  The last 1/2 mile was residential stop/go, but the first 2.5 miles was at 70mph.

My the time I got to the shop, the engine was starting to sputter, and I had to give it a lot of gas to keep it running... not to mention it was running a little hotter that I was used to.  This was my first inclination that something was really wrong.

Got it in the shop, dropped the oilpan, and found that the oil pump strainer had fallen off the oil pump, got beat up by the crank, and a piece of the strainer got sucked up in the oil pump and froze it.  This in turn snapped the oil pump shaft (coming off the cam) cleanly.

This means, I drove 3 MILES, with ZERO oil pressure, most of that at highway speeds.

I replaced the oil pump, and the oil pump cam-shaft... put it all back together wondering if my poor beloved Honda would ever run again.

Well, I drove that car for another 100,000 miles before I SOLD it to a friend who needed some reliable transportation.  I dont know how long he drove it... but I saw it several times around town months later.  It probably had close to 300,000 miles on it before it was all said an done.

I dont know if that is a testament to the Honda engine... or the Slick 50 I dropped in (two treatments before the mishap).... but DAMN.... I was amazed.

hielo, LOL!  
FALARAK, that's a Honda engine for you!  Just my conclusion, mind you.

Follow this advise if you are using motor oil made in the 1930's. It is that outdated.

Change your oil every 7,500 to 10,000 miles, or whatever the owners manual (not the service departement) recommends.

FWIW; We change the oil in our patrol cars every 10,000 miles and those cars are used hard!

No....no matter how many testimonies you get...regular oil changes and general maintenance will keep your car running well.

READ THIS:
http://www.vtr.org/maintain/oil-additives.html

If it's too good to be true...it's a buncha crap,

[b][blue]NAKED[/blue][/b]

I have always changed my oil and filter every 5000-10,000 miles.  3000 is oil lobby crap.  I "try" to do it before 7500 most of the time.

My owners manual even states 7500 in both of my last 2 cars.

[url]http://www.vtr.org/maintain/oil-additives.html[/url]

THAT'S IT!  That's the article I couldn't find.  Thanks!

[url]http://www.eaa49.av.org/techart/huff02.htm[/url]

Every oil/engine addicitve has a different approach and different ingredient; not all of them should be labeled alike.  I have used Duralube, Slick50 and I'm about to put motorup in my beatup toyota--I cant say they hurt my engines in any way and I doubt they help significantly (someone brought them for me anywayz).  The analogy I've heard is they're like chicken soup--they may not help and won't hurt either.  But if something out there that actually works, then I'll use it--I rather not just be negative about anything addictive.

I also doubt that changing dino oil regularly is the same as using synthetic oil.  There're something dino oil just cannot do.

I have actually thought of putting a little BreakFree in an older car I have with an engine that's not as clean as it should be. Maybe run it 100 miles and change it out again.  I've never had the balls to do it though. [BD]

I have 185k on the '87 Nissan pick-up and it still runs like a champ. Change the oil and filter every 3-4k. I haven't changed the tranny oil since it was new, but after I had 10k miles on it I replaced the tranny and diff oil with Red Line synthetic, so I guess that's helped a little. The Red Line is amazing stuff. After adding the Red Line, it shifted gears a lot smoother, especially between 2nd and 3rd. That stuff is great.

A friend of mine has a shop in Atlanta.  A customer came in with his hydraulic lash adjusters (hydraulic lifters for OHC engine) raising hell.  Car had maybe 45K on it.  The guy was all pissed, calling his car a POS, etc.  Now, to preface, my friend is more than just a mechanic, he is very technically inclined and researches things involving cars and he is a gun nut, too [:D].  As we talked to the customer, we finally got him to admit that he used Slick 50, or Slick 50 million quick dollars, as my friend calls it, and the problem started within 2 days.  My friend already hated the stuff and this was just more proof of what garbage it is.  I would NOT use this junk.

Personally, I would use a GOOD synthetic oil if the engine does not have too many miles on it.  Ironically, you have to break in a new engine with conventional oil up to about 10K.  The synthetic is too slippery to break the engine in.  I use nothing but synthetic in my piston engine cars.  I don't in my rotary because it is designed to burn a little oil like a 2 cycle.  I could use synthetic if I premixed, but that is a pain in the butt.

Any car should make that with no problem without additives.  My old 85 Mazda 626 made it to 300K without any additives.

[b]matja[/b], I've had exactly the same positive results with the Red Line MTL synthetic gear lube in my '88 Mitsubishi pickup's 5-speed, except it really helped the 1st - 2nd shift. MUCH better shifting in cold weather than anything else I've tried, and I've tried plenty of them (including other synthetics)! Red Line's sales literature describes the special attention they've given to the way synchros mesh in a manual gearbox. The trick seems to be to avoid the "slipperyness" of traditional synthetics during synchro engagement (since this slipperyness actually hinders engagement), while still retaining the lubrication abilities of a traditional synthetic after you're in gear. All I can say is that it works nearly perfectly in my application.

This same mechanic I mentioned earlier also recommends using synthetic motor oil, replacing it every 10K miles with a filter replacement every 5K. Basic idea is that as long as you can keep the "big" particles out of it, a good synthetic will remain stable for a lot of miles. An oil flush every few years isn't a bad idea, either.

I've heard that synthetic motor oil tends to aggrevate oil leaks in high-mileage engines. Anyone had this experience?

From my personal experience in the last 8 years:
Before I started using Slick 50, I locked up 2 engines in 2 years.  The second engine was a POS from Autozone that wasn't assembled right.  Froze up with only 1,000 miles on it.  Since then, the past 7 years using Slick 50, I've had no engines go out or lock up.  One had an engine bearing going out, knocking and metal fillings in the oil, it kept running until I donated it.  My current car has 160,000 on the engine and besides burning oil, is still going strong.

Everyone has a personal experience one way or the other.

My grandfather had a 1984 Chevy Impala that he put 350,000 miles on without a single major mechanical problem without using any additives or anything special at all.  It was still a great car when he sold it in 1990.

A guy I used to work for swore by slick 50.  Never mind that he ended up replacing the engine in his 88 Chevy Astro due to bad rings at about 150k.  [rolleyes]

Thank you all for your replies.  I didn't expect so many opinions on the subject.  I think I'm going to try Slick50 on my car this weekend... it seems I have nothing to loose.

"My car" is a 1992 Mitsubish Eclipse with 157,000 miles on it.  I drive it about 30,000 miles per years (between 1994-1996 it was only driven 4,000 while I was living out of the country) and I change the oil every 3,000-5,000 miles without fail at local Walmart.  I rather pay $10 to Walmart to do the work than to do it at home.  Not only that, it gives me a good excuse to go look around at the sporting goods dept.
 
 

Porsche reccomends oil changes every 15,000 miles.  Most people I know do it every 7,500 anyhow.  I do my jeep about every 5k.  

Funny thing is that I used to change the oil in a new car after the first thousand miles.  Past couple new cars we've been told not to do that.  Do they just make the engines to closer tolerances now?

No kidding! I forgot to mention cold weather. Before the Red Line, it was difficult to shift gears when cold. Now, it shifts only a little less smoothly than when warm. Man, I'm going to replace the tranny and diff. with a new batch of Red Line. That stuff is great.

Now I remember why I haven't replaced it sooner. I keep telling myself I'll replace all the gear oil when I put in a new clutch. But the damn clutch still works okay after 185k miles so I'm still waiting. :)

I got it done several days ago and only thing I noticed is that it used to idle at 9,000 to 10,000 rpm but now it idles at 7,000 to 8,000 rpm.  

Is this good or bad???