Do I dare put Slick 50 in my Yanmar?

   / Do I dare put Slick 50 in my Yanmar? #21  
At work I run a fleet of 110 Lincoln Town Cars putting 250 to 300k miles in 24 months. I have had every snake oil hawker and fancy filter guy begging me to use their product in my vehicles. They claim this, that and the world and yet we still use "cheap" as in in-expensive bulk motor oil. In six years with the company, hundreds of vehicles and millions of miles we have never had any engine problems due to lubrication.

Here's some of the things that I have learned:

Addatives add a coating to the moving parts which over time tend to "slop" from wear. The addatives prevent the oil from "filling" these "sloppy" areas. This is especially true for older vehicles. (If you're brave enough, put some in a high mile motor and just wait for the knocking to start...seen it)

Fancy oils and the such like synthetics, although I have nothing against them in the right application, only end up costing more money as even though the oil hasn't broken down yet it is still full of contaminents.

Fancy filters that claim to extend oil life....read above.

Everyone here has already given good advise. A good filter meant to filter oil during a normal oil lifespan (even if you use synthetic) and regular changes at least or better than OEM recomendations are the best medicine for a healthy engine.

Just my opinion.

Regards,
Kevin
 
   / Do I dare put Slick 50 in my Yanmar? #22  
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( In order to repel Cape Buffalo and Elephants I purchased a Ruger #1 in .416 Remington Magnum, I ain't had to use it none here. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif Now you tell me I could have saved $800 by buyin' your pet rock. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif Where were you when I moved here? /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif )</font>

Well, there is one fairly big difference between the rock and the $800 .416 Ruger--when an elephant or buffalo shows up (right after pigs start flying), the .416 actually will repel a big critter whereas the rock will...uh, just lay there.
 
   / Do I dare put Slick 50 in my Yanmar? #23  
<font color="blue">Charles,

Several things come to mind...

First, knowledge is always a deterrent to waste... though sometimes the knowledge is more expensive to obtain then a small bit of waste, so isn't always cost effective...

Second, when erring, err on the side of safety... in other words, if you don't know for sure about the Cape Buffalo, then $9.99 is pretty cheap... or as my Grandmother used to say in her Eastern European accent, "Vouldn't help? Vouldn't hurt!"... providing the rock isn't Kryptonite and you're not Superman...

Third, you don't have to kill the Buffalo to protect yourself, the rock might just annoy him enough to get him to go the other way... Add to that the fact that 99.9% of the folks out there wouldn't know how to bring down a Cape Buffalo with any kind of firearm, so the rifle isn't necessarily better then the rock... course, either the rifle or the rock could just piss him off and make him angry enough to chase you, at which point you realize that you don't have to outrun the Cape Buffalo, you only have to outrun the person next to you who's also running <grin>...

Lastly (well, almost), a long time ago, (not on a planet far far away, though <Star Wars grin>), I was a shade tree mechanic in High School (and after), and Andy Granatelli (let's see how many old f@rts remember him) used to advertise STP on TV, and sponsor race cars (so long ago that the cars at the Indy 500 still had engines in FRONT of the driver... I can remember when Lotus brought the first rear engined racers to Indy... but I digress... <grin>)

STP was the best selling oil additive, and had some value, as 'detergent' oil was less common back then and STP was basically a detergent additive.... And if you used it from the beginning on a new car, it worked fairly well... much as detergent motor oil worked later... BUT... if you put STP in an older car, you became familiar rapidly with the phrase, "Heck, the dirt was the only thing holding the engine together in the first place... now that's gone... <sigh>..."
</font>
<font color="maroon">Stoney</font>
<font color="red">{Know why they make pool tables green?... Keeps the elephants off them... Ever seen an elephant on a pool table?... Works, don't it? <grin>...}</font>
 
   / Do I dare put Slick 50 in my Yanmar? #24  
I don't know about the additive, but the motor oil sure kept my Yamaha 500 C engine clean. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
Whoa Parnelli! /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif
 
   / Do I dare put Slick 50 in my Yanmar? #25  
Maybe not relevant, but my 4Runner did 253,000 w/o
major work using Slick 50. It was running well w/o burning oil when I traded it. Who knows??
 
   / Do I dare put Slick 50 in my Yanmar? #28  
That FTC item was dated 1997.

As an aside:

A number of years ago Pennzoil sold off its exploration units and began selling many of its other processing plants and refineries. It then became little more than a marketing company, which made it much like Quaker State (which at that time owned Slick 50 and other additives) and Castrol.

Then Pennzoil bought Quaker State, the number 1 brand buying the number 3 brand of passenge car motor oil.

Somewhere along the way, BP ended up with Castrol, if my memory serves me.

Then, Shell bought the Pennzoil-Quaker State company.

Of course, most of us are familiar with ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, ConocoPhillips, and other mergers.

Citgo is at least partially Venezuelan. Shell is from the Netherlands.

Many of the other brand names that are popular on a regional basis are now owned by some of these or other large oil companies.

All I'm saying is that from my experience in the motor oil business, most of these products that most of us swear by are often considered as nothing more than a brand much like a consumer products company would view its brand or brands of toothpaste: they all get the job done, they just taste a little different. Granted, one may excel in one area and one may excel in another.

It's the same, to a degree, with motor oil now. A quality oil - it doesn't have to be brand name - that meets the requirements for your application is what you need. The best motor oil is the oil that's changed in a timely and regular manner.

If you want the absolute best, go with synthetic as long as it's rated for your application, SL and GF-3 for most gasoline applications and CF for most diesel applications. Your owner's manual will tell you what you need.

I got off track, but all of the above was just getting around to saying that products like Slick 50 were used by oil companies as they moved to add brands to their stable of products.

(many of these companies are no longer oil companies, but marketing companies, which then became small marketing departments in very large oil companies)

I would not use Slick 50 in anything still in warranty. I would rarely use or recommend it or any other additive at any other time.

[carefully climb on soap box]
Any time you go buy oil and it costs a lot more at your local parts store or from anyone who doesn't have national buying power, realize that many regional distributors and their customers (service stations, lube centers, mom & pop hardware stores, parts stores, auto shops, etc.) pay more than what you pay at Wal-Mart, etc., for the same product, so they have to charge more. Plus people in small business can't afford a "loss-leader" like others. . . .
[one foot still on box] /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

A lot of what's out there came from marketing, not engineering.

No. I wouldn't recommend Slick 50.
 
   / Do I dare put Slick 50 in my Yanmar? #29  
Personally, I never use Pennzoil, Quaker State or Wolfs Head in anything.

Parrifin based oils tend to seperate and leave a bunch of goo inside your motor.

I do use PTFE based additives in the gearboxes of my machine tools. They allow the gearboxes to run somewhat cooler and quieter, but then, I don't change the lube oil but maybe every few years. Most machine tools have straight cut gears and can be quite noisy at high RPM's
 
   / Do I dare put Slick 50 in my Yanmar? #30  
Be careful with this in a diesel engine. It can cause slow starts in the cold weather. Especially if you get too much in it. I know slick 50 is good but I use Lucas Heavy Duty Oil Stabilizer in my vehicles which I like better than Slick 50. They probably do the same work but I know Lucas does a superior job in protecting engine and gears that use 90 weight oil. I even use Lucas in my gear boxes of the BH... again careful not to get too much in it in gears boxes because it can cause them to run hot as well. Probably because of the thickness. I had a friend that uses Lucas and his girlfriend drove his truck about 70 mile with the oil plug that came out from where they had changed the oil.. it was a Ford 351 Clevland and believe it or not... Lucas additive protected the engine. If it had only been oil when she drove through the mountains 70 miles... I have a feeling that it would have blown the engine. His mechanic said the engine was just fine and no damage occured, still had the same compression and he is driving it today and it does not use oil either. Definately made a believer of me in Lucas Heavy Duty Oil Stabilizer

Jim
 
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