Help! - I am gunshy!!!

[megaboz]

Actually, JT, you bring up a point I hinted at, but did not make abundantly clear: I don't ever put any extra additives in an engine that is running right. I always use as close to what the manufacturer recommends as I can come. I dont ALWAYS use the manufacturers filters, but often times I do, if the price is not too much of a premium over generic.

Any doubts I have about following the manufacturers recs comes from the fuel we all buy. Often we are not able to buy the diesel fuel the manufacturer was counting on being used. They change the fuels (both diesel and gasoline) over time, usually having to do with pollution controls. I have my doubts about the lubricity of many diesel fuels. I may be tempted to run a little Red Oil, or ATF at some point, but I have not decided. My gut tells me since I only think there COULD BE a lubricity problem, I should not add any additives because there is not any KNOWN problem.

Funny you mention about fuel changing. I subscribe to a diesel site and they were talking about add 2-stroke oil to the fuel, abotu 1/2 to 1 oz per gallon. TCW-3 rated 2 stroke oil (low or no ash kind), even the walmart brand was recommended. Specifally to improve engine running (smoother idle, quiter engine) and supposedly better fuel economy.

While I suppose adding a little lubrication to the top end of the cylanders wouldn't hurt, and I could see where better fuel economy could be derived, but I would imagine that to be very little. But if your engine is running smoother, I would think that some (1 MPG) improvements could be seen.

I haven't tried that, but again my truck has so much pollution control stuff on it that would probably kill those parts.

 

[ultrarunner]

The local tow operator swears by Slick 50... not at it.

He "Slicks" his tow trucks every 50k miles and some have well over 200k and lots of idle time...

Any good or bad or is it just a coincidence?

 

[megaboz]

The local tow operator swears by Slick 50... not at it.

He "Slicks" his tow trucks every 50k miles and some have well over 200k and lots of idle time...

Any good or bad or is it just a coincidence?

With anything there is almost always a good or bad, and sometime just coincidence.

I had a 78 Totyota pickup, it would start to back fire at 3,000 miles (give or take a couple of hundred) after each oil change. Changed the oil, purred like a kitten. One day after the an oil change, I let my mother drive the truck. As she pulled into the driveway the motor seized! Coincidence maybe, but then again the truck had 300,000 miles on it, and believe it or not, still had the original clutch. The point is that I had been changing the oil for a 80,000 miles everytime it started to back fire, but it did blow up.

Getting 200,000 miles out of a well maintianed vehicle is not uncommon. Using Slick 50 may or may not have helped it, but I doubted it added more than 20,000 miles to the vehicles life. Idling isn't extremely hard on an engine unless it is close to over heating. An idling engine (what 800 to 900 RPM's) will probably out last a vehicle that is driven constantly on the interstate that is turning 2,000 RPMS. The fact is that motor is actually doing less work idling.

I am not going to tell anyone that an additive is "Snake Oil", but some are probably that. But if you run good oil that meets the certifications required by the manufacture and change the filters at regular intervals (now this is where I may argue, I don't paticulary subscribe to the notion of the 3,000 mile rule), I don't think you will see any real difference with or without addittional additives.

I know people that are running an oil bypass with two filters and using Amsoil that don't change their oil for 100,000 miles in diesel pickups. Change the filter every 20,000 or so and add another quart to replace what was lost in the filter and are still driving their trucks.

The one thing that I always wondered, was that if these additives were so good, why don't magazines and other organizations like Popular Mechanics and Consumer Reports are not recommending the heck out of these products?

 

[JOHNTHOMAS]

The local tow operator swears by Slick 50... not at it.

He "Slicks" his tow trucks every 50k miles and some have well over 200k and lots of idle time...

Any good or bad or is it just a coincidence?

What if he hadn't of Slicked his trucks? Would he have gotten more or less miles? There's no way to know unless you perform tests of all tow truck drivers that are all doing the same thing at the same time and using all the same products. This is the basis for most unproven products that Mr Somebody always used these and didn't die till he was 82. Mr Aguy changed his oil every 2200 miles and his engine was never overhauled and lasted him 22 years. Someone mentioned Magazine reviewers/testers and over the years most of them have done pieces on these products and claims. As I remember their conclusions is that most of them don't help and probably don't damage.