What engine oil additive have you used with great success?

Question

Engine oil additives are everywhere.

With claims of increased performance, rebuilt engine in a bottle, million miles per gallon of fuel results or million miles between overhauls...

What engine oil additives made a difference in your engine?

What engine oil additives are a waste of precious hard earned cash?

Tell me your war stories...

Everyone has a right to an opinion.. lengthy explanations welcomed and encouraged.

There are so many great answers this question will be subjected to "group thinking" by vote.

Thanks again for your time and interest.

Answer 1

LUCAS!!! Use on everything from automotive to heavy equipment.

Answer 2

Engine oil additives are, in general, a waste of money and can damage engines or shorten engine life. Some of them purport to contain graphite, molybdenum, and/or Teflon. These are supposed to "coat the cylinder walls" thereby resulting in less friction and increasing mileage, etc Actually, the reverse is true. When engines are new or are rebuilt, the cylinder walls are honed to create a crosshatch pattern on the cylinder surface. This results in better sealing of the piston rings against the cylinder walls, which will reduce blow-by into the crankcase and will also help insure better compression. I personally have seen a stripped down engine where the cylinder walls were glazed and shiny. It was torn down because of excessive oil consumption. The owner had been using a popular oil additive. After honing the cylinders and reassembly, oil consumption returned to normal. An additive containing Moly can damage bronze parts in an engine if it does not contain a metal deactivator component. As for the graphite and Teflon, etc, additives: they can react negatively with the existing engine oil chemistry and there have been documented cases where the oil filter will trap and remove them. There are also additives that are quite "thick" and will increase the viscosity of the oil to an unacceptable level, especially in cold weather. There are a few engine oil additives on the market that will improve the oil, but the key is to find one that improves the Viscosity Index of the oil, this will increase the longevity of the oil by limiting oxidation and will enhance it's performance at elevated temps. For every 18-degrees F. of temp. rise, the oxidation rate of oil is doubled. Today's more efficient, less polluting, engines, coupled with decreased cooling due to aerodynamic styling is resulting in hotter oil temps. What you don't want to do is put in an additive that unbalances the formulation of the oil. Many of the popular additives on the market today have had to tone back their claims because they did not perform as advertised when tested in independent labs. Bottom line here is simple - buy a superior oil to begin with and forget the additives. Go with a proven synthetic engine oil!
And, it wouldn't hurt to spend the money you're saving on not buying additives on an oil analysis, maybe at 25,000 mile intervals. It's like an annual physical and doesn't cost all that much! An oil analysis costs maybe $20 to $30-odd dollars. What does an engine cost???

Answer 3

No....
Only additives I use are in the gas, thats stabilizer and marvel mystery oil.
Others just either thicken the oil to mask leaks and noises, or severely thin it out and cause damage.
Slick 50? Man oh man, thats a coating of teflon clumps in your engine..... clogging passageways. Teflon needs a lot more heat, then whats generated inside a engine to "bond"... also had shown via a study to cause more wear on the engine, but it did increase mpgs though.

duralube.. chlorinated parrafins... yeah thats chlorine, something real slick, but it makes lots of lovely acid as well inside a engine to eat at the metal.

Those thickeners? Well they are just bottles of heavy cheap oil, filled with cheap additives.. about the only I'd recommend would be valvolines, it actually has other additives other then zinc, and uses a good base oil.

Lucas oil stabilizer.... I like to call it lucas oil destabilizer ... makes lovely foam that takes hours to settle. Air doesn't lube very well..

Answer 4

Don´t expect much from an oil additive, i mean a lot of them work but they are not going to fix your engine 100%. I had to use a few a while ago on my old VW, and it worked, it just made it have more viscosity, so it would leak less through the gaps in the head gasket. If you are looking to add viscosity, like most are for, go with the thickest liquid you can find, there are some bottles that are somewhat clear and you can see the liquid. And i guess it doesn´t hurt to buy a good brand, but like i said, most of them are decent. It worked on my old car, and I could definitely feel the difference, a smoother engine.
Hope it helps!

Answer 5

Hey Tim,

Auto shop teacher, Heinz Batterman recommended never use additives of any kind anywhere.

However I have an engine that had a seeping freeze plug. It was tucked way under the exhaust manifold, an extremely nasty job. The car recorded 180k miles.

Exactly, I bought a bottle of motor purr (no ceramics), I followed directions (easy). That was 16k miles ago and still going fine.
1978 Chevy nova L6 & 1991 Ford Exploder 4.0 worked great!

I have followed Batterman's advice on oil additives, save your money and engine and change your oil 3k to 5k, and your motoing down the road uh huh !

Answer 6

can you say bg ask some of your local repair facilities about it depending on what condition your car is in oil change every 3000 miles religiously helps alot oil is not just a lubricant it also has other jobs like condition and cooling depending on how many miles you have you should check out a preventitive maintainence plan that is available for your car see what is out there but be careful to where you go i recommend looking around see what services you like

Answer 7

i had one car that sounded like it was about to die . i used all kinds of oil treatments without luck. i then heard about marvel mystery oil and used it. the car ran like new and lasted until i forgot to put it back in after i got the oil changed.my brothers wife ran her car out of oil and my brother borrowed it and the oil pressure light came on and the car started knocking. he put in a quart of marvel mystery oil in it and it quieted down.he drove the car the few miles to his house with just the marvel in it and then added oil to it. he said he would never use any additive but that!

Answer 8

Marvels mystery oil has worked for me over the years. I have used it in my 1968 mercury that my father had from day one.awesome stuff!

Answer 9

I've never used an oil addative.Just rely on rgular oil changes with a good filter.purolator "pure one"is the one I recomend

Answer 10

i used slick50 in my 86 siverado and it lowered the running temp and seemed to add a few miles per gallon to my overall travels. what it does is put a teflon coating on all internal engine parts.