EddieS'04
In Memoriam 1950-2022
The first is my question to him.
This is his answer.
Hey unc,
Im continously having arguments with my online auto buddies. That most
additives or all are snake oil.
My belief is that good oil & filters and fuel is the key.
If you ever get a chance can you give me a write up of some of your
research. Some of these guys think they are know it alls. Always braging
about this additive and that one. In my over 40yrs I never lost a motor.
Broke alot of other parts..LOL
The only motor failure was from a 318 timing chain housing. The coolant
passage leaked to the pan. Turned an insert. Not the oils fault.
You know me I push my motors hard and never lost one. I say they are wasting
there money.
Their lastest kick is Sea-Foam and Lucas. Funny we have a bunch of guys that
are always feeding others info that has been snake oil, longer than we are
old..LOL
I also recently read an article that, Sta-Bil gas preservent doesnt work
with any fuel with ethanol.
If I need your correction, tell me. I can take it....LOL
Eddie
This is his answer.
Please do not forward with my name attached, share verbably if possible.
Some of this is can be viewed as some what confidential!
First gasoline, the additives that are put in most major station gasolines
are all that is needed. The three Tier one companies that put the same or
better additives in all three grades are: Shell, Texaco, and Chevron.
There are some of the other majors have good additives but may only be
available in their premiums. This changes from time to time as some change
their advertising and focus more on cleanliness in their fuels. Texaco
fuels are used in testing for Motor Trend and Shell is used for Car and
Driver testing. For instance Shell VP power has a triple dose additive that
will cut deposits to great extent after about 3 tanks fulls. We verified
that in testing when we ran engines with unadditised fuels until an adequate
amount of deposits were accumulated. The engines on a variety of vehicles
were then torn down and the amount of deposits were documented. Then the
vehicles were reassembled and then 0-60 tests were taken a long with advance
curve data. Then the same test was done after running 3 tanks of the test
fuels. The deposits that were removed allowed the engines to detect less
knock so that allowed the computers to advance quicker therefore the claims
in performance were made. All engines were torn down again to verify the
amount of deposit removed. Shell sells the V power additive and Chevron
sells Techroline. Texaco and Chevron use the same additive package. These
are proven additives. There are some additives that we tested do some good
but not as much as these. Some of the additives also do not perform well
because they do not they do not mix well with the water bottoms that are
present in most gasoline stations. I never fill up at any station that is
having gasoline added to their tanks for that reason due to the stirring.
As you stated maintenance and good fuel is foremost in protecting any
engine. The addition of ethanol as a oxygenate in gasoline? MTBE did a much
a much better job but it did not help the farmers, a political football to
say the least. Ethanol/alcohol burns hotter and cuts your fuel economy at
10 to 15% in most vehicles. MTBE was taken out because of spill in CA. and
CARB which has an incredible influence with the EPA, was fearful of ground
water contamination if gasoline tanks began to leak.
I was not involved too much in oil as I was in gasoline. The tests were
conducted in the labs next to ours and I will tell you what I gleaned from
some of the tests after talking with their technicians. Oils for gasoline
and diesel engines differ quite a bit. The additves that are used in diesel
oils are not good for the catalytic converters in gasoline engines. Shell
Rotella T also has an additive that keeps the soot in suspension in the oil.
I was involved in a NY yellow cab taxi test involving conventional oil on
7,500 oil change intervals and pure synthetic oil using 25,000 oil change
invervals. Upon inspection, the engines on synthetic oil were cleaner and
had slightly less wear than conventional motor oil. The engines with
synthetic oil actually looked almost new. I can not state which synthetic
oil it was but it was very popular brand. As a result I use synthetic oil
in all of my gasoline engines. If you use the same oil change intervals
that you use with conventional oil, you are probably wasting your money. I
use the oil monitor that is used on my car which calculates city and road
miles into the recommended intervals. If a vehicle does not have that
capability I would go at least 15K on an oil change and then you would
probably be changing it needlessly. I too have heard people making claims
about Lucas and some other additives. I have a neigbor that has about 300k
miles on a truck. He had lifter noise at about 250k and added some Lucas
that he claims has helped quite a bit. I suspect if would change his oil a
little more often and use a slightly heavier weight oil due to the wear on
the engine he would accomplish the same thing. Amsoil and Royal Purple makes
some claims as well that are probably not worth the extra expense. On oil,
the only real test is to take samples and have them analyzed for metals and
contaminates. I use Sta-bil in my generators that sit for months on end with
out starting and never seem to have a problem. Thats not to say that it
might not work as well were it sits in a tank in vehicle that has a fuel
pump within the tank. As stated earlier some additives do not mix well long
term and can clog the fine screen on the fuel pump pickup or clog an
injector as well.
As far as your buddies using different additives in their fuel and oil. If
they think it helps, I guess that is all that counts. The only damage will
only be to their wallets.
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