Engine oil additives.

Chan Chee Hoe

Engine oil additives like "Slick 50" is very common in U.S.,i wonder how many "Z" owners used it in their cars.?

MacCool

Snake oil. I wouldn't put it in my GMC, let alone my Z.

Chan Chee Hoe

But alot of these 'Snake oil' are made in U.S.A.,there must be a big market there.!

ImportConvert

Fail. Keep the junk out of the sump

SPOHN

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sucasa

snake oil +1

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MacCool

*WARNING* Sticking a spear into a Sacred Cow...

There's a HUGE market for snake oil additives in the USA...Andy Granatelli set the bar pretty high for hucksterism in the oil industry starting back in 1953 when he gave us STP, and we've been bombarded by pitches for that kind of additive crap ever since. I don't know if it's just Americans that are susceptible to that silly concept, or if the rest of the world is just as gullible, but it certainly is a lucrative market.

1slow370

a lot of the short term additives work nice, like the ones for cleaning the crap out of a 130,000 mile engine, as well as the additives like lead substitutes, fuel system cleaners, and the like, but i would stay the hell away from the compression fixers, lubrication enhancers(lucas+zmax), and anything that really sounds too good to be true.

I do like seafoam, kerosine(for cleaning out crankcases, add some to the oil start it up let it idle for a minute shut it off let it drain and change oil and filter), and lucas stopslip to stretch out the life of your beaters tranny when the valvebody seals start to go to drive it to the junk.

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MacCool

But at least it's unlikely to hurt your engine.

wstar

Arguably some of the oil additives do hurt your engine. I wouldn't put Slick 50 or that thick-*** STP (or anything else similar) in any engine I cared about, especially not a specialty engine like our VHR (high revving, the VVEL cam system, etc).

Fuel additives are, IMHO, a bit safer. I run some injector cleaner additive through my fuel every few months. Even that's unnecessary if you're using quality fuel and pushing the engine hard enough to clean itself, I just do it to be be anal.

If you're going to use anything, the (generally knowledgeable) BITOG guys seem to prefer Techron and Marvel Mystery Oil for fuel additives, and also MMO as an oil additive for cleaning out the crankcase (but not for extended use, and personally I'd not use it on every oil change like some of them do, just for an occasional short-miles cleaning cycle on a dirtier enginer).

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MacCool

Back in the old days, I had to rely on GM Top Engine Cleaner on a regular basis because leaded gasoline would foul the new Bosch injectors that came out on my '74 280Z. Today's fuels are pretty clean, contain no lead (obviously), and I believe that injector cleaners are only rarely needed. After leaded gasoline was essentially phased out, I never had a problem. My '77 280Z always ran great without having to use any of that stuff.

IMHO, the concept of a "dirty engine", injectors nothwithstanding, is a marketing concept promoted by the oil companies and aftermarket additive companies to sell more product. I do use the occasional bottle of SeaFoam when storing my boat for the season, even though I suspect it's not necessary.

1slow370

my car was stored for 8 months this past winter (F'N wisconsin weather) and i had a misfire after i pulled it out in spring. I normally use sta-bil for storage but forgot to and had to seafoam it to clear the misfire.

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dawudih

I've used marvel mystery oil in my old air cooled vw's and it was truely amaizing how much smoother & quieter they ran (put it in the fuel).