Engine Additive

[MICAH1]

Anyone out there ever use this product??? If so, would you discuss the results.

Restore: Engine Restore

WHAT IS RESTORE?
Every vehicle's engine wears out as a result of friction during normal operation. This friction causes wear of the cylinder walls which leads to compression loss. Lost compression results in your engine having less power --- it runs poorly and has sluggish acceleration. It also can cause increased oil burning, exhaust smoking, and poor fuel economy.

RESTORE Engine Restorer and Lubricant is a unique engine additive that repairs those worn-out areas in the cylinder wall thereby restoring cylinder compression and improving engine performance to nearly new original condition. RESTORE is the only product that contains the proprietary CSL formula. This technologically advanced formulation fills in and seals micro-leaks in the cylinder wall. The result is increased engine compression and more engine power. Independent lab tests prove that RESTORE really works to increase cylinder compression.

[WannaBOpelOwner]

sounds like a hokus pokus thing to me....

[pastopel]

Some of this stuff is like a two edge sword. Me and a friend went in together and bought some KREEN from Kanolabs. He used it in his van and car. I used it on my older truck and little newer car. All four vehicles performed better and got a little better gas milage. My old truck got a little more peppy, but not long after I started using KREEN my mechanical fuel pump on the truck went out. The other three vehicles never had a problem. Maybe a coincidence I don't know. Nothing else on the truck went bad that KREEN could have caused. I beat the C**P out of that truck. I gave it away! The back axle was bent The oil pan was leaking around the gasket [was doing that before I started usin KREEN] pretty bad, the tires were close to gone, and the bed, floor, and tailgate were rotting pretty bad. But, you know something, that dog gone truck would start the first crank every time! It had something like 208000 miles on it. The guy drove off in it too! Try epinions.com, as far as I can tell, this kind of stuff is a gamble or you put it in to get rid of a hot potato and I can't live with that.

[baz]

heres a review of it but it sounds like snake oil to me
http://www.atvconnection.com/atvconn...e-Restorer.cfm

looks to be made of a copper/lead/silver soldier that must build up on the walls of the cylinders as it runs

[MICAH1]

Here is another additive for the engine. Comments please!!!

http://www.auto-rx.com/pages/pov6.htm

[jmowens]

OK, I have to admit, I have always used this particular one, although never in an Opel. In college I had an 88 Isuzu Trooper that leaked oil like crazy and had no power. I swear that I could tell a difference in power, and the leak definately got better. -- go to present day -- I just turned 110,000 on my 4cyl 2000 Ranger, and it has begun to leak oil pretty badly. Changed the oil Friday, and saw the "Restore" on the shelf at Advance. I had forgotten all about it, and thought "what the heck". Well, leak has slowed - and I swear that the truck is running better -- take into account that I commute about 60 miles a day. I am in no way endorsing this product - like it has already been said in this thread - things like this are a crap shoot (and my dad would kill me if he knew I used this kind of stuff) - but this is my experience with the product.

[yellaopelgt]

Well, it IS a good idea in theory, fills in the scratches in the cylinder wall thus bringing up compression a bit. But Like I said before,DONT use slick 50, its a synthetic type of oil that will break down the gaskets and give you all sorts of leaks! So I guess its a crap shoot. But some of them DO work. Any one ever try Marvel Mystery oil before? My father swears by it,Ive never tried it so I wouldnt know. I'm not a fan of "quick" fixes but thats just me!
Joe

[baz]

even dupoint who make the ptfe in slick 50 say dont put it in an engine all it does is choke the filtre , theres a whole bunch of threads about oil additives on site and they all end the same way

[Paul]

Atchinson Coloid (sp?) is the company that actually ball mills the teflon that goes in Slick 50. The only thing that could not be sustantiated by Slick 50 was the extended wear benefits after the slick 50 charge was removed from the original oil change. The anti-wear characteristics while the teflon is in the oil has been substantiated.

BTW the teflon is submicron, smaller that on oil filter can filter out. A typical oil filter only filters to 20 microns. The best only filter to 10 microns. Any smaller results in hugh pressure drop across the filter.

And, the charge is suspended in a quart of straight 30W regular oil.

[namba209]

Joe, I touched on the use of Marvel Mystery Oil some time ago in another thread, but I'll do it again here. Way back when, when hydraulic lifters were first being used, the oil and filtering systems in the cars did not have a lot of detergent in them, so the lifters would stick and not pump up. The result was a lot of noise from the engine. Adding Marvel to the oil would add enuff detergent to free up the sticky valve lifters, and was even added down the carb to free up the "top end" as in freeing up valve stems in the guides. You need to understand tolerances were much greater then, than they are now, so carbon deposits would makes things stick on occasion. It is good stuff, I use it to store my model boat engines and flex drive shafts, either Marvel or ATF, whatever I have available at the time.

[hrcollinsjr]

A friend of mine tried some in his GT and said he could tell the difference. I tried some for the heck of it, after all I had most of the parts needed for a rebuild on the shelf. The main cost would be the machine work. A few days later the lifters collapsed. When I pulled the valve cover I could see what looked like fine metal flake in the oil on the top of the head. Haven't driven that Opel since. Some day I'll go through it again and will definitely try to figure out what went wrong. Oh, and my Opel pals car layed down and died also. A coincidence?

I've used Slick 50 a couple of times. It did nothing that I could tell other than to lighten my wallet.

A mechanic friend of my tried some Marvel Mystery Oil in a Volvo and was impressed with its perfomance.

All the research that I've seen and the few times I've tried the snake oils and fancy spark plugs I wished that I had believed what I read instead of listening to testimonials.

Harold

[markandson]

During my stint at the American Can Co. back before the young Opelers were born, I was the "lubrication specialist". I spec'd all the oils for all the machines in the plants across the country. I bought a tester at the time to evaluate different oils and additives. It was sort of like two "V" blocks on either side of a rotating dowel pin, and you could vary the pressure on the blocks to cause varying amounts of load. I have all kinds of stuff in my shop left over from those days including JoJoba oil additives. The long and the short of it was that I never found anything that was better than a good synthetic. Even the stuff with Moly in it didn't seem to do much good.

[hrcollinsjr]

Originally Posted by markandson JoJoba oil additives.

What ever had to JoJoba oil? That stuff was the ticket for automotive uses as well as shampoo. A renewal natural resource.

Harold

[kwilford]

Originally Posted by Paul Atchinson Coloid (sp?) is the company that actually ball mills the Teflon that goes in Slick 50. The only thing that could not be substantiated by Slick 50 was the extended wear benefits after the slick 50 charge was removed from the original oil change. The anti-wear characteristics while the Teflon is in the oil has been substantiated.

I have never tried Slick 50, but I have a personal story about a Teflon oil product and an Opel.

When I bought my first (and current '71) GT back in 1977, it had about 55,000 miles on it. It ran somewhat poorly (Solex and cheap points), and the compression was down a bit, but especially in the #3 cylinder (110/115/75/115 psi IIRC, low compression pistons). The readings came up to 120 psi across the board on the "wet" test. That clearly indicated leaky rings, but this was my daily driver, bought by selling my totally restored '61 Bugeyed Austin Healey Sprite, with the money left over going to tuition. So no money for a re-build.

A friend worked at a local VW shop, and they had been using a product called "Lubrilon" (I think that was the name) and had had some success with it. So I changed the oil (just standard 10W30 as I recall) with a quart of Lubrilon added, and the points, and went to driving it. The Weber came a year or so later. About 5000 miles later, I changed the oil again. I had noticed that it seemed to have more power, and ran better, but I attributed it to the tune up. When I checked the compression, it was 115 psi across the board. Clearly (or so I like to think) it had cured some ailment relating to the rings. I suspected that it had a stuck ring, and the product (which I was told also had a good dose of detergent in its formulation) just cleaned up the ring. But whatever it did, the compression remained above 115 psi on all the cylinders for the next 45,000 miles.

Which was when I tore the engine down for it first re-build. The cylinders were worn (a bit of taper and oval), but had no scoring. There was no sign of any "Teflon" on the cylinders. However, there was a thin layer of what I could imagine to be Teflon impregnated into the piston skirts. And when I pulled and plastigaged the bearings, not only did they meet spec (after 103,000 pretty hard miles), but there was clearly a similar film on the bearing surfaces.

That said, the main reason for the rebuild was the cam was worn flat on two lobes, and the head had a crack. So while the crack couldn't be blamed on the Lubrilon, it didn't help the typical CIH cam lobe wear. My new engines will both have the drain dam in the head.

I can't say for sure the engine lasted any longer because of the Lubrilon. But the compression increase was absolutely undeniable.

JM2CW

[kwilford]

I did a quick Google on "Lubrilon", and found SCADS of information. Almost none of it complimentary to ANY of the oil additives. For some late night reading, have a go at:

http://skepdic.com/slick50.html
http://www.baileycar.com/oil_additives_html.htm

There are positive reviews, but WAIT! They are all by sellers of these snake oil additives. For entertaining (if not educational) reading, have a look at:

http://xcelplus.com/about_xcelplus/x...k_lubrilon.htm
http://xcelplus.com/about_xcelplus/law_suit.htm
http://www.1expired.com/ptfe-car-protection.html
(This one declares all additives EXCEPT their own to be worthless!)

I think I was infected with the The Psychological Placebo. See the Baileycar.com site for more on that phenomena

HTH

[MICAH1]

Well to bring this discussion back in focus at least for me, Sea Foam. I briefly brought my concern to the chat room the other night about the soot (no smoke) exiting my exhaust pipes. Original engine I think, and all adjustments to the 32/36 with header and two inch pipe connected to magnaflow muffler, to monza big bore tips. Was suggested during the session that Sea Foam could clear up what seems to be carbon build up. Did some research on the product, so without further ado, comments from those who have experienced the SEA FOAM results please........

[baz]

Originally Posted by MICAH1 Well to bring this discussion back in focus at least for me, Sea Foam. I briefly brought my concern to the chat room the other night about the soot (no smoke) exiting my exhaust pipes. Original engine I think, and all adjustments to the 32/36 with header and two inch pipe connected to magnaflow muffler, to monza big bore tips. Was suggested during the session that Sea Foam could clear up what seems to be carbon build up. Did some research on the product, so without further ado, comments from those who have experienced the SEA FOAM results please........

[houserc]

Sea Foam is different than the oil additives that have been mentioned.

I've tried Slick 50 and it does a great job of lighten one's wallet. I tried it on an 84 chevy truck that was on it's last leg. Didn't see any help there. It may have helped the demise along.

I've also tried the Marvel Mystery oil with no real results.

I was introduced to Sea Foam by the local Car Quest distribution center. I use it in all my internal combustion machines for a couple of reasons. It acts as a cleaner, a fuel stabilizer, a lubricant, along with some other claims. What I have personally noticed is the fuel stability it adds along with some of the cleaning capabilities. I also have used Sta-bil for winter storage and since Sea Foam does the same thing, it saves me using one more product.

I have EFI in my Opel and Sea Foam has aided in cleaning some of the injection issues I have experienced.

One of the best add on/in products I experienced was a product called Permaslick. I worked as a motorcycle mechanic where the owners motocross raced and told me how it improved their bike performances. I tore down my bike. (You'll love this story) I put the pistons, rings, valves, cylinders, cam, etc. on one of my mother's cookie sheets and into her oven at 200 degrees. When the parts were heated up, I sprayed on the Permacoat and put it back in to complete the bond. Talk about stinking up my mother's kitchen. (She was not around when I did all this either. Little did my wife know what she was getting into marrying me )
After reassembling the engine, with no new parts, my idle had to be adjusted back down to 1000 rpm from 1500 rpm. I had the bike for three more years and never adjusted the idle again. I also did not have any issues with the engine.

Now, I'm finding out the military is using Permaslick, or variations of it, for dry lubricant applications. I think it had teflon in it, but it was about 30 years ago I used it.

If your motor is that bad, the best thing to do is save the money on additives for an overhaul.

HTH.