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On this one, I would love your input. You go into the nearest Autozone, or other auto parts store and you see shelves and shelves of additives that promise the moon!
More HP
Stop leaks
Increase compression
Cleaning fuel system
Cleaning engine oil system.
The list goes one and on and on. But do they work? I will share a few I know that work. Then one I know will blow your head gaskets and leave you will a horrible mess in the valley and in your heads.About 10 years ago I tried a product called Prolong. If you see this product, tell the store owner to pull it from the shelves. It does nothing but harms your engine. It will block oil drains in your heads. Heads will get a huge coating of this junk everywhere. My head gaskets blew really bad from this stuff. I repaired the heads, and a couple months later on the way to work, it another head gasket blew. Now I did regular maint to my truck. I of course drained all the oil and I think on the second head gasket issue I had changed it a second time before blowing again. I guess that the left over residue of this stuff was still clogging up things. I machined the heads, and valves and put all back together and made sure everything was as clean as can be. Then it finally lasted and lasted never to blow up again. Also, the engine had no oil leaks. With the prolong in it, I had to adding oil. I was not smoking, not losing oil from any where else other than it would gel up and no longer make it back down to the dip stick. So, fair warning, if you see this product. Do not use it!
AC stop leak. Fail, at least for me. Never worked.What works and works great?
Lucas Fuel injector cleaner cleaner and conditioner. This stuff works great. Especially on diesel engines. Works great in cars as well. You cannot go wrong with it. Honestly. I saved mpg and ran much better with it. I ran it both in my C 1500 350 and in my Mustang with real results.
RESTORE Engine Restorer with CSL and Lubricant- This is at least a temporary fix for low compression in your engine cylinders. I have seen it work. Very impressive.
Mystery Oil. Another great oil additive. Run it for a bit, change the oil out. It works in the fuel system as well I believe. Mystery oil has a lot of proven uses and people swear up and down by it.Now what are your thoughts? What are your flops? What are you hits? What made a huge mess and more trouble than anything? What has stood the test of time? What have you found to clog up your engine and calling for a tow truck???
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A hit for me is Redline SI-1 fuel system cleaner. Improves mileage by helping get rid of old deposits, etc. Maybe gets you 1mpg. Not much, but something. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside because I feel my truck runs better, idles smoother, etc.
Lots of people love Marvel Mystery Oil, really can’t argue with them.
I used Lucas Oil Stabilizer for a long time until I switched to synthetic oils which are pretty awesome at their job as they are, why mess up the additive package, you know?
Most other things are snake oil or they mess up your engine. Or do nothing at all. Stop leak is not good for your motor. I have seen it clog coolant passages big time.
Just my 2 cents.
Try the Lucas Fuel injector cleaner and conditioner. I ran it in my big truck and saw a huge gain after using it. I was getting about 4 miles to a gallon, then it went up to about 6 miles a gallon. Every week or more I would add another gallon. Loved the results at the pump. It paid for itself in 10 miles honestly.
I tried it in my Mustang. Night and day difference. I had all the new upgrades for the car installed, and it was still not quite right. Fuel mileage and the plugs kept showing lean. So I dumped the required amount in. Boom. Mileage got much better, and the hp came alive. The stuff works great. Although it would not pay for itself to add to every tank. Doing it once every 6 months is a pretty good idea. I truly stand by this product 100%. However when you spend $500 to run your truck a day, and suddenly you can pull nearly or two days of work out of the truck, you know you found the right product. It is for diesel of gas engines.I normally don’t use oil additives, but there are exceptions to this.
On a new rebuilt engine, I add the engine oil supplement for engine break-in.
If using regular oil in an old engine with flat tappet lifters, it would also get a ZDDP type oil additive. I prefer just getting the correct higher ZDDP oil than adding an additive to regular oil for the oil cars.
If I get a car with a lot of sludge/varnish I might run some reslone or engine flush through it (no engine load, just to flush the system) before changing the oil.For fuel cleaners/additives, I do like the Red-Line brand stuff, SL-1 for gasoline and 85plus for diesel. I think it works as good as the BG-44K but is less expensive.
Can’t say I’ve ever or ever will add anything to my oil if that’s what this post is about. But if it’s about additives in general, Gumout’s Multi-system tune-up did something positive to my engine after trying it 280,000 miles in. Another can dump in after 5k more miles and it wasn’t as effective but certainly didn’t hurt anything. I’m going by feel. Gumout’s Regane High Mileage didn’t do jack shit.
I always go for the Motorkote, to put on my engines and in my air tools, it bonds to the metal, and is what is considered a hyper lubricant. Could save your engine if you lose oil pressure, might help it last longer too.
I’ve had good results with Chevron fuel system cleaner with Techron.
I’ve seen it fix an engine with rough idle in just a few minutes.
I pour a bottle in the gas tank of my cars once a year as a preventative.
I’ve used it in chain saws when they’ve gotten inconsistent idle and hard to start; a lawn mower once too when gas was left in the tank over the winter.
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