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Aftermarket Oil Additives ***
What about Oil Additives like Slick 50, Prolong, Zmax and others
The fact is they are totally useless and in many cases actually detrimental
to your engine. The Federal Trade Commission has issued charges of false and
deceptive advertising that these and many other additive manufacturers have
misled consumers into believing that their products offer increased engine
protection and performance when added to your motor oil.
Federal Trade Commission Charges zMax with
False and Deceptive Advertising
Read about the
latest FTC charges against zMax and others. ZMax is the latest
company to be charged in a long list of companies. The FTC has successfully
halted false and deceptive advertising by the marketers of Dura Lube, Motor Up,
Prolong, Valvoline, Slick 50. STP and other major brands of engine treatment
systems.
Without going into extensive detail here's what you need to
know about aftermarket oil additives: There are basically two types
of additives used, either Teflon based with PTFE (like Slick 50) or Chlorinated
based (like Dura Lube) with some type of carrier, usually a paraffin based
carrier or other mineral oil. Some have extremely large amounts of moly, zinc or
phosphorus, all extreme pressure agents which are detrimental to a motor oils
proper function in the amount that they use.
Teflon(PTFE) does absolutely nothing inside your engine.
Teflon must
be heated up to about 800º F before it will stick to anything for friction
reducing purposes. The only time your engine will see this type of
temperature is in the recycling center as it is being melted for future use.
These microscopic Teflon particles will gradually attach to your
oil pick-up screen, internal engine components and passages reducing oil flow.
In addition, as your oil filter filters out some of these suspended Teflon
particles, your filter flow rate will be reduced which may eventually become
restricted and default in to by-pass mode, which means unfiltered oil will be
flowing through your engine.
Ever get bleach on your fingers? It's pretty slippery isn't
it? Same principle here. Add enough Chlorinated components to a carrier and
mix it with some type of teflon, moly, zinc or phosphorus & you can reduce the
friction, except for one "minor" thing:
Chlorinated additives mixed with oil
and subjected to heat forms hydrochloric acid! Hydrochloric acid is extremely
detrimental to you internal engine parts. Get the picture? That's it in a
nutshell.
Bottom line is: When using a properly formulated motor oil you
do not need any additives whatsoever and additionally, the additives you may put
in can react negatively with the additives the oil company carefully blended
in. Do yourself a favor and stay away from aftermarket oil additives,
regardless of how appealing the bogus claims they make in their advertising are!
For an eye opening article read "Snake Oil or Not"
At a recent trade show we were at, one of these miracle oil
additive companies was there with a machine that demonstrated how their additive
reduced friction. It was a motor with rotating solid steel disc secured to the
motor shaft and a torque meter with a flat piece of steel mounted on the torque
arm.
They put every type of oil on the market, one by one, on the
machine & pressed hard on the torque meter and at about 20-40 lb-ft torque the
torque arm would stall the motor....that is until they cleaned it off & tried
their (chlorinated) additive "IXL" on the bearing & ran the test.
People were amazed as the meter peaked out at 140 lb-ft. torque
and still didn't stall the motor! We knew what was happening but many
unsuspecting consumers were eating it up and standing in line to buy the
additive!
The next day we showed up with some Head & Shoulders Shampoo
disguised in an oil bottle & had the IXL additive people try it on their test
machine. The operator was amazed as the motor just barely stalled at 140
lb-ft!
The operator says that's pretty good stuff, what is it? We said
Head & Shoulders. He was quite embarrassed to say the least. Head & Shoulders
has high levels of high potency Zinc in it that attaches itself to
ferrous metals. Coke soft drink will do exactly the same thing. ZINC reduces
friction and provides anti-wear protection and is present in most motor oils at
a much reduced level. Now, would you put Head & Shoulders in your engine?
Additionally, the test machine was measuring EXTREME
PRESSURE. Motor oils do not have extreme pressure additives blended in like
gear lubes do.
Their is absolutely no
need for EP additives in a motor oil. A gear lube would not stall the
motor as easily because gear lubes have high levels of Extreme Pressure
additives blended in, but do you think they would test their IXL additive
against gear lubes? Heck no! They use motor oil....They are comparing apples
to oranges & tricking you into buying their additive! Same theory holds true
for Slick50, Prolong, Dura Lube, Motor Up, Valvoline Engine Treatment and many
others. Please DON'T be fooled by oil additives!
AMSOIL is the undisputed leader
in synthetics...
AMSOIL
is Proudly Made in the U.S.A.
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JP Synthetic Technologies
22 Locust Rd
Bordentown, NJ 0850
1-800-305-2688
Email Us
Today with Any Questions |
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