From: charlie@elektro.cmhnet.org (Charlie Smith)
Subject: Snake Oil, Slick 50, and Other Zen Topics
Keywords: snake oil additives PTFE teflon zinc
Organization: Why do you suspect that?
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 92 08:27:15 GMT


About a week ago I posted an article abusing some of the popular oil
additives, based on a magazine article I claimed I had seen in the 
BMW Riders Association (RA) magazine "On The Level".  I was wrong, it
was in Road Rider.  I'm posting this for general interest, since the
article seems like a pretty good discussion.  I've tried to present 
it as they wrote it.  Of course it's intuitively obvious that any 
posting on oil additives is fair flame bait, but read it anyway ...


The August 1992 issue of Road Rider (RR) had an interesting 7 page 
article on oil additives.  They tried to dredge up all the information 
they could find on the subject and present it so that the reader could 
make an independent decision.

After finding over 40 different brands of additives, they decided to
divide them into 4 basic groups:
   
    1.)  Products that seemed to be nothing but regular SG-rated engine
         oil (including standard additives) with PTFE (teflon {tm}) added.
         PTFE being polytetrafloeraethylene, commonly known by the Dupont
         tradename "Teflon".  

    2.)  Products that seemed to be nothing but regular SG-rated engine
         oil (including standard additives) with zinc dialkyldithiophosphate
         added.  [ try spelling that right the first time! ]

    3.)  Products containing (as near as they could determine) much the same
         additives as are already found in most major brands of engine oil,
         though in different quantities and combinations.

    4.)  Products made up primarily of solvents and/or detergents.

The seven page article discusses each group in some detail.  Here are [my]
synopsized views of their conclusions:

    Group 1 - Two pages discussion on PTFE based additives.  PTFE is a solid,
              and is added to oil as a fine powder. Although this does reduce 
              friction, being as PTFE is a particulate additive it results 
              in lower oil flow to critical wear areas, such as piston rings.  
              This is due to particle deposition in oil filters and small oil 
              passages, and because PTFE "expands radically" when exposed to 
              heat.  Article cited several studies that showed lower oil 
              pressure and increased wear rates.  No particular products 
              were singled out, although Slick 50 was noted as the most 
              aggressive advertiser.

    Group 2 - A half page discussion was devoted to zinc dialkyldithiophosphate
              (zinc) based additives.  Major pro is that it prevents metal
              scuffing under conditions of extreme marginal lubrication.
              The major con is that it screws up catalytic converters.  Also,
              this zinc additive is already present in most oils, in an amount
              that is adequate for most uses.  In recent years, the oil
              companies have reduced the amount of zinc additive.  The article
              notes that available research shows that more zinc does not give
              you more protection, it merely prolongs the protection if the 
              rate of metal-to-metal contact os abnormally high or extended.
              Products containing zinc included Mechanics Brand Engine Tune Up,
              K-Mart Super Oil treatment, and STP Engine Treatment with XEP2.
              Zinc based additives can be identified by the Federally mandated
              warning label indicating they contain a hazardous substance.

    Group 3 - One short column on Increased Additives: Conclusion is that
              more is not necessarily better.  The article is not very 
              complimentary on this group.

    Group 4 - Another single column on Detergents and Solvents.  Notes that
              they usually *will* strip sludge and deposits out of the engine,
              particularily if it is an older engine with buildups.  They
              note that a problem is that you can't easily determine just how
              much solvent is beneficial without also stripping away the
              boundry lubrication layer provided by the oil.  Products in this
              group include old standbys like Bardahl, Rislone, Wynn's 
              Friction Proofing, and Marvel Mystery Oil.

The RR article concludes with the outlook that if *any* of this stuff was so
great, the oil companies would have been using it and advertising the heck
out of it for years; also, if there were general benefits to be had the vehicle 
manufacturers would have been requiring the use of their particular variety of 
the "good stuff" in order to keep warranties in force.

There.  I didn't use the term "snake oil" even once, although the title of
the RR article is "Snake Oil!  Is That Additive Really A Negative?" 


Charlie Smith   charlie@elektro.cmhnet.org  csmith@dsac.dla.mil  whois ces10
MOA# 52888, RA# 15633, DoD# 0709, AMA# 574722, Buckey Beemers 411, BK Ohio V
BMW K1100-LT, R69S, R27 and other even less worthwhile [ 2 | 3 ] wheel stuff
            {  Friends don't let friends ride Japanese bikes  }