Does Slick 50 & Duralube really work?

[Aquaman]

Seeing how my Fuel saver thread Tornado Fuel Saver went over I thought I'd ask about Slick 50 & those other oil addative like Duralube......... thoses things work? Any experiences?

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[The Stigenator]

not sure of either of those.. but I will give my testimony for ProLong..

I had a Lousy Hyundia Excel.. that i got as my first car from my dad. It had 120K miles on it. It was cheap and it taught me to drive here in the US.

Anyway I put prolong in it after it overheated one time (damn electric fan didnt turn on.. burnt fuse). Anyway I put it in and the car ran fine for about 3K miles. Then came oil change time, turned out it was bone dry.. very little oil.. turned out the car was eating and spitting oil out. Anyway i had to carry oil from time to time to go places.. and check oil regularly... it slowly got worse.. finally towards the end I wasnt putting in oil as much as I used to (it started to cost 5 bucks every day or so) to keep it running. It got me home in heavy traffic with absolulty bone dry engine.. very little oil.

Anyway the car was donated a few days later and i took over my brothers toyota tercel and he got the bmw.

 

[compuwiz1]

NO.

Synthetic in differentials, is pretty much the sole contributor to any gain in anything. Don't you guys think the oil companys would already be marketing the better oils, if it were that good? For the gullible ones, I'm sure you can still find a friday or satuday night meeting, where they will sell you cases of that "other" stuff.

 

[RadioactiveMagpies]

I still have some duralube spray form 10 years ago that I se to oil the fans in my computer.
I don't know if it was meant for the computer case fans.
It last about 6 months before I have oil again. My computer runs about 16-18 hours a day.
Pretty dusty room that its in too.

 

[UltraQuiet]

Aquaman-- Consumer Reports has tested Slick 50, Duralube and the Tornado thing and has said that none of them worked as advertised and were really a waste of money. Here's what they say. Sorry I couldn't link, it's subscriber only.

TORNADO

A car product that's hot air.
"Put a Tornado under your hood!" exhorts the manufacturer of a $70 device that claims to improve your vehicle's power and mileage. The Tornado, a stainless-steel disc with stationary blades, fits inside the air-filter housing or air-intake hose. "Its air-flow dynamics create a swirling, fast-burn effect" and allows for more complete combustion, the ads say.

We tested the Tornado on a 1998 Volkswagen New Beetle and a 1999 Ford Ranger pickup. In our acceleration tests, the Ranger showed no improvement and the Beetle showed slightly worse performance with the Tornado. Fuel economy didn't improve in either vehicle.

PROLONG

The manufacturer calls it "the greatest breakthrough in the history of lubrication." Indy 500 legend Al Unser appears to risk a $60,000 Dodge Viper to demonstrate its amazing claims.
Prolong engine treatment, $20, is what he touts in an infomercial that has generated many reader inquiries. Pour a 12-ounce container of Prolong in with your vehicle's oil, the manufacturer says, and it bonds to the engine metal, "creating a low-friction surface one molecule thick." That yields longer engine life, better mileage, and more savings, the ads claim.

The bond is supposed to last even when the oil is drained. In the infomercial, Unser and others drive along a racetrack in the Mojave Desert without oil or oil drain plugs. The same ad, broadcast nationally, pictures a woman who, thanks to Prolong, supposedly drove from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles without oil. (The reason she stopped after 4 hours, 40 minutes, and 7 seconds? She was hungry.)

We didn't test the other claims, but we did see whether Prolong would protect an engine after the oil was drained.

We installed a factory-rebuilt GM 4.3-liter V6 engine into each of two Chevrolet Caprices. We broke them in with Pennzoil motor oil, changed the oil and oil filter in each car, and added Prolong to one of them. Prolong claims to work immediately. We drove more than 100 miles, then drained the oil and started driving again. After only 13 minutes and five miles, both engines failed simultaneously.

Today's high-quality oils don't need extra additives. The Federal Trade Commission has told the makers of other additives to stop making false claims. We have notified the FTC about this test.

 

[Aquaman]

Thanks Dave

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[Mark R]

Also bear in mind that several manufacturers will void your warranty if you have used certain additives; the particular problem is with additives containing PTFE particles. Clogging of filters and oilways is a problem with these (even though the manufacturers claim that these have been fixed).

I believe that Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Lexus will not honour your engine warranty if they find evidence of Slick 50 or similar additive in your engine.

Also a note about engines without oil - many older engines, or those with high milages, will often run a surprisingly long time even with all the oil drained out of the sump. An engine which is worn, and is using oil, often has excessive clearances between moving parts, meaning slightly reduced friction and heat production. A brand new engine, especially a modern one, has exceptionally tight tolerances and will seize very rapidly without adequate lubrication.

 

[Howard]

If you want to clean your fuel injectors, try toluene.