General To slick 50 or not to slick 50 that is the question?

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General To slick 50 or not to slick 50 that is the question?

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I know how we all like a good argument (sorry debate:D) on the forum so this is guaranteed to cause one

So lets wind up the little tin monkey and set it going :devil:

Slick 50 or not? :tempt:

I personally have used it in all my cars for the last 25 years. the results have always been good, but more so on the smaller fiat engines (999cc, 1.1, 1.2's)
With noticable decrease in engine noise, good increase in engine smoothness.
better mpg and cold start, and noticable increase in the zippyness around town.
I treated the engine on Bj at 15000 miles , now 2000 miles later he's so quiet and smooth you'd think you were in an electric car, also mpg's up as predicted, no more cold starting problems and he's a lot livlier to drive.:D

So whats everbody elses thoughts?
 
I know how we all like a good argument (sorry debate:D) on the forum so this is guaranteed to cause one

So lets wind up the little tin monkey and set it going :devil:

Slick 50 or not? :tempt:

I personally have used it in all my cars for the last 25 years. the results have always been good, but more so on the smaller fiat engines (999cc, 1.1, 1.2's)
With noticable decrease in engine noise, good increase in engine smoothness.
better mpg and cold start, and noticable increase in the zippyness around town.
I treated the engine on Bj at 15000 miles , now 2000 miles later he's so quiet and smooth you'd think you were in an electric car, also mpg's up as predicted, no more cold starting problems and he's a lot livlier to drive.:D

So whats everbody elses thoughts?
i think that if all these things really did what they proclaimed to that manufacturers would be reccomending their use or even using the products in their own service schedules. Just my 2p :)
 
Slick 50 is not recommended for use in Synthetic oil and there is a warning from Mobil on this as well.

The other thing is that Slick 50 is basically PTFE and claims to coat the high pressure area's of the engine. In reality it is more likely to coat the low pressure area's in higher concentrations, which can reduce oil inlets etc. Some tests have shown that it increases wear by clogging the oil ways and in particular the oil filter, reducing oil pressure.

Teflon (Du Pont), which is also basically PTFE also claim it is not suitable for combustion engines. In the US Slick 50 had to settle cases out of court for false advertising claiming it reduces wear by 50%.

Personally I wouldn't use it, because it is unlikely to really reduce the engine wear. Modern oils are quite advanced now and I personally think oil changes are more important.
 
In reality it is more likely to coat the low pressure area's in higher concentrations, which can reduce oil inlets etc.

Nope - the particles bond to the metal parts of the engine using an electro static charge - all metals have a charge the PTFE particles have the opposite and are therefore attracted to the metal, once the metal has its 0.001 or whatever micron coating the like charges on the particles repel and therefore you cannot get a build up choking oil ways etc as the particles wont bond to each other.

one uban mith shot down - any more:D
 
I once had a Volvo 240 that had been treated with Slick 50 a few years ago with repeated applications from time to time, cant remember the frequency. Anyway, it was the smoothest and quietest 4cyl Volvo I have ever driven, so on an older style engine, yes it works no doubt about that IMO. On a new engine I wouldnt bother, just a high quality oil and frequent changes will keep everything working well with no added 'risk' factor or worry caused by rumour and heresay.
 
Nope - the particles bond to the metal parts of the engine using an electro static charge - all metals have a charge the PTFE particles have the opposite and are therefore attracted to the metal, once the metal has its 0.001 or whatever micron coating the like charges on the particles repel and therefore you cannot get a build up choking oil ways etc as the particles wont bond to each other.

one uban mith shot down - any more:D


Great in theory, but as the internals are already coated in oil and have a physical barrier to the PTFE it doesn't quite work like that. The electrostatic attraction would only work on clean metal, the oil is similar to insulation in the electrical world.

That is a theoretical application but not the pratical one. The reality is the filters can get blocked, hence why many filter manufacturers have spoken out against Slick 50. But even if they don't get blocked the filter has removed the benefit of the treatment (if any existed).

The size of Slick 50 is actually 3-5 microns which is enough to get caught up in some of the better filters, so I am not sure where you got your figures of sub micron size from.

They have been fined in the US for false advertising and Du Pont the inventors of PTFE say it is not suitable, which should be a hint.

NASA also published independent test results showing it was of little benefit and also showed it did reduce the size of low pressure oil ways.

I am afraid the electrostatic attraction explanation is the urban myth.
 
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I once had a Volvo 240 that had been treated with Slick 50 a few years ago with repeated applications from time to time, cant remember the frequency. Anyway, it was the smoothest and quietest 4cyl Volvo I have ever driven, so on an older style engine, yes it works no doubt about that IMO. On a new engine I wouldnt bother, just a high quality oil and frequent changes will keep everything working well with no added 'risk' factor or worry caused by rumour and heresay.
Yes but scientific method says that you'd have to run a 240 without slick 50 to actually notice whether it was any different or not. Without the slick 50 it may have ended up just as smooth and quiet.

http://www.carbibles.com/additives.html

I'm sorry but after reading that you'd have to be mental to add that stuff to your engine.
 
Yes but scientific method says that you'd have to run a 240 without slick 50 to actually notice whether it was any different or not. Without the slick 50 it may have ended up just as smooth and quiet.

http://www.carbibles.com/additives.html

I'm sorry but after reading that you'd have to be mental to add that stuff to your engine.

Its all quite possibly very true, im not a scientist, but ive had 3 240s with the same engine and the treated one was buttery smooth compared to the other 2, all between 110k and 140k miles. I would agree with you completely that a new engine with tight tolerances and modern oils wouldnt benefit in any substantial way from an additive though, so in the case of the 500 in this thread it serves no purpose. I wouldnt put it in any modern car engine, its a waste of money, just change the oil more. If indeed the additives can cause harm to the engine then fair enough, but I want to see concrete proof of that aswell as proof it does no good, or even if it does nothing at all.

In fact, I offer my high mile BMW as a test bed for Slick 50 to see if it makes any difference at all, as its never had it before in its life.
 
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Even if it did actually work, which obviously it doesn't as otherwise all the manufacturers would be jumping all over it to reduce their CO2-per-km figures, it would only offer something to future owners at your expense.

Complete waste of money.
 
Once read a story on the Net about one of these "Snake Oils", basically the manufacturer was making lots of claims and had a Bike engine which had been "run in" on their miracle oil addative for a few thousand miles, the oil was drained and the engine managed to do 20,000 miles with no oil!!! The Bike engine manufacture picked up on this and did their own test to compare, wondering if they should be stipulating the oil addative from new. So they ran a new engine in on normal oil, drained it and managed to do 25,000 miles without any oil before it broke. I think their upshot was they were building the engines too expensively in the 1st place, but the oil addative was a bit of a waste of time
 
Once read a story on the Net about one of these "Snake Oils", basically the manufacturer was making lots of claims and had a Bike engine which had been "run in" on their miracle oil addative for a few thousand miles, the oil was drained and the engine managed to do 20,000 miles with no oil!!! The Bike engine manufacture picked up on this and did their own test to compare, wondering if they should be stipulating the oil addative from new. So they ran a new engine in on normal oil, drained it and managed to do 25,000 miles without any oil before it broke. I think their upshot was they were building the engines too expensively in the 1st place, but the oil addative was a bit of a waste of time

20,000 - 25,000 miles with no oil... Really? :confused:
 
Suspect it is a rather different product but I have poured a tin of Wynns into the old ZX the last couple of oil changes, it looks like liquid glue. I wouldn't ever put it in a new engine but it did quieten a lot of rattles on a very tired old one.
 
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