additives

[Chemical]

Are there any good engine/petrol additives that peeps would recommend or are they all a pile o shat?

[RacerX]

90% are just scams.

[bluemx3]

Seafoam for the gas/injectors and oil additive
Techtron injector cleaner also
Marvel Mystery oil for oil additive
I own 7 cars and use all of these additives and feel they do make a difference. I do agree that about 90% are useless, but these products seem to be the exception

[hgallegos915]

NEVER EVER USE an oil stabilizer specially on an older car, lucas FOAMS at high revs and leaves a bulky substance. My friends ze was victim to the stabilizer.

[Bolverk]

Agreed, Lucas Oil Stabalizer might have killed my first ZE too.

[slimmyslim1420]

Read through this, It helped me alot. I ended up getting some auto RX. It cleaned my engine and made a noticable difference.

http://www.mx-3.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=47306

[Chemical]

I was thinking about this cuz I saw an ad for Redex fuel additive to clean the head. Got me thinking about using something to clean my engine out. I 've heard of a product called GUNK of all thing s that u put in your oil- run it for 20 minutes at idle then drain and add new oil.

[BornSticky]

works pretty well but i would only run it for about 10 min then drain oil run about 1 litre through and change filter then fill.
I use it all the time and im now at 240,000 km's and can barely hear my engine run when idle
p.s. i kick the crap out of my car gettin ze soon

[neumann]

Glad to hear that Auto-RX worked for slimmyslim. I think I was the contributing poster on that thread. Auto-RX works very slowly to dissolve and suspend crap.

Re Gunk (which Gunk, the Motor Flush?) most of these things are kerosene or naptha or other petroleum solvents . They may do some good but they may also dislodge enough crap in a short period of time to clog oil screens or passages. I am not totally negative on Gunk, Seafoam, Marvel Mystery Oil or raw kerosene but there are caveats.

If you are looking for gasoline additives the most universally well regarded commonly available (not in my area, but in 90% of North America) is Chevron Techron Concentrated Fuel System cleaner. Many people also like Pennzoil Gumout Regane Complete Fuel System Cleaner which is based on a similar polyetheramine chemistry. Both of these vendors have confusingly similarly named products that are less effective,

The product FP60 is available currently only by ordering form lubecontrol.com but it is really good. They also make a useful oil addiitve called LC20.

There are some OTC oil additive products that may be useful if what you are looking for in a beefing up of the anti wear additive packages of motor oils. Valvoline Synpower oil treatment appears to be one of the better ones, but even STP has a ton of zinc which could be useful in some (particularly older) engines.

Any of the additives that claim to repair real mechanical issues are bad for your engine and a worst case scenario. If you pour something that coontains metal shavings or will thicken your oil so much it will not leak (or lubrcate for that matter) you are likely doing harm and only staving off the inevitable.

[RacerX]

Agreed Nuemann. I had my car done a few times with sea foam but if you want something to do a complete flush/clean of the motor gunk at once, i'd recomend having them drop the oil pan when they do it and let all the garbage flow into a tank of some sorts. Midas here did that for me so no complaints on sea foam

As for Gunk products, for the most I have used and paid between 3- 7 dollars a can/tub for i am not very impressed with them. I guess it's matter of opinion there and application.

Marvels is kinda odd to me so I stray away from them as i've heard no real lief testimonies from aquantinces or anything.

Got to love those cans that you add to oil/fuel that say "Add up to 20 HP instantly" lololo

[Chemical]

Cheers guys,

Lotta useful info there. I read through all the old thread and I guess it's just a matter of choosing but also what I can get here in the UK. I've never seen seafoam for instance.

[neumann]

Cheers guys,

Lotta useful info there. I read through all the old thread and I guess it's just a matter of choosing but also what I can get here in the UK. I've never seen seafoam for instance.

Sorry, I missed your location, but some of the basics still apply. Two of the 5 products I mentioned are not available at any store near me in Central Canada (Chevron Techron and Gumout Regane). Three of the 5 best products I named (FP60, LC20 and Auto-RX) are not sold at retail anywhere. EVERYBODY has to order them. The internet and globalization generally push us all in this (useful) direction. There is all sorts of stuff that we can't get in Canada, or that is rare in Canada and sold in huge volume in the US. So I order it from the US.

If this were milk or bread or daily commodities then this would present a real problem, but for a once a year order, maybe the only issue is a bit of shipping cost. In that case you have to evaluate based on the one time incremental cost as part of the benfit to your car. No I would not pay 10 Euros to ship a litre of milk that costs 1 Euro every day. At that point I want to know where i can buy milk at the nearest shop on my local High Street. (note my crafty use of euro-references)

But paying 10 euros to ship a bottle or two worth 20 or 30 Euros once a year for what it does to your car? You betcha

On to specifics. There is a Norwegian distributor for Auto-RX. There is a Singapore distributor for LC20 and FP60. Auto-RX will ship to you directly from Florida. The lubecontrol products may be more difficult to ship for materials handling reasons, but I jhave had 3 shipments across 1500 miles and an international border.

And if you are looking for a product line with something similar to Seafoam or something simila to Techron then you may want to look at the product line from the German company LubroMoly or LiquiMoly (marketing name varies based on locale). They should be readily available in the UK.

They sell motor oils with molybdenum disulphide in solid form (which makes me nervous) and a large and confusing product line of fuel and motor oil additives. It is easier to differentiate some of these things if you have access to Material Safety Data Sheets. While not really granular at least they would tell you which things contain cool chenistry like PEA (like Techron and Regane) and which are just solvents (like Seafoam).

Lubro moly MOTOR CLEAN is a similar concept to seafoam as an oil flush solvent thing.

I believe that Liqui Moly "Jectron" is similar to Techron and may contain some PEA. Or maybe it is their FUEL SYSTEM CLEANER CONCENTRATE. Or maybe VALVE CLEAN. You see what I mean about the confusing line. If I could see even a vague list of ingredients I could refine it. But I suspect that Jectron is the fuel system cleaner that may be more than just solvents.

Anyhow, those should be available in the UK, maybe not at every shop but there must be some GARage (I am empahsizing the first syllable in deference to our british friends) near you that carries.

So in conclusion (finally!)
I would not be afraid to order Auto-RX, LC20, FP60, Techron, Regane from internet retailers. (LC20 in higher concentrations can be used as a fliiush like Seafoam too)
You may find useful products locally from Euro-companies like Lubro/Liqui Moly
I would not be in a huge hurry to flush my crankcase with solvents.

[Chemical]

Great post Nuemann- i'll take your advice and purchase and get it shipped.

[nope-mx3]

Norwegian distributor for Auto-RX???
Where!

I want this stuff

nope-mx

edit: ahh, I found it. they charge $49 for 1 bottle with shipping....
Kinda expensive, even for Norway.

ah well, guess I`ll buy it directly then

nope-mx3

[Ryan]

I'm trying this crap just for S&G, see if it works. Also, It doubles as injector cleaner, or so they say.

I don't expect anything, but at 6.00 for half a litre, thats only $5.20 wasted.