Hey All,

Just wanted to know everyones take on Additives for a car. I drive a TBI car and was wondering if anyone else out there in TBI land ever puts that fuel injection cleaner in their car every 5000 fuel ups?

Another question. I saw this stuff at Crappy tire called Restore. They claim that it will restore your engines performance and restore the compression. I have no clue what my compression is however was wondering if anyone tried this stuff before. The Graphs on the back looked craptastic however I wouldn't mind some honest input on this.

Additives...Yay or Nay!?

 

Yes some of them do work as advertised. When I was around 18 I didnt know much about cars it was all I could do to change my oil on a 1981 monte carlo v6 I had. I used duralube oil additive to it about every 4th oil change. Something popped up and knocked a hole in my oil pan when I was at work one day 50 miles away from home. I was about half way home and the oil light came on I got to my exit (15 miles from where the light came on) and stopped at a gas station to check the oil. There was nothing left on the dipstick it was bone dry. I checked to see if the drain plug was gone but it was ok and then I saw the hole. I guess a rock or something hit just right.
I filled it up at the gas station and then made it home 5 more miles without the light coming on again. So in total I drove at least 15-20 miles with no oil in the car on a day that was about 95 degrees outside. The radiator was clogged and it ran hot anyway so that made it even worse. The only thing that happened was a little lifter noise but it went away when I filled it back up with oil.

I patched the pan (big fan of the epoxy puttys that harden like steel) until I had a couple of days off to replace it which was at the time the biggest repair I had ever done on a car. I drove that car for 2 more years without any kind of noises or engine problems.

Fuel injector cleaners are cheap insurance. A bottle of STP cleaner costs 1.59 and I toss one in at every other fill up in my truck. In the trans am I just throw some B-12 in the tank or marvels mystery oil whenever the mood strikes me. It may or may not do anything but I believe it has benefits.

If you are just going to do it every 5000miles I would use the lucas oil fuel treatment. I do that once a year anyway. I also use lucas stop slip transmission treatment in my cars/trucks. I will never quit using duralube or bragging about how it did what it said it would. I also hear good things about prolong engine treatment.

If your car has lots of miles it probably has some sludge build up in it so one of the treatments like marvels mystery oil that you put in the oil and run it for 20 minutes and then change the oil really help with clearing out buildup in oil passages. Old timers used kerosene and many people still do. They just add a quart of it in the engine oil and run it for 20 minutes and change the oil. I think thats basically the same thing as the mystery oil. STP uses "jet fuel" in their fuel treatments which strip buildup and also lubricates things in the fuel system.

They dont hurt but 9 times out of 10 they are not miracle workers. If you have big problems they wont fix them. Also stay away from the stop leak for radiators that have the metal looking flakes in them. They will damage things like your fuel pump and can also clog up small water passages in the engine.

Bars leak is the only radiator stop leak I would use. The others that look powdery or like they have metal flakes in them are bad.

Hope that answers a couple of questions.

Wesdog

 

What about that zMAX stuff. On the box it reads "pour a new engine into your vehicle". Do they mean that cuz the stuff will kill your current engine which will cause you to pour money into a new engine for the car? Has anyone tried this stuff...does it work?