STP oil treatment

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Anybody heard of this stuff? Saw it advertised in the Pep Boys circular. I've never really been a fan of STP products.
 
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STP Oil Treatment is way old skool (like me).

I didn't even think they made it anymore. I think I have a pile of STP stickers someplace.

I remember when I was a kid working in my Dad's shop. I was goofing around one day when I put a drop of STP into a container of Berryman B-12.....the STP balled up and turned into a hard rubber-like mass.

I knew a guy that owned a '61 Biscayne that had a slipping Powerglide. He poured a can of STP into the transmission and the slip went away. After the growing season was over he drove it back to Oklahoma. Still had the same car when he returned the next season.
 
Good for getting the very last 2k miles out of a very tired engine.

But that's about it.
 
One of those prob does nothing products...

Maybe or maybe not as bad as Lucas, I wouldnt use it personaly.

High quality oil = no need for additive no matter what.

Only additive I believe is MMO , techron, and RP . All used for upper cylinder lubricant and their help in opening clogged nozzles. I only buy if a can is less than 3 bucks.... RP had rebate on theirs and I got 6 for 1 dollar each after rebate.
 
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Originally Posted By: mclasser
Anybody heard of this stuff? Saw it advertised in the Pep Boys circular. I've never really been a fan of STP products.


Wow man, you been living under a rock the last 20 years! STP oil treatment has been around forever and isn't much good for anything other than engine assembly lube or for a car auction dealer trying to get a POS to run through the line one more time to sell it...
 
Its been around since the 50's atleast. I put some on a customers car last week. Tired v8 ford would not build oil pressure at idle so the oil light flickered with 10w30. A bottle of stp fixed it. Well kept the light off. Car is a pile anyway
 
When I was a kid no oil change was complete without a can of STP. Every time I see the logo I still think of Richard Petty.

It's essentially an oil thickener, old school polymer viscosity index improvers with a few additives (less than the oil your adding it to though, so it's no booster additive wise).

It is still useful for an old beater, or if you find yourself needing thicker oil and you don't want to change it. My Jeep likes thicker oil and I've used STP before with 5w30 and it ran great on it. Not a long term plan though....

I had planned at one point to do a full OCI and UOA with STP in the crank for curiousity/posterity's sake but probably won't happen now, too many projects! Could be a good project for one of the other old cars instead of the Jeep I guess.
 
Originally Posted By: Plumber
I add a bottle to an oil change for the 54 Plymouth car and the 91 Chevy 1500 W/T.



Why not buy thicker oil. It's what your doing anyways,and diluting the add pack of the original oil of course.
 
Used to use it back in the day with either Castrol GTX or Valvoline XLD 20W-50 every oil change.

Never now, although I do like playing with it, and acetone to get the polymer out of it.

Interestingly with the stuff (and morey's and Lucas) if you pick up a 60 tonne turbine shaft, coat the shafts in STP (or the others), and re-set in their bearings, you can turn it as required for a couple of shifts a half turn here or there.
 
Back in my day STP was the "racers edge", it stayed up all night coating engine parts. They had a few slogans over the years. I could have sworn Richard Petty took baths in it.
 
I used it once when I was at a friends cutting with my chainsaw and I ran out of bar oil. He had the STP in his garage and I used it via just pouring it on the chain/bar to get a little more cutting done when and it was getting dark.
 
Originally Posted By: Shannow
Used to use it back in the day with either Castrol GTX or Valvoline XLD 20W-50 every oil change.

Never now, although I do like playing with it, and acetone to get the polymer out of it.

Interestingly with the stuff (and morey's and Lucas) if you pick up a 60 tonne turbine shaft, coat the shafts in STP (or the others), and re-set in their bearings, you can turn it as required for a couple of shifts a half turn here or there.


The Bechtel people told me they used STP on the turbine shaft of a 635 MVA coal fired unit I worked on back in the early 80s, when under construction. I guess they had to rotate it ever so many days so it wouldn't permanently have a bend. I thought they were hicks but it sounds like that's a thing. As I remember, they had to take it all apart before startup to clean everything as the STP had almost hardened.

I used to use the STP in my engine with thick oil probably 20W-50. When I tore it down it had a layer of goop where the oil does not move much.

I'm anti thick oil these days.
 
Originally Posted By: Clevy
Originally Posted By: Plumber
I add a bottle to an oil change for the 54 Plymouth car and the 91 Chevy 1500 W/T.



Why not buy thicker oil. It's what your doing anyways,and diluting the add pack of the original oil of course.


I see your point. But that original flathead has more than likely been run on STP since birth, and I am not going to risk flushing it out with nice, clean, quality motor oils. The 91 more than likely the same.
 
Originally Posted By: Plumber
Originally Posted By: Clevy
Originally Posted By: Plumber
I add a bottle to an oil change for the 54 Plymouth car and the 91 Chevy 1500 W/T.



Why not buy thicker oil. It's what your doing anyways,and diluting the add pack of the original oil of course.


I see your point. But that original flathead has more than likely been run on STP since birth, and I am not going to risk flushing it out with nice, clean, quality motor oils. The 91 more than likely the same.


But if you just run a grade thicker oil you'll get more protection that using the stp,and no added expense.
Use conventional if your really concerned
We've got voa of that stp stuff here. It's got LESS zddp than the engine oil your adding it to not to mention potentially throwing off the oils engineered balance which will necessitate a shorter drain due to the unknown factor.
If you're using a 30 grade and adding this stuff just move up to a 40 grade and delete it.
Maybe a high mileage 40 grade. Defy has always done well in every application I've used it in,and can be had cheap/on sale somewhere.
 
Originally Posted By: turtlevette
The Bechtel people told me they used STP on the turbine shaft of a 635 MVA coal fired unit I worked on back in the early 80s, when under construction. I guess they had to rotate it ever so many days so it wouldn't permanently have a bend. I thought they were hicks but it sounds like that's a thing. As I remember, they had to take it all apart before startup to clean everything as the STP had almost hardened.


Don't see any chance of the STP hardening, there's no apparent mechanism for it...Lucas is better, as the ZDDP isn't really good for the white metal bearings, (but mixed in with 20,000 gals of turbine oil is pretty not much of an issue).

After you've done the alignments, you need to partially disassemble everything and do systemic oil flushing to get all the footprints, pocket lint and gauge wire out of the system before you run it up.

The brightstock type lubes are only used when jacking oil is unavailable, as often safety rules won't let you have energy sources into the workspace, and the thick stuff is a workaround...besides, if you use jacking oil, it takes an hour or so for the shaft to settle after a move, and if you are aiming for 0.001" alignment, you need to let it settle.

Originally Posted By: turtlevette
I used to use the STP in my engine with thick oil probably 20W-50. When I tore it down it had a layer of goop where the oil does not move much.

I'm anti thick oil these days.


I'm not pro 20W-50, and especially not 20W-50 with STP in it anymore...210 tonnes of turbine (886MVA) is quite happy on 6-10cst oil at 100C...also quite happy running a straight weight.
 
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