Additive curious?

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With all the posts lately about fairly new...at least to me...oil additives, I get the feeling that some of us are willing to read and research and even consider using some of them while others are staunchly opposed to adding anything to they're engines other than oil. I have NEVER added ANYTHING to my vehicles engines. However, after reading so many posts about additives, I'm beginning to wonder if they're might be some additives that might be of benefit for our vehicles. I might have inherited...involuntarily, some of this curiosity when I bought a 2005 Chevy Avalanche a few weeks ago that had an additive called friction free 3000 added to the oil from the 12,000 mile mark all the way to the 162,000 mile mark when I bought it. I requested the service history from the shop that serviced it and noticed the friction free on each oil change and asked the shop owner about it. He said it was an additive that is designed to adhere to the moving parts in the engine and to prolong engine life by reducing wear at critical parts...put simplistically for my simplistic brain to understand! Yes...I know engines will run hundreds of thousands of miles without additives with proper service, but i'm probably going to continue using the additive and see what happens. The mileage on it now is mostly highway miles but I will use it mostly on short trips with change intervals being done by going by the OLM. I posed this question a few weeks ago asking what the friction free 3000 was, snake oil I presumed, but since I have read alot about some other additives that have Boron in them and it seems that some people more knowledgeable than I am have favorable things to say about them. I am impressed at how smoothly the 5.3 runs and my first MPG check yielded an 18.9 MPG in only city driving, pretty good for a 6,000 lb vehicle. I might have to use it as a BITOG test mule...LOL!
 
fueleconomy.gov for a 2wd 2005 Avalanche:

13 - City
15 - Combined
18 - Highway

...and you're getting 19 in the city?
 
According to the in dash computer 18.9....when I filled the tank last week. I tripped both the trip meters and then filled the tank and will calculate it the old way the next time I fill the tank. Yes...I'm skeptical too.
 
Originally Posted By: gman2304
According to the in dash computer 18.9....when I filled the tank last week. I tripped both the trip meters and then filled the tank and will calculate it the old way the next time I fill the tank. Yes...I'm skeptical too.



Those things are notoriously inaccurate.

I use Fuelly to track my car's mileage. I also reset the car's average fuel consumption computer every time I fill up. The car tends to overestimate by 10-15% (i.e. it shows 17.5mpg when I really got 15.9).
 
Another post?
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/3255680/friction_free_3000

It seems to contain lead also. Is that even legal? Seems like it would contaminate the entire used oil container you recycle it in. MSDS isn't easily found.

By 'Market America' - that sounds like a trustworthy company, right? Designed to separate you from your money.

162k miles is nothing to be gloating about. 300k is easily done with dino oil changes alone.
 
Originally Posted By: gman2304
designed to adhere to the moving parts in the engine and to prolong engine life by reducing wear at critical parts...


That sounds like the description of motor oil to me.

Ed
 
Did you join the scheme or something?

Originally Posted By: gman2304
I've done a little more digging on this additive and it's available at Market America... which sounds like it's a pyramid - marketing scheme. IDK...
 
Again, I will ask the obvious:

For a fully formulated engine oil, AT oil, or differential lube, what chemistry is missing that we formulators did not include?
 
Originally Posted By: dparm
Originally Posted By: gman2304
According to the in dash computer 18.9....when I filled the tank last week. I tripped both the trip meters and then filled the tank and will calculate it the old way the next time I fill the tank. Yes...I'm skeptical too.



Those things are notoriously inaccurate.

I use Fuelly to track my car's mileage. I also reset the car's average fuel consumption computer every time I fill up. The car tends to overestimate by 10-15% (i.e. it shows 17.5mpg when I really got 15.9).


No worse than "filling up" with an ambiguous full amount driving a set # of miles and "filling up" with another ambiguous full point.

They are both accurate long term averages. Spot averages, I'd tend to trust the computer as it knows precisely how much fuel you are using.
 
I ran across this a while ago:

http://www.edmunds.com/fuel-economy/your-fuel-economy-gauge-is-fibbing.html

Edmunds may not be the final authority on this or any subject, but it is interesting. They bring up a good point about something I have always wondered, which is how does the car knows what the energy content is of a particular gallon of gas? Sure you are getting "miles per gallon" but that makes it difficult to compare your results over any length of time.
 
The answer is NO. Unless you really understand proper additive quantities in ppm, why would you buy a perfectly good motor oil that has a lacking additive package? Additionally, if you do not know the exact amount of each additive, too much of one may make things worse than no extra additive at all. The many PTFE additives out there were discredited years ago. The PFTE additives in "Slick 50, Motor-up , Z-Max and others have been proven to be of no real benefit. The worst part is the fact that the PTFE can clog up oil passages when heated up over time. That is a very bad thing. There is a reason that all new car manufacturers will void your new car warranty if they find any of this stuff in the oil. The FTC went after these guys for this stuff actually increasing bearing corrosion over motor oil alone in a given application. MPG increases were never proven to be valid. Snake oil additives appear to be marketing hype.
If you really want better, look at the very best synthetic oils.

Dr. Olds
 
I stated in this post that I had asked a similar question a few weeks ago...I didn't mean to appear to be gloating over 162,000 miles. No I didn't join the scheme. I don't know what chemistry you formulators are missing.
 
I don't and won't use additives, with one small exception. In a vehicle on its last legs, with nothing to lose, I have used Restore with good (although temporary) results. I believe it does restore lost compression to some degree. You have to re add at each change to continue to benefit.

Otherwise no additives used.
 
As I have stated all along, I have never used an oil additive. I'm thinking it might be snakeoil also, as I have stated. I'm just saying I might continue using it since it has been used in this trucks engine since new, and it apparently hasn't done it any obvious harm....yet. I'm thinking some of you guys might be interested to see what happens when an engine has had snakeoil ran in it all of it's life, maybe not.
 
Originally Posted By: MolaKule
Again, I will ask the obvious:

For a fully formulated engine oil, AT oil, or differential lube, what chemistry is missing that we formulators did not include?


Pixie dust?
 
I've proven over 10000 miles,tracking mileage based on fuel consumed at fill up and cross referencing the data I calculated against the fuel economy on my cars computer that mos2 increased my fuel economy,so these ad five threads can keep going on as snake oil and whatever however I proved to myself,and everyone I added mos2 into their oil that the stuff works.
I don't care what anyone thinks. I tracked mileages over 10000 miles including before and after and I consistently get better mileage with mos2 in the oil.
It's just that simple.
 
Originally Posted By: MolaKule
Again, I will ask the obvious:

For a fully formulated engine oil, AT oil, or differential lube, what chemistry is missing that we formulators did not include?


You tell us. What's going to be the next big thing.
 
Originally Posted By: turtlevette
Originally Posted By: MolaKule
Again, I will ask the obvious:

For a fully formulated engine oil, AT oil, or differential lube, what chemistry is missing that we formulators did not include?


You tell us. What's going to be the next big thing.



It wasn't a rhetorical question.
 
Originally Posted By: MolaKule

It wasn't a rhetorical question.



In any event. You claim to be a formulator. And we're here to learn from the experts. If price were no object. What would the formula look like?

It's hard for me to believe you are satisfied. As an engineer myself, I'm never completely happy with a design. Always looking for improvements. Always wanting to tweak.
 
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