Thread: Nulon in Engine Oil

I remember reading about the no oil in engine trick.

They used a Briggs and Stratton engine.
Briggs and Stratton did a test themselves and found the the engine could run for a long time without oil .. additive or no!
But they found that with a PTFE additive(can't remember if it was Slick 50 or some other) the bored had more scoring than the engine without the additive.

Question therefore is, could the Commodore run without oil without having the additive too?

We once drove a HQ (161 I think) from Ballarat to Melb(actually past Ballarat) with 'no oil' in it. Kind of deliberately and not deliberately. (it was at this point we discovered the oil light wasn't working).
Next day at the mechanic, nothing came out of the sump plug. He removed the sump and less than 500ml had collected 'somewhere' in the sump,
Car still ran fine for the short time we had it after that episode.

We once drove a HQ (161 I think) from Ballarat to Melb(actually past Ballarat) with 'no oil' in it.

It would not have run ( very well or maybe not at all) without any oil as the hydraulic tappets would have collapsed.
Regards Philip A

back then(18yo) you drove a car till you, or it, stopped.
HQ continued on, and made noises(I assume tappets, rockers, whatever).

I don't specifically remember if it drove any worse than it otherwise did, but it drove crap anyhow(compared to any other car we had in the family).

the two strongest memory of that saga was my father's long term response over it .. didn't let me live it down for a very long time, and the mechanic emptying the contents of the sump into one of those old timer glass oil jars with the long tapered filler necks.

A coworker once, to provide a point to another, drained the sump of his old Valiant, left the sump plug there and drove home. A week later drove back and collected the sump plug. As far as I know 10 years later he still has the vehicle with the same engine running in it.

Originally Posted by Jason789

So it seems that all the regulars are against oil and fuel additives.
If they don't work, show me some proof. If they do work,show me some proof.
Otherwise you're all just screaming 'witch' at the people that do use them.
Show me some proof either way rather than the usual back yarder comment "well I reckon....."
Wreaks of religion and politics

Jason, whilst you do raise a point about the lack of proof evidence provided to you either way, just merely requesting others to give it to you won't change the situation. If you want it that'll take work from you.

What I would offer though is the following points::
1. There are many oil companies that have premium higher end ranges of their products. They have big budgets for research and development and if they found these things to be beneficial they put it into their product. Therefore no need for additives as the good ones should already be in the oils recipe. I have no doubt that there have been some valuable additives at points in time which have become part of oil formulas now.
2. The oil formulas are based on the oil companies research and development. They improve over time with new technologies etc. Just have a look at the oil for the TD5 available now compared to when the motor first appeared in 1999. Or the availability of synthetics oils now compared to the early 1990's. Oil companies seem to know what they're doing and seem to be gradually improving. Adding additives in might have the effect of disrupting/changing/altering the formula.
3. Vehicle manufacturers/engine designers also have a vested interest in the oil for the motors. Look at all the different specs and requirements (e.g. try finding engine oil for a Defender Puma motor for example). They're specifying particular oil for particular reasons based on their research and development. Mixing in additives changes this and as you point out there's no proof of that change being beneficial.
4. Don't confuse 'sounds better' or 'quietens it down' with actually being better in terms of the oils primary purpose of lubricating. With some of the American gearboxes as an example we found running different oils not recommended in gearboxes or lower oil levels in gearboxes can improve their shift qualities but often at the cost of increased wear. The particular oil recommended was likely chosen as a balance of wear protection and shift quality and the level determined to provide enough lubrication required.

With all that said I'm still not 100% against all additives. I've had significantly improved results using Nulon G70 Smooth Shift in some old manual transmissions with no observable negatives with wear etc. It's a PTFE additive. Also listed as being for differentials but I can't see a need to use in there. I've also out of desperation put power steering stop leek into an old American power steering system suffering a minor week when a replacement was not reasonably available. It held up for four years following until the vehicle was no longer with us.

At the end of the day it's your vehicle, stick what ever you would like into it. But asking others to run around providing you with all the evidence to justify one way or the other is unreasonable. There's plenty of research out there available if you can be bothered finding it and reading, plenty of well qualified and experienced technical people who will speak to you and answer questions, and you can also have your own tests done.

On the topic of additives(but not exactly) on reading other's positive comments on here and other places, I thought to try out the CEM(Cost Effective Maintenance) oil flush and coolant flush/additive products.

My 300 Tdi totally blackens it oil after about 500klms after a fresh oil change. I'm talking about total black black.
After my first go with it recently, I did it their way, flush old oil, start the flush process using a cheap oil with the flush stuff with about 1/2 hr idling.
That new cheap oil came out as black as the old oil did. Filled with the new oil and now nearly 2K later, whilst the oil is black again, it's not the thick black it used to be after 500 odd klms, it's more of a translucent black.
That is it's black but I can see the metal dip stick behind the black oil now. Pre flush, it was a straight up jet black on the dip stick.

Also used the coolant flush on the Tdi, and even tho I gave it two flushes(garden hose type) prior to the CEM flush product and have been running straight water(no coolant) for a few months.
With the CEM coolant flush, I just added it ran the car for a couple of days, then dumped the straight water/flush product. it came out rusty looking, plus some old green coolant that I thought was dumped the first time around.
The other thing that happened with the coolant flush product was that a film of rusty vapour has settled on the inside of the coolant reservoir above the water line. Water(plus this CEM coolant stuff) is still a very slightly murky brown colour, but it seems to have loosened a bit of rusty stuff out of the coolant galleries/hoses/etc and 'evaporated' it where it could(ie. above the water line in the coolant reservoir.

So I'm similar to twr7cx .. in that I'm not against additives or products that claim to enhance/protect/clean ... etc.
I just want more evidence of the products doing what they claim too, and still need to see non manufacturer evidence for myself.

If there was a way to coat a surface with a low temperature PTFE coating .. you'd think it'd be available for many other applications too.
It's not, and so the more sensible approach is to be in doubt, than to simply accept manufacturer claims!

Originally Posted by Jason789

And to go with this ^ reduction in mechanical noise, the old 2stroke in the diesel trick.

All the 'experts' on this forum say that it's snake oil and mock the people that use them, yet they can't reasonably explain a reduction in mechanical noise from the ol' TD5 that these additives give.
I suppose that I could go into remaps vs plug in chips too, but then, some people are experts on things that they never have and never will use, either short or long term. It's just that they have read an article on the highly reliable internet that contradicts someone elses highly reliable internet data or that they want to back up their mates opinion on this forum

WOFTAM? ? ?...More like a WOFTAE conversation of Yea vs Nay. BWAHAHAHA

Cheers,

Jason

Must refrain from responding.
Must refrain from responding....

Originally Posted by rick130

Must refrain from responding.
Must refrain from responding....

That's a partial response rick

Originally Posted by discorevy

That's a partial response rick

Come on,where is the rest of it...?

Not to many know more about oils than a good fridgie, named Rick....