Oil an fuel additives

[SPTNSX]

I'm doing some research on what's the best oil and fuel additive. I'm considering seafoam, Zmax, Lucas or slick 50. I've read about the good and bad on all of them; so it's kind of hard to decide which one is a good choice. Has anyone used any of those products or have any other product recommendations? Thanks in advance!

 

[silver2002]

Quote from page 182 of 2002 NSX Owner's Manual

"Your Acura does not need any oil additives. Purchasing additives for the engine or transmission will not increase your car's performance or longevity. It only increases the cost of operating your car."

 

[L_RAO]

All those products are simply a waste of money.

Just use a good oil and a good filter, and change at regular intervals.

 

[Honcho]

Good advice here. Just use a quality synthetic oil and filter and change them regularly.

 

[goldNSX]

oil additive: waste of money
fuel additive: reasonable from time to time, esp. after winter storage.

 

[Big_D]

I had a car with a high compression engine (10.5:1) that was hard to start and after using Slick 50 it was very noticable how much easier the engine would turn over and start. I think it works well.

I have used Seafoam for the fuel tank and it does a pretty good job cleaning injectors.

 

[naaman]

I also learned something in class the other day. 91 octane fuel (at least in AZ), is not always 91. There simply isn't enough enough 91 to go.around, so the distributors determine by lottery which stations get it. If your station doesn't have it when you fill up, you're getting 89. This could account for why my car feels so sluggish in AZ compared to in CA (whereas my wife's car which runs on 87 does not seem to perform any different). I'm going to try a fuel additive next fill-up to see if I notice a difference.

 

[Byrdman]

Adam Carolla's car cast podcast had an oil expert on from Joe Gibbs racing team recently. Pretty interesting if you have time to listen. He Wasn't a fan of oil additives as believe he said it was all about chemical balance. Additives could have completely different impact when mixed with various oils and really not worth messing with given what could be unpredictable outcomes including engine failure. Lots more info on the podcast.

 

[SPTNSX]

I'm only considering oil additives is because I thought it could help with my car idle a lot smoother. At idle the car shakes/vibrate and i thought i needed a new motor mount but that wasnt the case. Also i hope the oil additive could lubricate my rings and stuff like that. As for fuel additive, i use pump 91 at chevron, shell, mobil, and 76 gas stations and they all have fuel additive already added in them (so ive been told) but i dont know if they are as good as me putting in fuel additives myself.

 

[L_RAO]

Depending on how many miles you have on your car, you might be better off sending in your injectors for a professional cleaning, like with RC Engineering.

 

[SPTNSX]

Depending on how many miles you have on your car, you might be better off sending in your injectors for a professional cleaning, like with RC Engineering.

it only has 48,000 miles hahah

 

[ralph cerbone]

1) Zmax or Lucas cant recommend never seen any hard data on these products
2)Seafoam , has proven itself to free stuck oil control rings on engines that use low tension rings (most manu. use this type of ring for better fuel consumption ).Yea it can free carbon but in our cars not needed if car is properly maintained.
3) Slick 50 , NO, this is a derivative of Tufoil, both are good in a spur gear type gear box (not synchro type tranny).Also ok for a non posi differential .Oil not only lubricates but must also provide cyl. ring seal ,this stuff will result in blow-by .
4) The only additive I would use or recommend is Chevron Techron. This product will help in keeping carbon deposites off intake tract .I have viewed hard data from independent testing labs . No bs this stuff works. With the introduction of port fuel injection during the mid 80's carbonizing on intake valves became a problem (cold fuel sprayed onto a hot valve) .products like GM top cyl. cleaner became popular again .Me and my Wife both do short commutes to work (under 8 miles) I use this stuff faithfully .

 

[Hugh]

I used Auto-Rx in Charlotte's oil from the time I bought her in 2003 (70K miles) until she underwent the SoS stroker/twin turbo conversion 2 years ago (265K miles). The stuff works as advertised. The inside of my engine looked like it was new when it was torn down. Several oil analysis reports from Blackstone Labs over her NA life confirmed everything was good. Auto-Rx is the bomb. Now using it in the built motor as well.

 

[joboy77]

I also learned something in class the other day. 91 octane fuel (at least in AZ), is not always 91. There simply isn't enough enough 91 to go.around, so the distributors determine by lottery which stations get it. If your station doesn't have it when you fill up, you're getting 89. This could account for why my car feels so sluggish in AZ compared to in CA (whereas my wife's car which runs on 87 does not seem to perform any different). I'm going to try a fuel additive next fill-up to see if I notice a difference.

How can this be? Wouldn't saying that you're getting 91 and charging you the price of 91, but giving you 89 be illegal? I don't see how this can be done on such a large scale.

 

[jond]

The NSX can go 300,000+ miles(maybe 1,000,000, who knows) w/o any magic additives. Best case with an additive, you buy an extra 100,000 miles.
More likely case, you harm your engine and cut it's life short.

IMO, additives are dangerous and should be avoided.
If there was a secret, the oil companies would add it to their oils and market it.
A good synthetic, a good filter and frequent changes is the only secret.

 

[ralph cerbone]

I used Auto-Rx in Charlotte's oil from the time I bought her in 2003 (70K miles) until she underwent the SoS stroker/twin turbo conversion 2 years ago (265K miles). The stuff works as advertised. The inside of my engine looked like it was new when it was torn down. Several oil analysis reports from Blackstone Labs over her NA life confirmed everything was good. Auto-Rx is the bomb. Now using it in the built motor as well.

Your right on about this product, my experience showed it worked. I had a conversation with the Inventor/CEO Frank Miller ,Very cool guy , no bs.

 

[kaede]

1) 4) The only additive I would use or recommend is Chevron Techron. This product will help in keeping carbon deposites off intake tract .I have viewed hard data from independent testing labs . No bs this stuff works. With the introduction of port fuel injection during the mid 80's carbonizing on intake valves became a problem (cold fuel sprayed onto a hot valve) .products like GM top cyl. cleaner became popular again .Me and my Wife both do short commutes to work (under 8 miles) I use this stuff faithfully .

I use this stuff every other oil change. The first time I used it I was blown away with the difference that could be felt on both my 350z and honda odyssey. Have never took the engine apart and compared before and after, but it was for sure smoother and more quiet. When i put the stuff into the Odyssey, I didn't tell my dad about it and he came back one day after a drive asking me what the hell i did to the car and that there is a difference for sure. =D great stuff

 

[ralph cerbone]

I use this stuff every other oil change. The first time I used it I was blown away with the difference that could be felt on both my 350z and honda odyssey. Have never took the engine apart and compared before and after, but it was for sure smoother and more quiet. When i put the stuff into the Odyssey, I didn't tell my dad about it and he came back one day after a drive asking me what the hell i did to the car and that there is a difference for sure. =D great stuff

Yea for sure ,when I was instructing, students would want to know what scanners ,scopes and additives I liked .I would shy away from recommending any manu.even though I used Snap-On and Fluke equipt. The only additive I spoke about was techron and stated I heard good things about it . A few students tried this product on their customers cars and came back with positive response .

 

[SPTNSX]

I gave the slick 50 fuel additive a try and I noticed that the engine is smoother at idle. It didnt go away completely but about 40% smoother at idle. I'm probably gonna give the Chevron Techron a try

 

[Honcho]

Yea for sure ,when I was instructing, students would want to know what scanners ,scopes and additives I liked .I would shy away from recommending any manu.even though I used Snap-On and Fluke equipt. The only additive I spoke about was techron and stated I heard good things about it . A few students tried this product on their customers cars and came back with positive response .

+1

I use Techron every oil change on both my Acuras. I run it through a full tank and then change oil when its gone.

 

[naaman]

How can this be? Wouldn't saying that you're getting 91 and charging you the price of 91, but giving you 89 be illegal? I don't see how this can be done on such a large scale.

We'll see. I have stock internals. I'm putting some octane booster into my tank today. I'll report any difference I notice. For what it's worth, in AZ, my 1st gear accelerates about as strong as my 2nd gear in Cali. Also, the torque comes in much sooner in Cali. So, if I get a real difference, It must be the gas.

 

[kaede]

We'll see. I have stock internals. I'm putting some octane booster into my tank today. I'll report any difference I notice. For what it's worth, in AZ, my 1st gear accelerates about as strong as my 2nd gear in Cali. Also, the torque comes in much sooner in Cali. So, if I get a real difference, It must be the gas.

There has been a lot of testing done and comparison online with different types of octane booster and its seems like none of them actually gives better performance. I personally will just stay away from that to save myself some money and go for a better branded gas like chevron or shell is you're really paranoid about quality =D

 

[ralph cerbone]

Octane boosters work if you have the increased compression and timing advances , if not your kidding yourself-----higher octane doesnt give you more power it allows you to develop more power

 

[naaman]

There has been a lot of testing done and comparison online with different types of octane booster and its seems like none of them actually gives better performance. I personally will just stay away from that to save myself some money and go for a better branded gas like chevron or shell is you're really paranoid about quality =D

I use Chevron exclusively. The point is not the quality of the fuel. I was testing something I heard in class, which is that there is not enough 91 octane fuel to go around. Since my car is rated for 91 octane, it will retard timing if pre-ignition is occurring due to using too low of an octane. The only purpose of the octane booster experiment in THIS case was to determine if the difference in performance I notice between California and Arizona had anything to do with the wrong octane being injected into my engine. The theory behind my experiment was that if my performance loss in AZ is caused by having 89 octane (even though I'm paying for 91), then octane booster should produce a performance improvement.

Octane boosters work if you have the increased compression and timing advances , if not your kidding yourself-----higher octane doesnt give you more power it allows you to develop more power

Right. Unless you're using too combustible of a fuel, which will cause knocking which will trigger timing retard which will reduce performance. There's a reason why old engines sometimes benefit from using higher octane fuel: they have developed "hot spots" in the cylinders which cause pre-ignition on lower octane fuels. Using premium even if the MFR recommends 87 in this case can "hide" that symptom.

In any case, I used Lucas octane booster on my recent fill-up. I noticed right away that the idle was smoother, even if just a little. Throttle response was ever-so-slightly improved in the low RPM range. The pumps here put out 91 octane, but in WA, they put out 93. I'm guessing that my car can benefit from octane higher than 91, but not much higher. When I've emptied this tank, I'll know if it helped fuel economy at all.

Since I'm unwilling to pump anything labeled 89 into my tank, I'm not going to bother doing a comparison with 89 out of the pump.

 

[ralph cerbone]

At your class discuss the difference between pre-ignition and detonation ,your correct about causes of pre-ignition but i feel your dealing more with condition
of detonation. Knock sensors which retard your timing were originally called detonation sensors . Pre-ignition before spark,Detonation after spark. I am not trying to be condescending just want to make sure you have a clear understanding of the conditions.