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Lions and Tigers and Bears...Oh My!
Much like Dorothy's trip to OZ, we encounter many Additives, Power enhancers, Snake Oils, and Info-commercials proclaiming the benefits of XYZ product.
Question. Do any of them really work?
Can you drive a Viper in the desert with no Oil in the Crankcase?
Can you set your car hood on fire and not burn it with lowly old Turtle Wax?
Can a Tornado send Dorothy to OZ and add 15 HP to your Civic?
Ah....Snake oil salesmen, Carpet-baggers, and elixirs to cure what ails your Car...
Doe any of them live up to the hype?
Question. Do any of them really work?
Can you drive a Viper in the desert with no Oil in the Crankcase?
Can you set your car hood on fire and not burn it with lowly old Turtle Wax?
Can a Tornado send Dorothy to OZ and add 15 HP to your Civic?
Ah....Snake oil salesmen, Carpet-baggers, and elixirs to cure what ails your Car...
Doe any of them live up to the hype?
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Comments
Why, oh why, are there apostrophes in your words to indicate the plural? Dear God, why?!
:-)
Thanky you's
Now where were we?
"AS SEEN ON TV".....
Ah, yes.
My biggest argument against all these products has always been that if they did what is claimed for them, automakers would have incorporated them years ago in their production lines.
The only conclusion, therefore, is that:
1. They do not in fact work (e.g., "fuel magnets")
2. They work but in such a minimal way that they are not cost effective (e.g., octane boosters)
3. They work but their side effects are too strong for regular production cars (e.g., air filter modifications, etc.)
Is dino sufficient for normal use?
Is the service dept revenue an issue?
Do they not trust owners to check their oil in extended drain scenarios ?
Is big oil in cahoots with the manufacturers?
Will it make the engines last too long?
Why isn't synthetic oil standard on all cars produced?
I was riding a Yamaha 650 twin (not the imitation EZ Rider sold in the states!!! - a Cafe Racer Version, but anyhow) and one day on a whim I bought some Motor Honey (or some equivalent - I don't remember the brand).
My thinking was that an air cooled bike which was being ridden every day in city traffic needed all the help it could get.
The instructions said to put the 'motor honey' in the engine oil with the engine running, I believe.
In any case that's what I did - put it in while the engine was idling.
The engine began to idle NOTICEABLY smoother. It's pretty easy to notice a smoother idle on a vertical twin engine like that.
I don't know if it made the engine last any longer, but there was an empirical effect that I could observe.
Now, in general, I tend to side with Mr.Shiftright - if this stuff was so great, you would see it offered on (or in) every car - you wouldn't have to wait for a Sunday night at midnight infomercial to buy it, but I did find this particular case interesting.
Or to put it more bluntly, there is no sense in trying to make an engine go to 300,000 miles because the rest of the car isn't going to make it to that mileage anyway. This is what happened to differentials...they used to be the only part of the junked car that was still good, so when automakers found out that the differentials were outlasting the rest of the car by a long shot, they stopped over-engineering differentials. This makes perfect sense if you are running a business, and I have no problem with that.
That being said, some automakers DO use synthetic now, but I think it is a marketing item and not at all necessary.
Now we do recall that American automakers shunned radials for a long time, and also disc brakes, and also fuel injection and just about any technological advance for as long as they could get away with it (until Japan ate them for breakfast)----so maybe we WILL see some things like synthetic as regular production material in the future. Depends if the automaker can be convinced that it pays to do this. I am presently skeptical on this matter.
A long time ago I used an engine flush on an old Ford van with a 351 Windsor. I can't remember the name but the product was red in color. Anyway, I used it as directed and it did make a difference, cleaning out some of the sludge and allowing the motor to run cooler and a bit smoother. Was it "Rislone"?
Re: magic wax that will let you spill acid on your paint without damage - actually most any decent car wax will let you do that. As long as you apply enough wax and don't let the acid or fire attack that area too long. It's a cool trick but I am not condoning it.
Yes, it was Risolone or Rislone or something like that. Basically a nasty solvent that ungunked your engine, often dislodging all kinds of crap that would then recirculate and lodge elsewhere if you weren't careful. Also stripped all the lubricant off the cylinder walls. You had to be careful with this stuff.
For flushing engines, I always recommend buying 10 quarts of some cheapo oil, and running it at idle only for 15-30 min, then dumping it, changing the filter, and doing it all over again...that is 2Xs.....safer than powerful solvents, which could attack seals...too risky on an old engine I feel.
Why can't you buy this stuff in reputable auto stores? Because it isn't worth the gunpowder to blow it all to hell!
Fact: the bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price (only $19.95...call within the next 20 minutes and we'll double your order...have your credit card ready!)
Any comments from DuraShine users would be appreciated.
Tron
"I use "dura-glop" in my engine every time I fill up"
TRANSLATION: They gave me 50 cases of this stuff and said "put it in your engine every fillup and we'll give you $50,000"
"This product is not sold in stores"
TRANSLATION: We'd rather sell in on TV, make a quick buck and disappear
"My engine as 150,000 miles on it, and burns no oil and still gets good gas mileage"
TRANSLATION: Yeah, so does just about every other engine.
It's amazing how much you can say and still say nothing.
I did it for a motorcycle application some years back. Hopefully, the new issue books will still have all the good info in there.