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STP as comfort food...
OK-- I admit it. I've occasionally used this stuff in old beaters and I think it's worked. My daughter ran her 1990 Prizm almost dry. I told her to keep the engine level up. She started putting in a quart of oil at every fill up without checking the dipstick.
Result--noisy engine with the oil pressure light coming on at idle.
The thing has 160K+ on it and unlike later model Toyotas apparently didn't sludge.
Anyway-- STP (or a no name variant thereof) quieted the engine and turned out the engine light on idle. Well worth the 79 cents I paid.
Any other positive stories about the joy of STP out there? I know lots of people who say that modern oils don't need this extra dollup of zinc and I think you're right if the engine's new. But what about squeezing a few miles out of that old beater?
I also cleaned up an old carburator by dumping in Marvel Mystery oil but that's another story.
Result--noisy engine with the oil pressure light coming on at idle.
The thing has 160K+ on it and unlike later model Toyotas apparently didn't sludge.
Anyway-- STP (or a no name variant thereof) quieted the engine and turned out the engine light on idle. Well worth the 79 cents I paid.
Any other positive stories about the joy of STP out there? I know lots of people who say that modern oils don't need this extra dollup of zinc and I think you're right if the engine's new. But what about squeezing a few miles out of that old beater?
I also cleaned up an old carburator by dumping in Marvel Mystery oil but that's another story.
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But like you say, if it gives you peace of mind, or a week's relief from noise or smoke, for .79 cents that's a pretty good deal. You could buy a 55 gallon drum and a hand pump; however after repeated doses with STP I don't think I personally would want to be the poor guy who takes your engine apart.
I will also say it definitely has limits, Don't use TOO much, Don't use it with extended oil change intervals- it will NOT live as long as the oil will, If your engine has overheating tendencies you should probably swap a couple of quarts of 20w50 rather than use STP...
In older engines that have served a major portion of their service life, STP(or the generic) can definitly quiet noise that is introduced by years of bearing/lifter wear, won't make the engine younger, but will give it some more time.
Good morning y'all
Rando
This friend was a fairly successful SCCA road racer with a 1963 "fuelie" Corvette. The team was freshening-up a new engine for the car, and the engine guy decides that STP should make a good lube when installing the piston/rod assemblies. He gives the cylinder walls a good coat of the stuff before sliding in the pistons.
The folowing week, they take the car to the track for a practice day, and it's smoking like crazy. It runs pretty good, but it smokes badly. They load it up, take it home, and pull the engine apart for a look-see. Everything looked OK, and the only change to their procedure was the STP. The final conclusion was that the STP made the cylinder walls so slippery, the rings wouldn't seat in.
They throughly cleaned everything, re-assembled the engine using the same parts, with only motor oil as the assembly lube, and it ran great. It seems that STP is at least some sort of friction modifier. I realize that this isn't really any scientific proof, but it happened to my friends, and they're pretty reliable guys.
Try working on an STP loaded up engine sometime!
If you use common sense and use it WITHIN ITS LIMITATIONS it will help older engines get plenty of extra life, it does NOT rebuild an engine, but used correctly it WILL get it some more time before it becomes a parts depot.
I use it in my 1989 Nissan truck, I use that vehicle as a 3rd vehicle and don't plan on selling it anytime soon (I know it is worth more to me than the book says it is worth to anyone else). Motor is NOT shot, runs just fine, I just treat it like a motor with miles on it, not like it was 12 years (180k miles) ago. Stuff works good for me, but I know not to overwork it too,,I don't use too much and don't leave it in too long
see ya
Way back in 1969 I was restoring an old wood boat. The engine took 11 quarts of oil and had no filter. I went down to the TWO GUY'S department store automotive section and bought Remanufactured Motor Oil in gallon cans. Sure wish I had those cans today! This was supposed to be old oil from fleets that was re cracked. It looked great. At that time I remember that it was common for most oil cans to include the term VIRGIN on the labels. So what happens to all that oil which is collected today. I know some uses oil is burned by shops for bay heat and some facilities have boilers that will accept it with other fuels, but thats a lot of oil. Is some of it mixed with new crude? After cracking, it doesn't matter what it first was and should be treated as any other material you recycle. Is that why virgin isn't on the label any more?
Talk about a filthy place!
I could see STP gas treatment working in a 2-cycle engine like an outboard because that stuff is not a gooey mess--it is actually, like Marvel Mystery Oil, merely a very light, hi detergent upper cylinder lubricant. Two-strokes of course depend on gas/oil mix for lubrication, so a bit more oil in the gas might help (to a point).
But in the long run, if there is no substitute for cubic inches, there is also no substitute for re-machining work cylinder walls and fried piston rings and old engine bearings. These parts must withstand TREMENDOUS forces and I really don't see how something in a can is going to make much of a difference with such violent forces going on inside an engine.
I've heard that most used motor oil is used to make asphalt for roads.
When re building an engine, I mix white assembly lube with STP and thin it with motor oil to get a very light goop that is just barely too thick to pour. I use a cheap pipe dope brush and put this mix on every moving part inside the motor. When time to start motor I fill with the cheapest non-detergent no brand $.69 a quart oil. I then start and run engine for 5-6 minutes and then drain the oil.
But what bugs me is that it has always been marketed as "The Racer's Edge" implying it is for high-performance engines, even new ones.
Well, I tried some in a single-cylinder, air-cooled engine and that thing broke that STP down into a watery waste in no time. Definitely a case of misapplication! All this stuff is a polymer-based thickener (unstable) with some useful additives so it is NOT for high heat, high RPM usage.
--- Bror Jace
Does anyone know what's in this stuff? Is it just like STP ... but under a different name?
I see it advertised a lot recently and was wondering about it.
--- Bror Jace
When I buy Chainsaw bar oil, it says it has a tack additive in it to stay on the chain better, sounds like what this stuff is. It does not sound the same as STP because they seem to avoid the words polymer and zinc ...
Only thing I saw that sounded fishy was they recommend anywhere from 20-60% mix and that sounds like the old "elixer" that fixes everything, of course alcohol usually does fix everything doesn't it? You know I use the STP stuff, but I am also aware of its restrictions, the LUCAS stuff sounds like it is more "stabil" ....only thing it probably thickens the oil at ALL temps, the STP stuff mainly changes 10w30 into 10w40 or 10w50 maybe, it sounds like the LUCAS changes the 10w30 into 20w-50 maybe.....maybe it would be the same as just "enhancing" the 10w30 by swapping out 2 qts for 20w50 instead???
If you buy a bottle try comparing 2 jars with oil with and without it and see how fast it runs down the sides????, let us know ...
see ya
Rando
I wish I had looked at the bottle, shaken it, etc ... at the time ... but I didn't. The image of that other dude plunkin' down some money for that gear-oil bottle stayed with me since, though. I don't even know what that quart costs. <:^(
My guess is it's got a little of everything in it. Basically, more EP additives, anti-fuel dilution (& anti-corrosion) additives to bump-up the TBN, etc ...
That sort of thing. Kind of like a bottle of "super-oil" ... enough additives to rejuvenate/reinforce about 5qts of "standard" oil.
--- <b>Bror Jace
Rando
Hey it is Saturday night!!
http://www.lucasoil.com/specs/spec10001.htm
Um, this stuff says it is 100% petroleum oil with lots of additives, probably ZDDP and possibly moly. Since they say it can stop oil burning, smoking, engine knocking, etc ... I'm guessing it is really thick stuff, perhaps straight 30-40 weight? When you mix this with typical 10W30 or 10W40, it makes that stuff a bit thicker ... perhaps like a 15W50 or so.
Sounds like much ado about nothing, though. And, if they charge more than $3 per quart, it's highway robbery.
If you use a good quality oil with the correct weight for your application, you don't need this stuff.
But then again, that's the advice for nearly ALL oil additives. >;^)
--- Bror Jace