I just posted this in reply to a guy in the 3rd gen forum.
It answers questions about Lucas and Engine Restore and describes some practical methods for deciding if an oil additive may be good or bad by inspecting it with your hands and eyes.
For the benefit of crazy4maxima, his maxima and any readers:
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Originally Posted by crazy4maxima
OK just jumped on the band wagon. I got my oil changed done. Well My engine is ticking like crazy and rattling.
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My theory is that it is possible, depending on what type of oil filter, what type of oil/additives you are using and how clean or dirty your engine internals are.... if you are using that Toyota filter that is made for a smaller displacement 4 cylinder, it may not provide for enough oil flow and only serve to clog oil there thus preventing much of your engine to be lubricated properly.
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Originally Posted by crazy4maxima
I went to R&s Strauss and got myself a quart of lucas oil stabilizer and went to my mech. Put the oil filter on and put the lucas oil, as well as 10w-40 castrol oil in her.
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Luck be with you. You'll need it. The first word in your username suits you, or possibly a better/more accurate one is just "naive".
LUCAS "OIL STABILIZER" IS HORRIBLE!!!!!!!
I only used it once before to keep an engine running that basically had no rod bearing at all on one of the rods and thus a horrible knock leading to the engine being junk anyways.
I knew as soon as I opened the bottle and started TRYING to pour it that it was HORRIBLE. That stuff has the consistency of Elmer's Glue and tree sap OR WORSE.
Common sense tells me that's bad for anything that should be moving very freely with as little resistance as possible while still being lubricated very well. Plus, I Aced physics.
Not only is the stuff like putting glue and tree sap in your engine, thus creating immense resistance, excessive/added pressure in the wrong way, and not being likely to make it to all the small places it needs to lubricate, but even when it does make it into the smaller places .... it produces air bubbles as it is moved around. In other words .... it produces places in the engine that should be lubricated but are actually bone dry minus very little residue from anything that WAS there before.
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/images/lucas/lucas.htm
When looking at oil additives, make sure the stuff has a consistency more like oil and will actually lubricate. You want something that would flow through a small straw very quickly, barely slower than water, but certainly not like glue or tree sap. Also, attempt to "lather it up" in your hands like soap, but putting it on your hands and rubbing your hands quickly like you are trying to warm them with friction ... to see if the additive produces air bubbles. You don't want something that will produce air bubbles.
You want the engine to run with as little resiatance as possible and be lubricated in every small little crack as best as possible. You also want to be able to drain all of the stuff in the engine when you should/need to. You'll be lucky if you get half of the Lucas you put in to drain as much of it will stick itself all over various parts and stay there. SeaFoam in the crankcase and sucked in a vacuum line via the intake manifold may help get it out. I suggest you do that ASAP.
I suggest that you follow my SeaFoam etc clean, tune up and restore steps here
(
http://forums.maxima.org/showpost.ph...0&postcount=24 ,
http://forums.maxima.org/showpost.ph...9&postcount=30 ), and try some 10-40 or 15-50 Mobile 1 Synthetic with Engine Restore AFTER you do all the steps and drain the crank-case and change the oil filter. If it doesn't make your engine run better and you have large noises of metal on metal coming from your engine, your screwed because the engine internals are overly damaged for other reasons and you might try to bandaid it with some Lucas for a while but you'll need to rebuild the internals (or some of them) or swap a better engine shortly.
The only engine additive that I suggest anyone use, other than only CLEANING with very low mileage use (maybe 25-45 miles max) SeaFoam, is Engine Restore.
http://www.restoreusa.com/
You can buy it at most auto parts stores.
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http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/-521...glepost11.html
"I have used restore on a couple of high mileage motors. It worked just fine. On a slant 6 I had between 90 and 130 for compression readings and after I got 125+ on all cylinders.
It will not restore leaky gaskets or help knocking rods, or extreme oil burners. .."
(
The stuff that does {plug leaks, help knocking rods etc} is generally bad for the engine because it is like glue. If you have a leak or broken internals, replace the parts if you can and if you don't want to create more problems.)
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http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/-523...glepost19.html
"My senior year in highschool, I did an "experiment" for a 4-H project to see whether or not some of these so-called snake oil additives did any good. I took a well used 3.5hp briggs motor, pulled it apart and photographed both the cylinder walls and piston skirts. I also measured compression, and did a "seat of my pants" power feeling on my old go-cart. I poured in a measured amount of Engine Restore, keeping engine restore/engine oil ratios the same. I ran the engine for 40 (I figured 2000 miles for a conservative oil change, 2000 miles/60 mph average= 40 hours.) hours at varying RPMs, shut it down and did compression tests again. It had jumped amazingly, and I changed oil, added the same amount of engine restore, and repeated the 40 hour engine run. I measure compression, more increase was noted, and I put the engine back on the old go-cart. Even for a small 3.5hp briggs, I noticed an increase in power. To not be biased, I used a friend who did not know about the test, and he noted the increase in performance as well. Again I disassembled the engine, photographed the cylinder walls and piston skirts again, and they were also notable smoother. Though I understand that a small Briggs engine is much different that a small block in size and strength, the components are similar as is the general function. I received a blue ribbon at the state fair, and have become a believer of the stuff."
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Originally Posted by crazy4maxima
First thing that i noticed is that the comparison of the old bosch filter and the yoyo filter size is almost half. I was worried about the size, but since I trust the org i gave it a wirle. Got everything together, and started her up, after 5 minutes, the engine quieted almost 60% of the noise the engine used to make. What a difference.
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Not unusual with Lucas, but Lucas is not good for your engine. It will bandaid problems for a bit, and cause a lot of problems as time goes on.
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Originally Posted by crazy4maxima
Now i got to see what she sounds like after a few 100 miles. Well just some feed back.
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I wouldn't even drive it more than 50 miles (maybe 5 miles) with Lucas, if I wanted to do it at all. I'd try my SeaFoam etc clean, tune up and restore steps here ASAP
(
http://forums.maxima.org/showpost.ph...0&postcount=24 ,
http://forums.maxima.org/showpost.ph...9&postcount=30 ), and try some 10-40 or 15-50 Mobile 1 Synthetic with Engine Restore AFTER you do all the steps and drain the crank-case and change the oil filter. And hope for the best. Replace gaskets and parts if necessary, instead of adding glue and tree sap.
Interested in your feedback/update.
Just trying to help.
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