Teflon oil additive

brien23

brien23

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what ever happened to the teflon oil additive. How many still use it in their aircraft engine,what is the good or the bad of Polytetrafluoroethylene?

 
Despite the hype of people marketing it, the general consensus was that inventor DuPont was right, PTFE has no business inside any sort of engine, aviation or automobile. Oil does a better job of lubrication and it doesn't plug up the small lubricant galleys like PTFE.
 
brien23 said:
what ever happened to the teflon oil additive. How many still use it in their aircraft engine,what is the good or the bad of Polytetrafluoroethylene?
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I'm sure that it's still available.

I'm sure that at least some people still add it to their aircraft engine.

The good is that it works well as a non-stick coating on your pans, it makes nice "pipe dope" and even dental floss, and it's the base material in Goretex (tm).

The bad is that, at best, at the very best, it does nothing in your engine.
 
Dupont tried to enjoin Slick 50 and the other snake oil vendors from using Teflon in their products (unsuccessfully). Slick 50 (well Quaker State) however got a major setback when the FTC took substantial action against them for unsubstantiated and false advertising claims.

The main Slick 50 products no longer contains PTFE. They're pretty much just a higher grade synthetic oil (that's a whole another can of worms). They have a little in their high mileage restore product.

The problem with PTFE is that while it coats the moving parts, it also coats things that don't move like the oil galleys. It's not been shown that this coating on the moving parts did anything to improve the situation over straight oil. You can dig up a number of studies showing this both in aviation and automotive use. The best one I read was from one of the motorcycle groups.
 
flyingron said:
Dupont tried to enjoin Slick 50 and the other snake oil vendors from using Teflon in their products (unsuccessfully). Slick 50 (well Quaker State) however got a major setback when the FTC took substantial action against them for unsubstantiated and false advertising claims.

The main Slick 50 products no longer contains PTFE. They're pretty much just a higher grade synthetic oil (that's a whole another can of worms). They have a little in their high mileage restore product.

The problem with PTFE is that while it coats the moving parts, it also coats things that don't move like the oil galleys. It's not been shown that this coating on the moving parts did anything to improve the situation over straight oil. You can dig up a number of studies showing this both in aviation and automotive use. The best one I read was from one of the motorcycle groups.
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Didn't they have a TV ad where they drove a car 50 miles with no oil in the engine? :lol:
 
Almost every demonstration they had could have been done with regular oil as well. PTFE really contributed nothing over a good oil.
 
Ok.... This is gonna be a very long story that is is perfect for this topic..

Long ago, in my previous life in central Fla, I had a dyno and engine R&D business.. I catered to high end racers, top engine builders and prominent street rod owners/builders... I can't recall the exact date but it would have been in the mid 80's ,but an "oil additive" company approached me to rent my facilities to film a commercial for their product...

The price was agreed on and a date was set and I blocked 3 days either side in case the video crew needed additional shots/cuts... I will not name names but it was a MAJOR player in the "oil additive" market at the time.... They showed up with their " demo" engine and proceeded to bolt it up in my dyno rig, attach all my sensors and a host of other ones they brought to document their " magic oil additive"..

The plan was to film the entire sequence of warm up and when it got to 190f water temp they would pull the oil pan off and proceed to make a full power run with the pan off while the camera was running.... So, we get the motor up to temp and they drain the oil and pull the pan.. My first inkling that a scam was in progress was the oil that attempted to run out of the drain plug was as thick as molasses, and the motor was at about 200f by now....

Hmmmmmmm..

Well, as a " curious" professional engine builder I wandered into the dyno cell and glanced up into the bottom end of this advertised " standard" racing engine... I could clearly see the rod bearings were NOT stock Clevite bearings but that they were caged needle bearings.... Then I looked ALOT closer and the main bearings were roller too, and so were the cam bearings.. At that stage I pulled the video producer and the company rep aside and firmly asked .. WTF ?? It was then they admitted they had built up a full roller motor that, once it was fully oiled with VERY thick lubricant, it could run for a few seconds without oil pressure and not saw itself apart but it would last long enough to " get the shot"... IMHO. These con artists had invested a TON of cash into this ringer motor to fool the public who would view this mini documentary and convince them to buy their product..

Long story short.... I told them FLAT out to get their motor and a$$es out of my shop ASAP... And that was not fast enough... In less then 30 minutes the motor was off the dyno, the cameras were all packed up and they were gone.. As they left my driveway I told them to NEVER use my good name in their scam... About a year later my wife and I were watching the Nashville network late one night and what comes on...:confused:..

Apparently they approached another company that had an in house dyno and fell for their BS and let them film in their shop.. Same motor, same guys, same sensors ,and as predicted they did a full power run with the pan off to show off their magic snake oil.. We looked at each other laughed till we cried....

Moral of the story.... PT Barnum is right.. There is a fool born every minute..


Now back to your regular scheduled programming of (Teflon oil additive)..:D
 
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N801BH said:
Ok.... This is gonna be a very long story that is is perfect for this topic..

Long ago, in my previous life in central Fla, I had a dyno and engine R&D business.. I catered to high end racers, top engine builders and prominent street rod owners/builders... I can't recall the exact date but it would have been in the mid 80's ,but an "oil additive" company approached me to rent my facilities to film a commercial for their product...

The price was agreed on and a date was set and I blocked 3 days either side in case the video crew needed additional shots/cuts... I will not name names but it was a MAJOR player in the "oil additive" market at the time.... They showed up with their " demo" engine and proceeded to bolt it up in my dyno rig, attach all my sensors and a host of other ones they brought to document their " magic oil additive"..

The plan was to film the entire sequence of warm up and when it got to 190f water temp they would pull the oil pan off and proceed to make a full power run with the pan off while the camera was running.... So, we get the motor up to temp and they drain the oil and pull the pan.. My first inkling that a scam was in progress was the oil that attempted to run out of the drain plug was as thick as molasses, and the motor was at about 200f by now....

Hmmmmmmm..

Well, as a " curious" professional engine builder I wandered into the dyno cell and glanced up into the bottom end of this advertised " standard" racing engine... I could clearly see the rod bearings were NOT stock Clevite bearings but that they were caged needle bearings.... Then I looked ALOT closer and the main bearings were roller too, and so were the cam bearings.. At that stage I pulled the video producer and the company rep aside and firmly asked .. WTF ?? It was then they admitted they had built up a full roller motor that, once it was fully oiled with VERY thick lubricant, it could run for a few seconds without oil pressure and not saw itself apart but it would last long enough to " get the shot"... IMHO. These con artists had invested a TON of cash into this ringer motor to fool the public who would view this mini documentary and convince them to buy their product..

Long story short.... I told them FLAT out to get their motor and a$$es out of my shop ASAP... And that was not fast enough... In less then 30 minutes the motor was off the dyno, the cameras were all packed up and they were gone.. As they left my driveway I told them to NEVER use my good name in their scam... About a year later my wife and I were watching the Nashville network late one night and what comes on...:confused:..

Apparently they approached another compney that had an in house dyno and fell for their BS and let them film in their shop.. Same motor, same guys, same sensors ,and as predicted they did a full power run with the pan off to show off their magic snake oil.. We looked at each other laughed till we cried....

Moral of the story.... PT Barnum is right.. There is a fool born every minute..


Now back to your regular scheduled programming of (Teflon oil additive)..:D
Click to expand...

Wouldn't surprise me one bit if Slick 50 pulled that.
 
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