1994 Buick Estate Wagon 350 c.i.d.

[Guest]

Can anyone tell me if my Dad's 350 c.i.d. Buick wagon, that has 115,00 miles on it, and currently runs like a top, would (after a suggestion to do so) run better and longer with the additive "Slick 50" or not ?????. I have been told that this stuff is a teflon particle additive that may clog the oil filter, and may do more harm than not.

[NTX5467]

Slick50 or any of the other similar additives will typically have no benefits worthy of their extra time and expense to use. Initially, Teflon in motor oil additives was not approved by DuPont and those additives were taken off of the market to return about 10 years later.

I put it in one higher mileage car with no extra fuel savings at all. It did seem like it ran a little smoother, but then using some synthetic blend oil will probably do the same thing. In other words, my experiment didn't really hurt anything other than my finances.

There are also some test results floating around that it actually accelerates wear and puts more metal into the motor oil, but that sounds a little far fetched--all things considered.

Some additives talk about most of the engine's wear taking place during the fist few minutes of use, after sitting overnight or longer. This is accurate, but using a 5W-30 motor oil will help get the oil into the motor faster in those situations anyway.

The only real friction reducing additive that has any real chance of working is "moly" (molybdenum?) as it reduces friction AND embeds itself into the metal friction surfaces where the wear will take place. If it didn't work well, Ford would not spec its wheel bearing grease with it and it was the basis of the longer chassis lube intervals which Ford pioneered in the early '60s. Finding a moly-fortified motor oil is dang near impossible as is finding a moly additive that will not be filtered out by the oil filter. In theory, as it embeds itself in the friction surface and is not a topical coating (as the Teflon is), it would be prefereable over any Teflon additive.

End result is that there is no magic bullet to stop engine wear/decrease friction/significantly increase fuel economy other than regular maintenance and using a top quality motor oil (multi-viscosity, i.e., 5W-30 or 10W-30) with high quality (at least OEM quality level) air and oil filters.

Just some observations . . .

NTX5467