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bitten experience by various snake oils

871 views 8 replies 7 participants last post by  jftu105 
#1 · (Edited)
The mere mentioning of snake oils on this forum is like questioning global warming, one would be severely condemned. What the heck, I will comment on this anyway.

There are tons of snake oils, in various forms and shapes, just like all the cosmetics in a duty free shop, promising to keep you or your significant others young and pretty. Of course, if these claims are true, there would be no aging Hollywood stars.

OK, I will share my experience below, good and bad and ugly.

1. Engine oil stop leak. I tried many, none of them really worked. For my Volvo 240, 1993, which I sold, the main seal was leaking so badly. The main seal stop leak did absolutely nothing. Tried Liquid Molly's oil saver, not much effect either. Also tried Bar's stop leak, which is about $3 to $4 a bottle at Walmart. It seems to slow down my oil into coolant problem a bit, not entirely but less. This stuff typically softens and expands the hardened rubber seal. However, I doubt the hardening of rubber seal is reversible.

2. Fuel injector cleaners. Tried a few times such as ATP and Seaform once. Could not tell if they really help at all. I do burn premium gasoline every 3 tanks or so. Typically, I use 89, which is a mix of 87 and 93 at BP.

3. Engine oil treatment. The only I tried and have faith is Liquid Molly's MOS2. This is a form of solid lubricant in nanoparticle sizes. It stays on the cylinder wall over night and helps to reduce wear at the first start in the morning. I trust this one.

There are many truly snake oils in this category, such as slick 50, with teflon. Totally waste of money in my opinion. Liquid Molly also produce something called ceramic coating. I don't believe it would work. To achieve the bonding of any coating to cylinder wall within the engine oil is impossible in my opinion.

Never tried any other products which claim to reduce oil burning and increase engine power.

4. Transmission fluid treatment. Tried something which claimed to reduce shuddering of the transmission, such as those from Lucas and Lube Gard. Not sure if any of them worked. Now, I don't try any of those things. I simply replace transmission fluid with Dexron VI and be happy.

Never tried any transmission stop leak.

5. Head gasket repair. This is the most controversial of all and most expensive, such as $60 from BlueDevil or $12 from Prestone, and many others with prices in between.

Tried a few bottles of these head gasket repair thing, costing about $25 a bottle, four years back when I started to battle my "blown" head gasket problem with oil into the coolant. None of them worked. Most of them are liquid glass with some particles. Never tried BlueDevil's expensive stuff but in its Q&A, it specifically stated that it cannot cure oil into coolant problem. I can see why. Every time when oil is involved, the bonding is suspicious.

Now fast forward four years, my engine head gasket is developing new symptoms with coolant now leaking into the combustion chamber to cause mysterious coolant leak and poor idling. I was fully resigned to the fact that my engine has run out of its borrowed time. Then, I decided to give those head gasket repair another try because oil is not involved in this case.

At Walmart, they sell something fancy with nanoparticles for $27 a bottle and this $12.00 bottle from Prestone. I read the labels and the one from Prestone contains kevlar fibers, liquid silica (glass), and some hardeners. Therefore, I will take the risk of wasting $12 and I like the kevlar fibers. Well, it worked beyond my imagination. Within two minutes after I poured the stuff in, the engine quieted down and the leak stopped. Now, 100 miles later, the engine is still quiet and tight and no more coolant leak. Just like magic. I am fully aware that this fix could be a Monster drink fix, giving you a temporary high and the crash is just around the corner. I don't care because it buys me time to find a good car as my DD replacement. I will do a full head gasket replacement once I find one.

In my opinion, the reason it works, at least for now, is the kevlar fibers. This is similar to Slime used in tire repair. The Slime thing contains fibers and some fluids. At the leaking spot, it blocks the passage, forming a temporary plug. It would continue to leak out and block, providing temporary fix until you can get the tire fixed properly, if it is fixable.

6. Last but not the least, AC stop leak. I actually used this thing at least twice and both times it worked. It is called SuperSeal which you can buy in any autoparts store or Walmart. This thing stays liquid but hardens once it encounters moisture. The principle is that at the leaking spot of the AC system, the throttling effect will cause a local cooling and condensation, or sweating. This SuperSeal stuff when comes out will forms a bond to block the leakage. I used it on two of my E320, for which one was sold and one's AC still going strong after four years. One downside is that you must remove the moisture inside your AC first or you could run the risk of blocking the orifice or destroying the compressor. It happened to my cars after the treatment but it is still better than the cost and labor to replace the evaporator.

7. Radiator stop leak. Tried a bottle when I was desperate with water streaming down at the bottom of the radiator. A $9 bottle from Bar's got me home over 80 miles. I then replaced the radiator as PROPER repair.


OK, I said it. Let the fun begin.

jftu105
 
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#3 ·
FWIW, Volvo recommended replacing the front crankshaft and camshaft seals on the B230F (ubiquitous 'swedish brick' 2.3L 4-banger used on 240, 740, 940) every other timing belt change... 60K per belt, gives 120,000 miles per seals. most folks suggest if you used good (real Volvo) seals, you can go 3 belts, or 180K miles per seals. rear crank seal s/b changed when you R&R the transmission or clutch, the automatics typically go at least 250K on these before they start to slip a little.
 
#4 ·
Would like to know the name of the Prestone nano partical , and kevalar .
I have a leak , but to were its going i dont know . The car has had water problems for three years .First it was the little plastic elbow on the radiator .Then the water pump .Soon after that, a trip to our local car show, and the auxilary pump went down. Then the O ring , on rear of engine at the lifting eye . And i still have coolant loss now . I was thinking that as the heater was set to cold would this stop water circulating the heater box?. If so my latest coolant loss may be as i turned on the heater to hot, Never used the hot possition in the car before .And it may have taken water in, and giving a low reading on the expansion bottle . Could it be true or am i just kidding my self .
 
#5 ·
only product I use on a consistent basis is HEET (Red Bottle)
in my opinion, it helps to prevent frozen fuel lines.
I tried the yellow bottle- it didn't help.
Good preventive maintenance in colder temperatures
 
#6 ·
The hot coolant from M104 comes out at the rear, driver side of the engine, via the heater pipe and the hose into the heater core. On the passenger side, in front of the battery, you will find the check valve and heater flow pump. Even if you shut the heater, the heater core is still filled with the coolant, although you don't get a flow to provide heat. In my opinion, unless you block the hose into the heater core, coolant can still leak through the heater core even if you unplug the connectors to the heater pump and valve.

The Prestone head gasket repair bottle I used could be found through googling. You can also find some information on youtube. I believe Prestone produces three kinds of bottles for various repairs. Walmart carries only one kind for the head gasket. It has kelvar fibers on top cap, and a blue fluid in the middle tube and clear fluid on the outside tube. Nice cool design. It works for me so far but no guaranty for others. I have driven over 100 miles since the repair and the engine is so smooth that I am afraid it might not last. Too good to be true, it seems. Only time will tell.

jftu105
 
#9 · (Edited)
Just like dietary supplements, many of these snake oils have no obvious benefits. Some people believe in them and use them religiously.

Some of them could be like essential vitamins. The only non-repair snake oil I use regularly is Liquid Molly MOS2. I probably can do without but, with it, my engine won't shake too much when it starts first time after parked for a long period of time.

In the same token, some people believe in extremely expensive transmission fluid or coolant or engine oil, such as those from Royal Purple, Genuine Mercedes, etc. These are python oils.

jftu105
 
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