Teflon - Slick50 - Synlube + Oils & Additives

[JanGeo]

This was back a ways like 1985 I think - I did it soon after I bought the bike used from a friend and it took a while to finally get it back together. Had to replace all the bearings as some were not properly installed at the factory etc.

The cost is a matter of how many parts you treat but somewhere around $190 was what I remember. They have prices for standard parts and with small parts they sort of throw them all together. It may have to do with the amount of gas asorbed and if you want buildup on the surface or not. Yeah they can build up the surface with the teflon coating. The big thing was the shifter cam and forks which now slide even without lubrication and the process virtually eliminates corrosion on the treated surfaces so it sitting for a few years will not bother the parts - hopefully the bearings do as well.

The place I sent them to was in Newport Delaware called Impreglon if my memory still works - but a google finds them all over the world now.

[JanGeo]

Yeah that was the claim to fame that it continues to protect even without the oil present because it burnishes the PTFE into the metal where ever two surfaces rub together. Great for those cold starts when the oil has drained off.

[JanGeo]

Oh great - just read more theories about how harmful the PTFE is to the engine because it can block lubrication to the piston rings. Maybe that is why they don't recommend adding it to a new motor - wants some wear to increase oil flow . . . I imagine that the PTFE and Moly in Tufoil could do the same thing . . . will not clog filters.... cost of additives if added every 5000 mile oil change requires about a 1 mpg increase in mileage to break even on the cost at my current 40 mpg. Gas is presently costing $0.05 per mile additive $0.0024 per mile using $12 of oil additive per oil change.

[JanGeo]

Well I get to park in a heated garage this Friday night so in goes the Slick 50 Tranny treatment!!

[JanGeo]

I have one pretty big ultrasonic cleaner and it holds a lot of liquid, almost a quart. I used it last night to mix up the some old original Slick50 Gear lube that has been sitting around for a decade or more - probably closer to 20 years - and added 8oz to my xB tranny last night of pretty concentrated white sediment - there was almost an
1/8 of an inch on the bottom of the 3/4 full can that had settled
out over the years. The stuff still smells good not rancid at all. Now the warm weather is here also - so time to put some miles on the xB and get the PTFE moving around.

[JanGeo]

Ok guys and any gals here - It's a nice 55 degree day here in RI and I just ran a few errands - average for the day including some hot dogging initially 43.3mpg - last leg of trip 34.5 miles 49.3MPG . . . yah think maybe the Slick50 works? ? ? And I even turned on the AC a few times - nice cool breeze really quick too!

[SVOboy]

Have you done any straight up highway that you can use to do a real comparison?

[SVOboy]

Doblepost.

[XFi]

Just got back from surfing for info on Xcelplus and Teflon related additives. Checked out the Xcelplus web site and WAS SOLD! (not really, had to check a few more sources 1st). Found an archived article and wanted to share some of what was written...

Make your own conclusions, but I don't know if I want to chance an expensive oiling concern. It's a shame, I guess I STILL want to believe in an additive that will do what is claimed.

If anyone has heard/read/experienced any other info in regards to this please post. Thanks
[quote]…”The problem with putting PTFE in your oil, as explained to us by several industry experts, is that PTFE is a solid. The additive makers claim this solid "coats" the moving parts in an engine (though that is far from being scientifically proven). Slick 50 is currently both the most aggressive advertiser and the most popular seller, with claims of over 14 million treatments sold. However, such solids seem even more inclined to coat non-moving parts, like oil passages and filters. After all, if it can build up under the pressures and friction exerted on a cylinder wall, then it stands to reason it should build up even better in places with low pressures and virtually no friction.
This conclusion seems to be borne out by tests on oil additives containing PTFE conducted by the NASA Lewis Research Center, which said in their report, "In the types of bearing surface contact we have looked at, we have seen no benefit. In some cases we have seen detrimental effect. The solids in the oil tend to accumulate at inlets and act as a dam, which simply blocks the oil from entering. Instead of helping, it is actually depriving parts of lubricant."

[JanGeo]

Well looking at it that way you would think it would be a problem but that depends upon the size of the PTFE and how well it is suspended in the oil. As I have seen it does separate out after time. I also heard from by friend in PA that a neighbor used a lot of it in a car engine and the oil pan got coated with it. My brother says that some will get stuck in the filter but most filters are not that fine a trap and most should continue to circulate. As far as clogging rings and oil passages there is a lot of pressure moving that stuff around upwards of 100 psi in a Scion engine from what I hear and there really is not a lot of the PTFE in it. As the gear treatment goes I put 8oz of Slick50 gear treatment into 1.9 quarts of gear lube so it gets diluted. There are no oil pumps in my manual transmission as far as I know anyway. Another thing is that PTFE melts at a very high temperature - a little higher than aluminum. Now if you get a piston ring moving so fast that it get hot enough to melt PTFE into the cylinder wall then . . . humm. Or maybe it gets rubbed into the micro grain of the metal. All I know is that I get better mileage.