I was interested in the the claims made by LuBoron on its Boric acid based additives. The literature looks impressive but does anyone have any experience using this additive that they would like to share?

A. There is a SAE paper about treat rates with boron based EP additives somewhere, I can try to track it down, but as I recall, the concentration had to be between 1 and 2% by weight to avoid increased wear on the 4 ball test. Without an oil analysis, its hard to tell exactly how concentrated this product is.

B. I poked around on LuBoron's website quite a bit and was generally unimpressed. The 90% wear reduction claim is hillarious, I expected them to advertise herbal impotency treatments! The only relevant independant test I saw was the 4-ball wear, where they used Valvoline (weakest additive package of the common SL oils, espicially with regards to Boron.) I would have been VERY interested to see what treat rate they were using...and more so to see what happens when they put their additive in an oil with high boron additives already, like Mobil 1, or espicially Delvac 1.

C. Boron based additives DO work, and are commonly added to engine oils to replace tradional EP adds that had converter poisoning potential. However, Boron, more than most additives (for example ZDDP, Moly, etc) has to be carefully balanced (among other things it alters TBN). Given the lack of more evidence, specifically a good spectro analysis of a virgin sample of Luboron, the jury is still out in my mind as to this particular product.