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Reply to "What's the best oil additive on the market?"

Not to sound like an ingrate, but I don't have the equipment or the time to test an additive rigorously for fun. I can suggest to you how to convince me of its merits:

The timken test that you did comparing it to lucas is interesting, but not horribly impressive alone. It is fairly well accepted that timken tests, and the 4 ball wear scar test show interesting things, but do not necessarily illustrate what will happen to a lubricant in an engine. The tests are in fact much more useful for greases and similar lubes that are not exposed to combustion byproducts and temps. An example of this would be the Teflon based snake oils which perform well on the Timken, and even cut some friction inside the engine, but at the price of greatly increased wear, and a risk of clogged passages and filters.

Obviously, your firm will consider the exact composition of the additive secret, but you could at least tell me what I could learn from getting a standard specro analysis of a virgin sample. Everything that you have to disclose on an MSDS sheet, you might as well tell me also.

I'd be curious as to the effect on the anti-foam characteriestics of the base oil. The link I mentioned earlier may give an idea of how to test that:

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/images/lucas/lucas.htm


Obviously, you also need to check for how your additive alters the other physical properties of the base oil: Cold Cranking Simulator, Flash Point, TBN, TAN, viscosity, etc.


Finally, if it checks off on all of those, you need to run a controled test, preferably thrid party via a university or similar on test engines. Even a series of Briggs lawnmower engines will be a start, but in the big picture, you'll need to test across an statistically significant number of cars or trucks in the same driving conditions, such as Taxi cabs, rental cars, etc. To be convincing to hard core skeptics like me, you should ideally have the tests done by a third party. At the minimum, they need to be double blind tests where neither the mechanic nor the drivers know which cars are recieving the additive. (You'd have to premix the oil for this).


Finally, if you have any questions, ask them! I eagerly await more information from you.
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