Prolong

Paul · 04-13-04, 01:19 PM

I am curious we see the adverts for Prolong in South Africa where they run a vehicle for great distances with no oil and just Prolong for protection. I have used it and it does not seem to do any harm and the engine revs pick up indicating lower friction but will it do what the adverts claim?

Bill Bayard · 04-13-04, 01:38 PM

Paul,
Less friction, means lower heat, which means longer engine life. It sounds as though you have already proven some of the manufacturer's claimed test results.
You could always pull your oil drain plug, just to be sure. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]
Do let us know what happens, if and when you go down that route! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]
I'd be very curious to know by how much your RPM's
changed???? The ads for this stuff seem almost too good to be true!

Bill

Lynn · 04-13-04, 06:02 PM

The only down side that I have heard about these kind of treatments, Prolong, Slick 50, etc, etc. is that when it comes time to rebuild an engine (which might be a while), it is almost impossible to get a good cross hatch hone on the cylinders. The end result of this is that the rings never seat right and they tend to run low compession and burn oil.

So you are almost forced into boring them to get through the teflon or teflon-like deposits on the walls.

Regards,
Lynn

Rick Muck- Mark IV · 04-13-04, 07:31 PM

I also liked the one years ago where they ran the motor with no oil and showed how quiet it ran.......an engine with HYDRAULIC lifters!!!! Think about that one...

Rick [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]

Bill Musarra · 04-13-04, 10:23 PM

I would stay away from any of the teflon products. They have a habit of depositing the teflon everywhere and they build up like sludge. Over time you can guess what happens. I have seen the adds. The craziest one was one where they dumped the oil, even dropped the oil pan and the engine continued to run, even when they sprayed water up into the runnig engine.
I met the inventor of Petron Plus an industrial lubricant. The test they ran compared the other lubricants to their product and it was very impressive to say the least. One of the test showed how corrosive some of these additives are over time. The most impressive test was a bearing put under load and the amount of force required to make it fail (squeal). Most products like slick 50 and others failed with about 15 ft. lbs of force but the Pertron didn't fail regardless of the force aplied, somewhere around 100 I believe. My numbers are probably off, as that was years ago. They recruited me to use their product in my Lotus. The national distributor and I were friends.
Bill

Paul · 04-14-04, 01:52 AM

Thanks for the comments just wanted to find out if the claims were true e.g. no oil and driving across America. I am wary about extraordinary claims as in the past I have bought the product and found that it does not quite live up to the hyp. The engine I tried it on some time ago was a V6 ford engine in a jet boat and the revs picked up by about 50rpm if my memory serves me well.
I do not intend to use it in the GT as I am using Stilko filtration system with filters like toilet rolls which do work as I used them on a 1400 Nissan for over a 100000 Km not changing the oil just the filters every 5000 km never burnt oil.

Tony Hunt · 04-14-04, 06:38 AM

I remember similar claims for molybdenum disulphide in the 60s. I put Addi Mix into a newly rebuilt engine and couldn't understand why it kept tightening up! Ordinary oil allowed the engine to run-in normally, after which it was fine.
These miracle additives protect bearing surfaces by the sounds of it, but what about the other essential function of oil, which is the distribution of heat around and away from the bearings?
I would find it hard to believe that an engine would be able to function normally without oil to carry the heat away. Perhaps that's why they sprayed water up into it!

**jimbo** · 04-14-04, 09:32 AM

What always kills me about these ads for these products is that oil changes are so cheap. I could more easily understand the rationale for these add-ons if it cost a lot of money to change the oil, but it doesn't. I get excellent engine life just by doing oil changes every 3000 miles, or by time in service on my cars which don't get run a lot. (twice yearly). My record so far is one Mercedes diesel, which ran 250,000 miles for me and didn't need an overhaul when I gave it away with a total of 330,000 on it. What's the point in putting an additive in, if you get good performance, excellent wear, and good cooling with regular oil changes? I don't even run them in my marine engines- and they take 27 quarts of oil EACH- twice a year, some years.

Paul · 04-14-04, 02:07 PM

Jim you are quite right the cost of an oil change over the cost of a engine ovehaul does not compute.