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Is it really worth using

J Hamilton

J Hamilton

Well-known Member
Location
Southern Illinois
Lucas engine oil additive, does it really do any good and worth it or is it just another miracle snake oil band aid to cover up a real problem? It seems to be similar to the Slick 50 from years ago, I haven't seen or heard anything about that stuff in a long time. With all the talk about how great todays oils are with the full synthetic and synthetic blend variations in oil weights that seem very thin, then to add stuff that looks thick as 140W gear oil to it. I do understand it will dilute some when it mixes with the oil, but wouldn't it make the overall oil consistency thicker than grade of oil that was used?
 
The only thing its ever done for me is reduced the fuel mileage increased the oil pressure and it burns off really quick. I have used it a time or two in rear ends or transmission to help stop a leak Or quire it down a bit . I wouldnt dump it in an engine. Had a Kawasaki loader at the feedlot that would burn a gallon of oil a day tried lucas in it then it burnt two gallon a day poor loader only had about 4000 hours on it
 
STP, Krex, Steed, Slick 50, Bardahl, Rislone. They probably all do something, just not much for the money. I tried the Arco graphite oil when it came out in a Plymouth and my Scout. After a couple of weeks started getting oil light on at idle then to where it came on at 30. I put a gauge in place of the sending units and both had real good pressure. I stopped using it and after a few weeks the oil light problem cleared up.
 
Back in high school we called STP oil treatment, the motor job in a can . If your old car had low oil pressure, and the idiot light was always on, a can or two of that corn syrup would turn off the oil light. And quiet the engine down for a week or two, also cut down the blue haze from the tail pipe. Didnt prolong engine life, just made the oil thicker.
 
We bought a 2016 Traverse used in July of 17 with 48,000 miles. Thing sucked oil, but not until 750 miles after a change. One winter it was down to a quart every 1400 miles. I changed it myself that time and put in Lucas oil treatment for synthetic. Raised it to a quart in 2400. After 2 changes, without using additive, it has stayed consistent. No idea why, but seems to have done something! BTW, Chevy says a quart in 2000 is normal!
 
On 'You Tube', there's a place called 'Project Farm' where a fellow tests all sorts of things. Reminds me of a shop teacher and he's honest, not a 'blow hard' like Scotty Kilmer'.
 
I am enjoying reading the responses. Lucas additive. I suppose your results may depend upon what action you are attempting to correct?
Slick 50? Yeah, I have a spray can of that around here somewhere. How old is it? Duunno. If I bought it, it was due to the only thing being available at the time. I did see Slick 50 work on one engine. I suppose if you added it every time, the results would have been consistent.
However it was advertised as a lifetime treatment and it was not.
Lucas does not have the same claim to fame as did Slick 50.
Nor the Split Fire spark plugs. I used to make those for customers. You can make your own if you desire.
However, the best designed spark plug is currently patented by Bosch and is not being sold or even in production.
Another story for another day.
 
If you use good oil and a good filter, you don't need anything else.

You are, of course, free to waste your money any way you choose.
 
Funny that you should mention Kilmer and Project Farm. I have looked at both of them from time to time.

I totally agree about Kilmer being a blowhard. He continually brags about how long he has been a mechanic. Not necessarily a GOOD mechanic, but nevertheless a mechanic. I spotted quite a few bits of misinformation that he has handed out. I notice that I haven't seen much of him lately.

Project Farm seems a bit amateurish to me. I just don't see the similarity of an air cooled lawn mower engine to a real automobile engine.
 
Anyone else think that all the Lucas products are the same thing, just different bottles?

I know when I put Lucas injector cleaner in the gas in my truck I get a 1MPG improvement for that tank. However it does not pay to always use Lucas, it's cheaper just to buy the gas.
 
Air cooled lawnmower engines usually don't have an oil pump but do operate under harsher conditions than a thermostat controlled engine with an oil pump pressurizing the bearings. He does measure exhaust temperatures and viscosity and he has a unique way to test various greases for wearability. I saw one of his videos where he added graphite to motor oil and that was worse than the oil alone. I THINK I read that about 'Slick 50', too, not performing as it claims and displacing the actual lubricant with teflon particlesthat shortened engine life.
 
For the "Slick 50" reference, I always assumed that was code for the 50 million they expected to earn peddling that stuff. Never tried it myself--plain old motor oil kept my tired, worn-out engines going until I had to face the cold, hard truth. Gerrit
 


J Hamilton, I see that you are a "newby" lowly "tractor expert". In order to get promoted to coveted "tractor Guru" status you need to adopt the attitude of "all additives are snake oil" now repeat after me: "all additives are snake oil", "all additives are snake oil", "all additives are snake oil". Yes, you can do it!
 
I will say this I have never been a advocate of oil additives or snake oils but here is one place and my 10 year or so experience. The gear box on KUBOTA front deck mowers is well built if anything over built. However at 800/1000 hr we were seeing bearing failure and like some cutters lower seals going. We started adding about 4 ounces of Lucas oil treatment to the boxes when they came in the shop. Operating temperatures dropped quite a bit and bearing failure was quite a bit less. Now part of that probably was the stuff prolonged that lower seal leak but overall it certainly helped. Again just my experience and I do not use it in any engine but gearboxes I think it might help.
 


Lucas products have worked for me, especially their transmission stuff. The engine additive will help quiet worn engines. I think it's the best of the additives out there. But using an additive isn't always the right choice, you have to think it through.
 
Oil treatments, whatever name they were sold under, had their place back in the day.

They would quiet failing lifters (sometimes), and knocking bearings (sometimes), and raise failing oil pressure (sometimes).

But as far as fixing anything, no, it's just buying some time.

The only repair that any of the liquid additives actually do are the ones that soften and swell seals. Those do work to a certain extent. Again it's just buying time.

As for using any oil additive in a modern engine, absolutely not! They are designed to operate with a specific oil for the variable valve timing, and cylinder canceling to work properly. And about all engines are GDI fuel systems, adding anything to the oil can cause intake valve carbon deposits, the last thing you want!
 
Makes great assembly lube, we use it during turbine assembly on the babbit journals, thick film allows turning the rotors without jacking oil.
 
I will say that I have added STP transmission additive to an automatic transmission that was slipping, and drove the car another 25,000 miles. It still drove when I gave up on it, but the body was so rotten, it wasnt safe anymore.
 
Years ago the Ferguson tractor dealer was also the mechanic and a piolet with his own airplane. He told us that in the plane the STP oil aditive would add a onhundred RPM to the engine as to without it and that 100 RPM did make a big difference inhow the plane preformed. At that time it was just him and his wife that handled all the parts business and one part time mechanic. The tack on the plane engine told the story on the RPM'S. And Dad road the same school buss the wife had so that is how long the family kew them.
 
I have never said or claimed to be a
tractor expert by no means, yes I do have
quite a bit of experience repairing and
rebuilding tractors and engines. But there
are a lot of people here who have A LOT more
knowledge, experience and expertise than I
do and I have learned a lot from many people
on here. I was just wondering if the Lucas
snake oils really do that much good because
everywhere you look there is an
advertisement or some form of promotion for
it. They must be selling a lot of their
products to advertise like they do. My
amatuer thoughts on it is, if engines really
had to have these additives wouldn't the oil
makers already put it in the oil? I can see
where the tractor jockeys would love the
claim to fame snake oils to quiet a
rattling, smoking, low oil pressure, oil
leaking jalopy for a quick sale.
 
I use it regularly in engines with lots of hours on them. If it does not have an emission system, the additives are perfect as they replace the moly, zinc, Phosphorous, and other additives that were removed when the catalytic converters came along, especially on HD diesel oil. These additives will actually attack a catalytic converter, coat it, thus rendering it useless. I also add some to gear boxes on shredders, balers and others when I service them. ON the gear boxes you usually see a reduction in heat. On the older engines, less blowby, and quieter in most/some cases and better running and less oil consumption. SO yes, it (lucas) does exactly what it says it does. Their hub oil for trailer bearing has saved me and others several times when a cap came off and running the bearings with no lube. SO again lucas hub oil is famous for floating axle bearings. So, yes I vouch for the lucas products in general.. Their power stg and seal conditioner will reduce, slow down, and in lots of cases stop a minor fluid leak. On new engines... with catalytic converters, NO I dont use it for that as it will probably damage the cat and dpf systems. I have tried the slick 50 and could never see a difference, so I dont have faith in that product. STP oil treatment (from the Studebaker Packard company) was designed to stop an high oil usage problem and yes, it will/does work. ymmv.
 
(quoted from post at 18:10:42 01/13/22) I use it regularly in engines with lots of hours on them. If it does not have an emission system, the additives are perfect as they replace the moly, zinc, Phosphorous, and other additives that were removed when the catalytic converters came along, especially on HD diesel oil. These additives will actually attack a catalytic converter, coat it, thus rendering it useless. I also add some to gear boxes on shredders, balers and others when I service them. ON the gear boxes you usually see a reduction in heat. On the older engines, less blowby, and quieter in most/some cases and better running and less oil consumption. SO yes, it (lucas) does exactly what it says it does. Their hub oil for trailer bearing has saved me and others several times when a cap came off and running the bearings with no lube. SO again lucas hub oil is famous for floating axle bearings. So, yes I vouch for the lucas products in general.. Their power stg and seal conditioner will reduce, slow down, and in lots of cases stop a minor fluid leak. On new engines... with catalytic converters, NO I dont use it for that as it will probably damage the cat and dpf systems. I have tried the slick 50 and could never see a difference, so I dont have faith in that product. STP oil treatment (from the Studebaker Packard company) was designed to stop an high oil usage problem and yes, it will/does work. ymmv.
Click to expand...


Bill, has Lucas published results of controlled tests showing how their oil protects bearings when the lube has leaked out?
 
My current truck is a 2011 1500 Silverado crew cab with the 4.8 and 4 speed. I change oil once a year and never have to add
oil......still within the top of the full range on the DS. Mobil 1 5w-30 as recommended in the owner's manual, no additives. I use
additives in the gas running E10 since it sits quite a bit as I stay around the house mostly now.
 
I used Lucas in the automatic transmission of my daily driver 1993 mercedes car. It helped soften the seals for first gear engiggment at low idle.
At 410 000km, she needed it. No more slippage when pushing throttle very fast right after going into D.


The tranny probably will need a true rebuilt before reaching 500k, but the whole car might be done by then, altough those mercedes seems to always run.
 
Snake oils have a purpose, though it might be small. I don't think lucas oil additive will save an engine or restore life, none will. Another poster mentioned it might buy some more time, that is true. I've witnessed it slow down oil consumption, and minor noises. If additives don't have a place, most oil co's do have high mileage oils too (specific/extra additives) and if you do a virgin or used oil analysis on them they are good/better and do work.

What's funny is some people think oil additives are a sham or waste of money, some of these same people will swear we need to put lubricity additives (anyone's guess of what and how much) in diesel fuel, or whatever else in "x" fluids.....
 
Friction = heat whoda thunk it... I dread working on anything that has lucas in it my wrenches get so slick I cant hold on to'em.

Its rare I use a friction modifier I run a few oz of BG MOA are STP in my mowers. Wynns has a additive in a tube I use to recommend it to go in a Harley transmission it shifted better and took the clunk out of it when shifting.

My take it may keep you from coming up a lap short and get you to the Finnish line.

This post was edited by Hobo,NC on 01/15/2022 at 05:34 pm.
 
ARCO Graphite, I remember that stuff .
I put it in something ( or the Plymouth Volare) I think it was a Datsun 620 truck . My plugs foul out . They had the appearance of they were magnetize with iron filings ,like the picture we would drawing a steel pen, remember that thing for kids .
Any way that truck had other issues with gas in the oil never I figured it out ,( only did it in winter ) drained the arco out, I dont know maybe it was ok , didnt last long .
Neither did
ARCO was Atlantic here , bought a lot of grease and oil from them for the Farm .

Getting back Lucas .
Along with above uses. I sure try in an Farmall MD , that top ring get filled up with Carbon, it might help flush it out. Anyway got to fix the blow buy issue with a ring job.

Lucas I have ask my neighbor ,she works in the lab at Lubrizoil ,they make the additives for engine oils. I would have to see test results , for it.
Anyway no getting around the fact ,got to fix the problem.
 
I tried Lucus in my N14 cummins Had low oil pressure using cheveron oil. Changed oil every 10,000 miles. 30,000 miles later had a piston oiler start to leak pulled it out and was still covered in lucas after two oil changes without. Used it every other oil change after that. Drove that truck 1,288,000 miles before it was rebuilt and only because gaskets were leaking.
 
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