Slick 50. Good or bad?

[warren t claim]

Do any fellow shiters have an opinion on the above product? Either positive or otherwise? Is it worth the money or do you think it does more harm than good.

[Cavcraft]

Used it a few times in the past and never had a problem with it.

[Ratdat]

I've only ever used it once and that was in my 1275 powered Austin A40 years ago. Whether it helped or not is debateable but that engine survived some mega abuse. It survived doing about 7 miles at 70mph with absolutely no oil pressure and later survived being heat seized when it lost all it's coolant on the motorway. I had to strip it apart and prise the rings out of their grooves after that as it had no compression, but the bearing were okay so I banged it back together with no new parts other than a head gasket and it still sounded okay. I later sold the engine for £40 and the chap was still using it four years later.

[r.welfare]

I doubt it will do any harm, whether it is worth the expense for the benefits it brings is another matter, particularly with how oils have moved on into semi and full synthetics since the days of 20w50 mineral stuff when Slick50 was introduced (IIRC they used a Marina 1.8 to show the economy benefits in ads in the 80s!).I've put it in both the 405 and the Accord in the past, but I didn't notice any improvement in smoothness, oil consumption, emissions or fuel economy. The other "benefit" is that your engine won't seize if it runs dry on oil apparently (it's a Teflon-based product that is meant to coat all the engine surfaces), but I've never tested that.My neighbour absolutely swears by it, although he is somewhat prone to mechanical hyperbole (i.e. he tells me he gets 65mpg all day every day out of his 5-pot Audi 100 TDI). Mind you, he has moved on to some QVC-type product called Greased Lightning these days.I wonder if "Ametech Engine Restorer", as promoted by that paragon of independent virtue, Quentin Willson, is another snake-oil type product or actually of some use.

[Rusty Pelican]

Ive used it in the past , no bad results , dont use it in a new non run in donkey though

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I wouldnt bother with it, load of balls IMO

[seth]

Whether it helped or not is debateable but that engine survived some mega abuse.

Similar here although with slightly less abuse. I stuck a bottle in the Oxfords 1622 lump when it was on about 70k miles. Bearing in mind the oil ought to be changed every three thousand miles and it received nothing like that amount of attention, when I took that engine out and had a look at the bearings etc at 122k miles everything was still looking very good indeed.But I know there are articles out there on the web that absolutely slate it as snake oil.

[Des]

My belief is snake oil, better to spend the money on more frequent oil changes, I've put it in cars for others a few times many years ago, and I did think at the time that maybe the engines seemed smoother but that could have been a result of the fresh oil or even placebo effect. I think the oil filter will probably pick up the magic ingredients, hopefully there's not enough to block the bugger, that wouldn't be a great thing.One very harmful additive I remember were engine flushes, rebuilt a few motors in my time, few miles after a service the black cruddy crap that was quite happy coating the engines insides would be dislodged rather than dissolved, and find a new home clagging up the oil pickup in the sump, usually took out the cranks. I recall being regularly pestered by reps from companies like Forte, trying to flog a crate of coke cans with diesel / turps or something for a fiver a can, retail at 20 a pop and watch the money roll in.

[Guest]

Think it's meant to be reasonable at making noisy engines slightly quieter, but that's about it.

[bigstraight6]

I've used 'Restore' in my Zodiac the 5 years that I've owned it, as it was rather smokey and used a bit of oil when I first acquired the car, it does seem to work for me.

[Ratdat]

I expect by now it's somehow been proven that Slick 50 has some kind of beneficial effect, no matter how minimal, otherwise I doubt they'd have been able to sell it for so long with trading standards putting a stop to it. I think it's largely irrelevant to cars much newer than the 70's though, and particularly with modern oils. There's an interesting bit about it here...http://www.skepdic.com/slick50.html

tests done on a Chevy 6 cylinder engine by the University of Utah Engineering Experiment Station found that after treatment with the PTFE additive the test engine's friction was reduced by 13.1 percent, the output horsepower increased from 5.3 percent to 8.1 percent, and fuel economy improved as well. Unfortunately, the same tests concluded that "There was a pressure drop across the oil filter resulting from possible clogging of small passageways." Oil analysis showed that iron contamination doubled after the treatment, indicating that engine wear increased

[Timewaster]

I have used it several times, the first time was in a mini that had done 26k very slow miles at the hands of Fatha Tops. What a difference!Easier reving, quieter, smoother gearchange - Brilliant.Not noticed any discernable difference in anything else.I used it in a GPz 500s when I first serviced it, and due to the shoddy job I had done - it blew a water hose 20 miles from home, on a sunday night, in the days before everyone had a mobile phone.Pissed off, and with a boot half full of hot antifreeze I took the decision to say "F*** it!" and just ride the thing home with no water in it.Next day, hose clip replaced square on the pipe this time and refilled with antifreeze it started and ran fine and did so for the next 6 months untill I sold it.When I told a bloke at work (who lived and breathed motorbikes) his face fell and he said "You did WHAT?!!"He concluded that it was either the Slick50 that saved it, or that I had shown the bike no mercy on the way home and the rush of air cooled it.(Maybe a combination of the two)

[Richard]

Is it Slick 50 that becomes abrasive if the engine overheats?

[garbaldy]

i would never use it again as i once blew the gearbox final drive out off an audi 80 sport after owning the car for a few months i thought i would spend some coin on the car as i really liked it so i gave it the full works and added the slick 50 to the engine and the gearbox slick 50 to the box,after some miles the tickover was slightly higher and the car seemed to rev more freely then i tried a speed test on a down hill stretch of private road and she was pulling off the clock god nows how fast i was going but it was scary enough for me not to try again about 3k miles later in a fit off hunger the gearbox final drive ate itself.

[Alpineandy]

I put some in a 1969 Renault 8 20 plus years ago and was impressed. 5 mins after putting it in I had to reduce the idle speed back down 200rpm. I later found out a friends son had checked it on the dyno with his kent FF1600 engine and it released a couple of extra BHP due to reduced drag(not noticable on a roadcar, but on a race car every BHP helps). I've tried it since and not really noticed much (if any) difference. I think it has more effect on older cars because the engineering tolerances are much greater. Not sure I'd even try it on a post 95 car... Maybe I would but it depends how much it costs now.

[Lankytim]

Its not liked on the Volvo forums as its meant to clog oil galleries and bork certain engines. That said ive used it before and it does make noisy engines much smoother.

[Roc 24v]

PTFE cannot stick to the surface of metal in an engine, it needs far higher temperatures (DuPont the manufacturers of it PTFE have said this).So the solids in it float about in the oil and just get filtered out, clogging your filter.Snake oil IMO.

[AnthonyG]

Mind you, he has moved on to some QVC-type product called Greased Lightning these days.

Last time I saw this brand it (on Bidsomething TV, whilst flipping channels) it was a polish of some type. Mind you, there might be a whole range of shite with the name.

[simmo]

I've used Molslip for racing in cars with iffy engines and reckon it makes a difference, short term anyway.When I worked on Airport fire trucks we were having loads of reduction hubs failures (firemen + 800bhp = fail) We started to use a teflon based additive in the axles and hubs and instantly failures were down about 75%, brilliant stuff but v expensive.

[Pete-M]

In a run in, well maintained engine I wouldn't have any problems using it.I think the main problem with it is that there are a lot of people who go to Halfords (or wherever) on a Sunday afternoon and buy a tin of Slick 50 thinking that it will cure the big end knock that has been getting worse for the last 400 miles. When S50 doesn't do jack shit, it gets the blame.

[Andrew353w]

+1 on the above comments. Frequent oil changes are the best thing to help a long lasting engine. Take the manufacturer's recommended oil changes and half them; i.e. if the maker says every 10,000 miles, change the oil & filter every 5,000 miles. Use the best oil you can afford. As to the slick 50 & other products like it, I saw a dramatic demonstration of how it works a few years ago, where a old Capri was given a full engine service (timing & mixture checked, plugs, filters and oil changed) The new oil was put in the sump, to "max" on the stick. The engine was then started and the tick-over speed checked. Slick 50 was then slowly added to the oil, while the engine continued to tick-over. Over about 5 minutes the tick-over speed increased and the engine sounded much smoother. After 10 minuted the engine was switched off and the oil checked. It was now at maximum; the filter had taken up the extra displaced by the Slick 50. At the time I was impressed by the stuff, BUT an old engine sounds better as it warms up anyway and it was difficult to say how much the engine benefitted from the Slick 50 & how much from the warming up of the block over the time of the demonstration.Any thoughts?

[dieselnutjob]

what I would like to know is this, if you treat the engine and then see a whatever% reduction in frictionthen do an oil and filter changewhat's the % reduction in friction now?this would test how much of the product actually did stay in the engine after an oil changeit would be the test most relevant to the manufacturers claims but no-one has done iton a related note I put mobil 1 in my 604 and a few months later it started tapping and I had to swap all the rocker arms (known weakness). don't know if it just coincidence or whether mobil 1 dislodged dirt/sludge that ended up where it always does on these engines (in the rocker arms).one day I'll put an oil pressure guage on it....

[Rocket88]

There use to be an old mechanic's saying for dealing with a noisy bottom end......"Wynns it, and retard it".which did work...for about a week usually.