Zmax oil additive

OLDBULL8

Good Morning Ya'll.
Supporting Member
Joined
Feb 12, 2009
Posts
9,923
Reaction score
338
Location
Delphos , Ohio
To answer MrT.
Silicone oil is polydimethylsiloxane. Now there is a mouthful, can't pronounce it, only write it. :D :rotflmao :rotflmao
 

MIDNIGHT RIDER

Full Access Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2005
Posts
4,636
Reaction score
38
This punk kid that used to work for us ran nothing but ATF in the crank-case of his silly little lo-rider cookoo truck; a Toyota, if my memory serves.

His reasoning was that automatic transmissions got really hot; so, it had to be better than engine oil.

He drove the **** out of that piece of junk and had shelves full of trophies from various shows; and, the last account I had, it was still running. LOL
 

aaron1976

Full Access Member
Joined
Oct 15, 2009
Posts
108
Reaction score
0
Location
Cokeville, Wy
Well, I guess all I know is that I ran Zmax in my trucks engine and my MPG came up. I have 4 tanks on it now and it has been up all 4 tanks. I am going to fill it up again today and see what it does.

I bought a 95 Land Rover a while back which has a buick base v-8 in it. The lifters were sticking pretty badly and I tried all sorts of stuff to fix that. I put the Zmax in it and the next day the lifter noise was gone. I sold the Rover to my brother in law about 2 years ago and it still runs great. Not saying Zmax saved it but it seemed to work in this case.

I will find the final, final ruling from the FTC and see what they decided.

Good debate.
 

oldmisterbill

Grumpy Old Man
Joined
Nov 19, 2005
Posts
2,093
Reaction score
21
Location
Wagoner Oklahoma
OLDBULL has a good point-There are some pretty small oil passages in an IDI. I switched an engine from Rotella to Royal Purple at a little over 100,000 miles. It started using oil right away. The folks at Royal Burple said no problem -the synthetic has more solvents in it and my engine was going thru a cleanout.It would use more oil but would slow down as the rings freed up-next trip it was still using oil they gave me 6 gasl of aroyal purple because I was using oil totide me over.The next trip I got to Maine it was running rough -loosing power-I limped the last 150 miles to my delivery.Put it in a shop-tore it down.1 piston was burnt up a hole right thru it. We found the cooling tube for that piston clogged with crud. I blame it on the solvents cleaning too fast sending chunks thru the engine. $4,000 later I left that small shop with an engine that only lasted 100,000 miles (my old engine supposidly "rebuilt").My take is if you use a solvent to clean an engine make sure it liquifies the sludge rather then break of chunks. You be the judge.

Also-DON'T BREAK DOWN AWAY FROM HOME!!!!!!!!!!
 

HammerDown

Full Access Member
Joined
Jan 12, 2005
Posts
2,158
Reaction score
80
Location
Glenolden Pa
Z-Max, STP, Motor Honey, Lucas and all those similar products are silicon based additives. If you want to drill a hole in tough steel or stainless steel they are great. Silicon creates less friction between two rubbing surfaces. Some of those products have a strong detergent in them, but so does dino oil contain a detergent...

Hmmmm, explain how could that be a bad thing? :dunno
 

88beast

Full Access Member
Joined
Sep 23, 2009
Posts
2,219
Reaction score
1
Location
pa
ya zmax is ok but if it was me id use the prolong they have a warranty with the motor if you use the additive and it breaks you get new motor they do this for all normal use vehicles (not race vehicles) and this warranty is great so its a matter of well just in case she dies then itll be ok no 4k bill
i put lucas 50/50 with my oil every change im changine oil every 12k and its still looking good
also i run lucas in the fuel between front and rear tank you get a major cetane boost and its definatly noticible
also fuel filters wen they get changed look good still? but are definatly needing done from motor feel it makes the filter and all a lot cleaner
 
Last edited:

oldmisterbill

Grumpy Old Man
Joined
Nov 19, 2005
Posts
2,093
Reaction score
21
Location
Wagoner Oklahoma
Just a point of interest- We has some gearboxes in a dryer room that ran roots type vacume pumps (Kinda like a GMC blower -looks like a giant pencil sharpener inside) The room was uaually 120 degrees F. Any way we were haveing trouble with gear boxes failing a sales man came in (I think it was power up But my memory may be wrong ) He said his product would help our problem .I think it over $100 a gal in the early 1990's.
I said prove something to me that makes sense.We put an ampmeter on one of the gearboxes 20HP I think,any way it showed a 5 amp decrease in power usage-I was impressed .It more than doubled the life of the gear boxes.I got 2 qts and still have a little left.It didn't take much to do its stuff, like a couple ounces maybe.I have used it in transfer cases standard transmissions and differentals.

I think it was Power up.
 

idi traveler

Full Access Member
Joined
Dec 13, 2009
Posts
768
Reaction score
0
Location
Brashear, Texas
Ive heard of that done but I'm not convinced your going to get all the kerosene out unless you run a few oil flushes.

Todays oils clean pretty good so if you wanted to clean an engine running short oil change intervals would work. Safer than kerosene or diesel in the crankcase to.

Ive heard of a guy who was running nothing but ATF in his crankcase instead of oil and it worked fine. Its not something I would try with an IDI but mixing it with the oil to clean the engine would not worry me much.

ATF does seem to clean pretty good from what Ive seen. I was filling my buddies manual trans in his camaro with it and overflowed it. The trans was greasy and dirty and where the ATF ran down the side it revealed clean aluminum. Really surprised me considering how dirty the trans was.

Back in the mid 90's I lived in Woodland Park CO. The police force mechanic swore by diesel flushing the engine of their 5 patrol cars. Every oil change he would put the old filter back on and fill her up with diesel and run it at idle for about 7 or 8 minutes. He told me that they were getting 200,000 out of their Crouwn Vict's and they sat idling 75% of the time!
 

RLDSL

Diesel fuel abuser
Joined
Dec 14, 2005
Posts
7,701
Reaction score
20
Location
Arkansas
Back in the mid 90's I lived in Woodland Park CO. The police force mechanic swore by diesel flushing the engine of their 5 patrol cars. Every oil change he would put the old filter back on and fill her up with diesel and run it at idle for about 7 or 8 minutes. He told me that they were getting 200,000 out of their Crouwn Vict's and they sat idling 75% of the time!

200k should be expected from any modern automobile receiving regular fleet maintenance , even in spite of what he was doing cookoo
Police and emergency vehicles suffer from a lot of varnish and soot buildup even in gas burners from all the extended idling and do require cleaning occasionally, but something like auto RX is much more suitable to the job and won't harm the engine. Best is to convert the fleet to synthetics with bypass filters to where you don't have to worry so much about varnish and soot buildup and extend the fleet service intervals to somewhere in the area of 100-200k between changes instead of a mere 200k service life out of the vehicles
 

opusd2

Full Access Member
Joined
Jun 17, 2008
Posts
1,528
Reaction score
5
Location
BFE, WI
I run nothing but synthetic oils in my vehicles, gas and diesel, ever since I started driving truck for an oil jobber back in the early 90's. What sold me was leaving two quarts of oil, 1 dino and 1 synthetic, overnight outside in subzero weather. The next morning I took them into the milkhouse to see what they were like and even before I opened the bottles the synthetic shook like a room temp bottle. Sold. That was the Amoco Ultimate Gold Synthetic oil. Nothing but synthetic ever since, except for break ins and that I like to keep in dino.

Two summers ago sold me that I had been doing the right thing. While driving in 90+ temps on the highway with the AC running I lost the coolant in my 89 GMC with the 350 in and the damn thing overheated on me since the day before the fuse for the gauges went out and my girlfriend never told me so I could fix it until I was on the road and late. Well, some knocking of the engine later and I was sitting by the side of the road waiting until things cooled down enough to toss some water that I had with me in the radiator. I had to stop a couple of times to make it to "safe haven".

A jury rig later and I was driving that thing until I could tear into the engine and replace the intake which had cracked, mostly just a drilled out T-Stat to keep the pressure down and keep fluid in the engine and nice and cool. But I changed out the oil after that incident with more synthetic and have been driving it since. The oil pressure is still the same and the engine runs like it did prior to the incident which is very well. It only had about 175K on the engine as I replaced it 65K into the vehicle's life since the PO really screwed that truck up. But she still runs very well with the synthetic I have in it now.

And I like to run isopropyl through every couple of tanks all year round, and every now and then I will toss in some B12 Chemtool in the fuel to clean out the injectors and such.

But when reviving an engine that has sat a long time, I will either add some ATF to the crankcase to clean out the lifters, galleys, etc. or even just toss in some K1 or #2 to the oil. Most oil and fuel cleaners say "petroleum distillates" anyway. But if anything, it gets the ATF to the crankcase and fuel tank. An old mechanic taught me that, plus as a farm boy we were taught to cut to the chase and always has some #2 around at least anyway.
 

Goofyexponent

Mentally Unstable..
Joined
Jan 7, 2009
Posts
4,567
Reaction score
4
Location
Halifax / Nova Scotia
Well, it's been one year since I started using Zmax. And I still swear by it.

The oil used to be as black as black can be, but lately it's been getting lighter in color. I wouldn't say it's crystal clear, but it's not black as coal either...after 3000 mile intervals.

I cut open a used filter from my last change, and it wasn't near as plugged up full of crap as the first couple of cycles of Zmax.

The blowby seems to be a little less than before (using a fulled in the oil fill tube method, nothing scientific of course)

My oil pressure hasn't dropped at ALL on the mechanical gauge I have installed and I haven't been cunsuming the 1 quart per oil change anymore. However I have noticed this. If I fill up my engine to the full mark on the stick, it will burn off about a quart. I fill it up and it burns it off again....but if I leave it be, it won't burn anymore. It stays just above the add mark and won't drop any lower than that.

My car, has never ran Zmax before. When the warrany runs up in October, I will be doing my own oil changes and services. First oil change I will tear off the filter, and cut it open and take pics of the color of the oil and the media inside. Then I will run a cycle of Z max, and do the same thing. I will check milage from now till then and average it out before and after the Zmax.

Hopefully this will put to bed the debate over the Z max. Any suggestions on how to control the parameters of the "expirement" are going to be taken into consideration.

I will use the same brand of oil, and filters that the dealer uses to make things fair.
 

Diesile

Full Access Member
Joined
Feb 5, 2008
Posts
442
Reaction score
5
Location
Smalltown, Ma.
Like old misterbill I used powerup for quite some time. In the engine I never noticed a
difference but added to the gear oil in the T-19 made shifting a different and smooth
experience, particularly when cold.
 

burtcheca

farmer/cabinetmaker
Joined
Jan 5, 2010
Posts
434
Reaction score
0
Location
Live Oak, Fl.
I use Restore in every oil change (every 5K miles). I noticed it's better than oil only, I get whatever oil is on sale at Walmart (usually is the Mobil Delvac 1300 Super). I would like to see the needle of the oil gauge move a little more to the center but so far no additive has done that. It goes from the left to the N of Normal when oil is fresh and cold, it goes back a little lower when running hot. Sometimes it worried me I may not be getting enough oil pressure through the engine, but I learned here that there is enough volume of oil circulating even when the gauge shows little movement. Restore has helped in keeping the oil viscocity also. When I was using oil only by the time it needed to be changed it was not only black but it flowed like water, very thin. My van's engine uses about 1/2 quart of oil every 5K miles oil change. I don't know if it goes through the rings or if it leaks at some other point but the engine is clean all around, and no drops of oil under either.
I would like to check this Z max stuff but I haven't see that around. Does NAPA has it? Restore costs me about $9 at Walmart. How much is Zmax?
Thanks,
Burt.
 

Goofyexponent

Mentally Unstable..
Joined
Jan 7, 2009
Posts
4,567
Reaction score
4
Location
Halifax / Nova Scotia
I use Restore in every oil change (every 5K miles). I noticed it's better than oil only, I get whatever oil is on sale at Walmart (usually is the Mobil Delvac 1300 Super). I would like to see the needle of the oil gauge move a little more to the center but so far no additive has done that. It goes from the left to the N of Normal when oil is fresh and cold, it goes back a little lower when running hot. Sometimes it worried me I may not be getting enough oil pressure through the engine, but I learned here that there is enough volume of oil circulating even when the gauge shows little movement. Restore has helped in keeping the oil viscocity also. When I was using oil only by the time it needed to be changed it was not only black but it flowed like water, very thin. My van's engine uses about 1/2 quart of oil every 5K miles oil change. I don't know if it goes through the rings or if it leaks at some other point but the engine is clean all around, and no drops of oil under either.
I would like to check this Z max stuff but I haven't see that around. Does NAPA has it? Restore costs me about $9 at Walmart. How much is Zmax?
Thanks,
Burt.

I don't mean to sound like a old man, but that OP gauge in your truck is about as usefull at measureing oil pressure as your spare tire is. I used to to swear by factory gauges in these truck and monitor them like bikinis at a beach on a hot day...but I have since learned the difference.

The factory OP gauge works kind of like an on off switch. Once 7PSI is achieved in the engine, the OP gauge works....you can be running down the highway at 60 MPH and have only 10 psi and it will show "normal"

I put a mechanical gauge in my truck, and I will not ever look at the factory gauge ever again. I don't mean you HAVE to go out and get a mechanical set of gauges, but I would reccomend it. I have a mechanical OP, water temp (probe broke, need a new one) and a volt meter installed now. I have to install a trans temperature, oil temperature, Pyrometer and fuel pressure to really make my truck feel like a B52 bomber's cockpit :rotflmao

As far as Zmax, My local walmart carries it...at $40 per dose....a dose is reccomended every second oil change...or so it says on the box.

If you are only burning 1/2 a quart per oil change, I'd say you are in pretty good shape!

Also remember, The oil system in these trucks are low pressure, high volume systems. They have oil jets in the cylinders that spray oil on the pistons to keep down the temperatures on the pistons....that would take a fair bit of volume to do.
 

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
91,217
Posts
1,128,469
Members
24,043
Latest member
tottripp

Members online

Top