TiRider

This forum has been great on the many items that I've had to look up and or reference...thank you all.

However, I have a new question...I've seen the commercials for ZMax and other products that claim many benefits, penetrating the metal parts for better lubrication, better gas mileage, better longevity of the engine, etc. Recently there have been a few new entrants to the market to compete with ZMax.

I have a '00 with 95k+ miles and all I use is synthetic oil changed religiously at no more than every 3,000 miles.

So, what is the experience with some of these products? Are they worth it or is it voodoo?

If you do use them why and what benefits re you seeing? Thanks in advance!

feeder82

IMHO useless hype additives that have no value except to the marketer's

grantv

Change the oil every 5000 miles with a quality synthetic, done. Never heard of Zmax, late night infomercials?

TiRider

ZMax is an additive that has been around for many years and tests clearly demonstrate it penetrates the metal surface of parts in the motor. Lately others such as Nano have surfaced and the sincere question was if anyone uses them in their respective cars.

STP used to also be a additive that claimed less wear and tear on motor parts...

A fair and reasoned response is all I'm asking for...

LoneStarFRC

The idea of a molecular level material being able to provide some sort of additional lubrication/performance benefit sounds nice, or at least it has some appeal.
Putting the concept into actual real world practice and providing a substantial benefit (keyword "substantial") is something else altogether, and raises my inherent skepticism red-flags in the same way so many other "wonder" products have over the years.
In the arena of cost-benefit, I remain highly skeptical.

feeder82

zmax hasn't subjected their additive to astm standardized testing, which is industry standard tests. slick50 was fined 10 million for false advertising. just like the ads for supplements that make promises, they can claim whatever the like, doesn't mean the stuff works. that said your money, go ahead and use it

Pounder

Good oil has all the additives you need and mostly none you don't need !!!

TheProsecutor

But Brawndo's got what plants crave. It's got electrolytes.
Zmax is like Brawndo. Enough people have been told and think it works, so it must work.

grantv

You are getting fair and reasoned responses. If you want more responses, Google "zmax Federal Trade Commission file suit for false and misleading advertising" for key words.
Most every reply to posts on this forum are people trying to help.

jrprich

ZMax is an additive that has been around for many years and tests clearly demonstrate it penetrates the metal surface of parts in the motor.

Use what you like.......but I would question their claims and just who did these tests.

Pounder

I have been driving a long time have gone well over 200,000 miles in many vehicles. I have never put any additives in and don't believe in them. I have never had any engine failures or can ever remember one using oil. As a GM Tech for many years, I was schooled by many oil company's and GM, Today's oils are so superior now, they are all you need. The proof is right in front of you everywhere, look at all the cars and trucks well over 200,000 miles, today's engines and oils are the best you can do for your car, granted if you are changing it on time !!

strand rider

One might logically ask, " What then happens if , as promised, metal is penetrated for better lubrication"
How does this contrast with traditional oil film lubrication, and what are the benefits?

How does oil inside the metal lubricate and why?

What are the physics that show improvement over film lubrication?

Naw, just screwing with you. The stuff is a well known rip off. I'm surprised you could still find it for sale, it's been through the courts.

TiRider

This is pretty much what I expected...a bit of a cross section of experiences and opinions. What I was looking for was any kind of consensus which it seems to me is oil and only oil is the best lubrication for our engines.

Where I work and what I do pushes the technological limits of our known capability, semiconductor research. To give an example the human hair is ~20-150 microns, we are now working on devices in the 7 nano-meter range, smaller than the atomic layer of single crystal silicon at 20 nano-meters, simply boggles the mind, can't be seen by the human eye. Clearly technology has moved forward...I was thinking progress has had to have moved forward when it comes to lubrication for metal on metal parts in engine technology that has been around for what...how long, 100 years?

In any case I do appreciate everyone's input...thank you!

grantv

To that I say synthetics. Regardless, internal combustion motors are essentially the same design.
Even if these additives worked as claimed, if you can pull a couple/few hundred thousand miles out of a motor as is with no additives...

jackthelad

Follow the manual - change the oil when instructed (or every year, whichever comes first), use a quality synthetic and forget the additives. Modern oils all have additive packages anyway.

romandian

well i put stp into a trans am t/a engine and it resulted in an increse of top speed by 400 rpm. that was 30 years ago, though.

runner140*

There is a thread that has almost 1000 replies on it titled "How many miles can you do on a LS1....
Most of us with 130,000...140,000 ...150,000 and up to over 200,000 miles just used their favorite synthetic oil with no additives.

Gordy M

Several years ago a GM engineer had a DD Z06 with 216,000 miles on it at the time. The powertrain group wanted to tear his engine apart to look at the internals for wear. He was meticulous at changing the oil and filter every 3000 miles, like most engineers are, and this car was also autcrossed heavily in the summer months and ran over 50 HPDE's. In other words this was a heavily excercised engine. They were amazed at how little wear there was on his engine, buttoned it up and sent it back to him. Last I knew the car had more that 259000 on the clock and the engine was still strong. I guess it doesn't need any nano particles.