Craig4937

Anybody out there that put additives in their oil to quiet down a high milage (185,000) 2004 4.6L?? Lucas oil Stablizer, or mystery oil?

barriosman

Here is a recent thread on this: https://www.f150forum.com/f4/anyone-...itives-231385/

Deanjet

I just added a qt of Lucas synthetic oil stabilizer during my normal 5,000 mile oil change. Thought I was doing a good thing during my oil change. The I stumbled upon this...
https://web.archive.org/web/20030408...ucas/lucas.htm
Now I am pissed, Lucas is a scam!!!!!!!!!
Now I am going to drain this oil at 2,000 miles..... What a waste of good Mobil 1

barriosman

That test was with gear oil. They also used the Heavy Duty lucas additive. I don't think you would get the same results from the Synthetic additive in synthetic motor oil.

desertrogue

I am about to try "Liqui Moly" oil additive in my truck, it is German made and they never put out a bad product.
Will see what happens....

dr_bowtie

yeah there is no way that test is right.... we use Lucas in our engines and have for years... we use it in all high performance stuff and ever our blower motors that the oil gets beat to bits... the lucas stuff always looks better.

the one thing you can do to a high mileage engine is use thicker oil...5w20 is too thin for a high mileage engine. I've quieted many engines just going to 10w30 especialy is 3V engines where the VCT solenoid can bleed of a lot of important oil flow

GraveDigger85

Just masking problems pouring mystery junk into your oil trying to make an engine stop making noise. Use high quality oil, just my opinion.

Bennyp

I put Lucas Synthetic stabilizer in yesterday for the first time, I'v only gone a few miles with it so not sure about making a difference. If it does start to foam is there a way to tell through either the dip stick or the oil fill cap. I know sometimes Ill get a little foam under the cap when its really cold and If I dont drive very far for a few days in a row.

dr_bowtie

when engine oil foams oil pressure will drop from the airiation...

the sole purpose of the Lucas is to stabilize the iol so it doesnt go to crap when there is heat in the oil. especially oil that is worked hard and is heated to its temp threshold...

I use Lucas is all race engines where they see rpm and heat alot. I use the Lucas ZDDP in ALL Flat tappet cams...never had a single issue...

As far as the masking comment thats not entirely true... Ford specs a low weight oil and thats fine for NEW engines with tight tolerances...

its not the bearings on the bottom end you need to worry about as all the modulars i;ve torn down with over 100k miles have all had nice bearings and cranks with very minimal wear...

where the issue comes is from the motor top end where you have a lot of bleeding off of oil pressure.... lash adjusters are fed by oil pressure and as they wear they bleed oil...VCT solenoids as they wear can bleed off a significant amount of oil causing a lot of noise. Tensioners can leak doing the same... anytime you bleed off oil in a critical valve train place you starve it down the line... a little here, a little there and the next in line gets very little hence all the noise...

in a NEW engine 5w20 is fine but in an engine with wear that just doesnt cut it...it drops the pressure and flow and you actually uncover issues from lack of volume and pressure... thicker weight and you bring the oil volume and pressure back into the stock state and everything is quiet again...

with no ZDDP in the oil thats the part that gave the oil its Lubricity... with out that the oil is actually gritty and causes things like chains, lifters, adjusters and solenoids to wear....

take it for whats its worth but if thicker oil fixes the issue and cost 35.00 for the 7 quarts isnt that better that replacing un needed parts that cost 1,000.00s ?

GraveDigger85

You completely diverted away from my comment about engine oil additives which was the original post's topic. I'm completely aware of new to worn engines and how clearances change of which I see no problem using a bit heavier weight oil which can be more costly but effective in some cases which doesn't really warrant replacing parts at that time. But the problem can and will get worse until failure being as said components are already becoming worn out. If that were the case all engines with over 100K would be running 15w40 hd diesel oil as the "mechanic in a bottle" repairs, no engine would ever make any noises anymore. My comment was directed to my opinion about using oil additives that stated you're just masking engine problems by using extra additives to silence engines for the time being, not too mention certain oils were blended for different applications so by adding more additives to it you're throwing off the chemical balance and additive package of which the oil was designed to have in the first place, in return shortening the oils life and protective properties. Some times more is not always better. You use break in oil for a reason with new engines for wear during its critical times during initial start up and seating period, so you're going to throw more additives in with the break in oil for 'extra' protection. And yes I do spend about $45 for my own engine oil in my truck for which is was created to do and not throw 'mechanics in a can' oil additives that can restore compression and make every engine stop making noise. Man, I've been doing it wrong all along, I need to start up-selling 'engine noise be gone' oil changes instead.