Does anyone here run zmax? My dad and guys i work with are always telling me how great it is. I finally bought some hoping it might help a little over time but was wondering if anyone thought it was worth the 20+ dollar price tag. All thoughts appreciated, thanks.

 

what is zmax?

 

Read the MSDS-99% mineral oil for the oil additive. I bought some in an impulse buy and learned about this after. The fuel additive did seem to help but I rarely use fuel additves but I am gonna start on a regular bases after reading this-

https://www.f150forum.com/f4/fuel-in...leaner-176189/

Z-Max MSDS
http://www.zmax.com/documents/msds_102_engine.pdf

Thanks to otto457 for info.

 

its basically a penetrating oil that supposedly actually soaks deeply into the metal to lubricate. The stuff i bought says to put about 5 or 6 ounces in the fuel tank, transmission, oil, and power steering. A guy i work with said he saw a representative pour a couple ounces into a concave piece of inch or half inch steel and let soak for several hours.Then they cut it in half with a bandsaw and supposedly you could actually see how deeply it had absorbed into the metal. ive heard people say its great and others say its just another snakeoil and not worth anything. just wondering if anyone here uses it

 

^ No chemical can "penetrate" into metal. If that was the case that means there are breaks in the molecular structure of the metal. For oil based additives, the industry uses a combination of different compounds including moly, zinc, titanium, and phosphorous. Moly will actually plate metal surfaces and be sacrificed when there is high load. Even if there was something that could penetrate metal, it would do no good as the load is on the surface. For fuel, check out Merty's links. For the ATF, there is no benefit either. The only gains for ATF is the use of an ester based additive.

 

I had also thought that nothing can "penetrate" into metal, but then after considering it, isnt steel/metal porouse? even on a miniscule/microscopic level. If something has the right formula it should be able to get into these pores and "penetrate the metal. If so it would not be sacraficed under high load and could continuosly lubricate surfaces in those conditions. I could be wrong just thinking out loud and trusting what my friend told me about what he saw (which is risky i know haha)

 

Yes the surface of metal under an electron microscope is rough, but beyond that molecules are fairly tight. If it had pores and air gaps through the entire media, strength would be greatly reduced. What oil does to continuously lubricate is based on film strength. There's always oil on surfaces even on a "dry" start. Also, things like moly continually coat surfaces so it is always there, just a layer is temporarily removed and then replaced.