Technical Is it snake oil?

Watching the F1 today, and saw signs for Liqui Moly. I’ve seen it advertised in old magazines, probably back to before I learned to read. (Don’t ask, it’s been a few years…).

So I’m just curious about it. Has anyone ever tried it? Did you think it was snake oil or something worth using? I’m not going to try it, just thought I’d ask the question

 

A high school friend was for forty years a petroleum engineer at Chevron. Want to make him attack you physically? Just try putting Liqui Moly, Marvel Mystery, STP, Wynn's or any of the snake oils in with his motor oil.

"Chevron, Mobil and the other major brands have spent millions of dollars and a hundred years making the best motor oils possible. You realize the snake oil con artists don't have refineries? They buy their feed stocks from us. If that shite was any good, it would already be in our oil, essentially for free. That they can convince buyers to pay $10 a can for it just boggles the mind!"

jack vines

 

While I agree with you on not using additives with premium brand motor oils on good solid engines. I know for a fact that some of the “snake oils” do in fact work. I have used MMO in engines with stuck or noisy lifters and stuck rings with good effect, basically a last ditch effort. I have also used Lucas Oil additive in an engine that had very low oil pressure brought the pressure up to a safe level. I drove that to work car for months then I gave it to my daughter and she drove for a while before selling. Without the Lucas I’m sure the bearings would have been destroyed.
I think that using these additives on a sick engine to get a few more miles is ok.
No reason to use on a good engine IMO.
I have not used Liquid Moly additives but I believe their oils are very good.
Dan

 

There are companies like Ethyl Corporation whose business is to develop additive packages for motor oil companies. They have dyno cells running round the clock and then they tear the engines down to inspect for wear. As PackardV8 said, if they could make it better, they already would have. Some of the fuel additives may have some merit but I stick with quality products and dont buy additives.

 

Back in the '90s there was a product callled Moly Black Gold...and they even sponsored Jimmy Spencer's #98 NASCAR Cup Car.
The premise was based on the superior lubrication properties of molybdenum as an oil additive.
It must not have worked that good because the company seems to have disappeared.

Incidentally, the U.S. Navy in WWII used a molybdenum cocktail brushed on the turret tracks of large guns so they wouldn't rust up and would turn/spin freely.

 

The only time I used one, STP the old stuff that Andy Granatelli advertised, was in gear oil for the dirt car. It did something, because we were having temperature control issues, added a single can of that goo, and the temperature dropped over 100 degrees f. I used temperature labels on the quick change case, same spot every time. Btw don’t ask where they came from…

This was with no other changes, just the gear oil and STP. NEVER used it for anything else, just the quick change.

 

LiquiMoly is not a "thing". LiquiMoly is a German petroleum products company.

I run one, or another of their oils in most of my vehicles. I have been using their fuel system cleaners for almost 40-years, with great success.

 

Funny you mentioned putting STP in the transmission. I tried that when I was a teen and had a 57 Chevy with a Muncie 4 speed. Well in the winter time on LI I could not get the car in gear until I ran the car in neutral for 3-4 minutes. Shifted great though after it got warm. Geez what we didn't do when young and knew everything.

Pat

 

Now that is what I wanted to know. Thanks.

 

I almost exclusively use LiquiMoly in my 2016 VW GTI, but that's because it requires Euro-Spec oil with specific additives. On older HAMB cars, I think in the case of most of their additives like the Lifter Additive, Engine Flush, Radiator Cleaner, Injector Cleaner, etc... They all have their purpose, and do as good of a job as any other company's products. I would of course say, that if you're trying to use any kind of additive to repair or restore engine performance or to stop symptoms of an issue, that you're putting a band-aid on it. Almost always going to pop up again or even escalate. I know guys that limped an oil burning engine along for decades, when a simple re-ring/valve job would've fixed their clouds of blue and oily bumpers...

 

I just changed the oil in one of the shop vehicles.

 

Dave are you talking about something like this?
Holy smokes they have a lot of additives
Dan

 

https://www.liqui-moly.com/en/produ...ch and development,contain 10% more than that.

 

Oh man, see what I started? I really was just curious about the brand. I’m educated about it now.

 

Gotta love the OIL rabbit hole
Dan

 

Whoohoo snakes revival time!

 

I have used the gear oil additive from them in a Model A and was astounded how much better the crash box shifted.

 

I wonder how their rear end oil is ? I like the idea of less friction = less heat...

....

 

But will it make your hair grow?

 

MMO
I put that sheet in everything

 

About 30 years ago there was an article in one of the car magazines, Road and Track or Car and Driver, that did a study on oil additives. They enlisted a NYC taxi company consisting of 24 cars and added different types of additives to some cars, 5000 mile oil changes to some, 7500 mile oil changes to some and 10,000 mile oil changes to some. After 150,000 miles they compared the wear results and found the cars with 5000/7500 mile oil changes did the best, with the cars with additives showing no better results. The title of the article was "Snake Oil's, Save Your Money". I'm almost 80 years old and have been driving for over 60 years and never used any additive in any of my cars, new or old, but do my own oil changes at every 3000 miles.

 

This jostled an old memory loose. I've got a book about snow planes, there were quite a few still around when I was a kid. The earliest used Model T engines then Model A, B, etc...

 

I use oil
Oil is good

 

Snake oil or not, sometimes they must work, they been on the market as long as our vehicles.
I had a lifter tick coming and going in a "modern car" 20+years old... when changing oil i put a can of wynns engine cleaner in it and after that its never ever made that noise again, and thats 5 years ago.
So for me the engine cleaner works.

 

So the first person, Bert Friebel, musta been the person who coined the phrase, “oh Fudge!”

 

I don't know if he will touch this, he's a oil guru. @Blues4U

 

^^^^ he’s already posted test results from modern oil being just fine for old rides.
Even Walmart oil.
The high performance applications with high lift profile cams might need race formulated oils.
The oil we use today is better than the oils from the mid 60s down.

 

I need to know...

 

I been to one of them once. That was more than enough.