WE b OLD and Denny, for the 50 years or so that I have been interested in the car hobby one of the subjects I have followed with great interest is people's theories about oil. I have heard that ATF, STP, Lucas, Marvel Mystery Oil and other substances should be added to motor oil.
My question is, is it really likely that the lubrication engineers who design and test lubricants are missing the obvious things that even an amateur would recognize?
And what about the reviews of these substances like the review that Consumer Reports did on STP in the 1960s? CR found that the [u]only[u] effect of STP was to change the viscosity of motor oil. STP stock dropped in value after that and has never recovered.
As for synthetic oil, everything I have read that was published by actual testing facilities indicates that synthetic oil has the advantages of flowing at extremely low temperatures and being more stable than petroleum oil at very high temperatures. Temperatures reached by Indy car engines running at 10,000 RPM for 500 miles but never reached in street use.
Being a curious person I'm always interested in these theories [u]and[u] the testing and science behind them. Can you guys please fill me in on the testing and science behind the claimed benefits of oil additives and synthetic oil in low compression, low RPM street engines?
