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Duralube... crap? Or not?

Thumper

Thumper

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A little while ago, a few of us in the club were talking about how our engines were probably starving for oil in off-camber or hill climbing situations. We kinda decided that some sort of protection might be helpful, and believing the commercials, went out and bought a Duralube treatment. With a much better feeling in our stomachs we went driving believing that we had protected our motors the best way we could.
Time warp forward three months:
All three of our vehicles are now burning oil. One is a Jeep 258 6 cyl, one is a Toyota 22R, and my SB. The only thing we can figure is that the Duralube has 'protected' something that it shouldnt have. The oil burning we are getting is at first start (valve seal symptoms), under load (ring symptoms), and at higher revs (??). Like I am talking a smoke cloud when driving thru a mud hole, up a hill, and when I start. All three of us. Too much coincidence for me.
Has anyone else had any bad experiences with these products? Is this a common thing? Did we get screwed?

Next question, is there any way to get this crap out of my engine now? Maybe some sort of an engine flush? Or will it backfire and make things worse?
Thanks for any info you may have.

Mike
 
Well, no info yet huh?
I ran downtown and bought a bottle of Gunk engine flush and a filter and oil, so I will try that tomorrow I guess. Hopefully there isnt any permanant damage inside from the stuff.

I will keep you informed.

Mike
 
Isnt Duralube a synthetic motor oil? If that is the case, sometimes switching to synthetics when your engine has a few miles on it can be harmful. The oil is so clean that it will actually clean off some gunk from the seals that was protecting them. /forums/images/graemlins/eek.gif Oh, and I wouldnt run an engine flush in my engine. Too many people I know, and a lot of people on here have had bad problems with engine flushes. My advice is to just switch back to your old motor oil. After about 2-3 changes, all of the duralube should be pretty much gone. If you want more protection, buy a larger oil pan with some trap doors to keep the oil in place.
-Harrison
 
I have been told by people that have used the same or similar products that using them on a higher milage engine caused oil leaks right away
Front and rear seals mostly , so I think they do more harm than good in worn engines
In a freshly broken in motor , they probably won't hurt
Thats all I have heard about them /forums/images/graemlins/thumb.gif
 
Well, I dont know whats up.
This motor has been in the vehicle for about 5 yrs, after being rebuilt. It runs about 6000 miles per year. I ran regular oil in it for 3 yrs, then switched to synthetic 2 yrs ago. It leaks a bit at the front but has since the first year. It has never burnt oil before. Everything has been fine with it up till I put in the Duralube about three months ago. As far as I know, the Duralube is some sort of teflon based oil treatment, not just synthetic oil. In the last 2 weeks, it has started smoking as I described in the top post. Beats me. I will see tomorrow if I decide to run the flush in it or not. Id like to, but if there is too many folks saying not to, I wont.

Well... thanks for the info so far.

Mike
 
I spoke with a rep. that comes into my work a while back. He said that you can make an oil that does anything you want it to just change the makeup of it to have more of something. The drawback you have less of the other protections.
He also said that regular use of a good engine oil is better than any "treatment".
There was a test done by independent labs using taxi cabs. One was treated the other not, the oil drained and the cars driven. The untreated taxi went 20' less than the treated cab......
 
Teflon does not belong in your engine. Dupont even says that it doesn't belong there!

This is exactly why I tell people not to use oil additives. YOU DON'T NEED TO ADD ANYTHING TO YOUR OIL!

High quality synthetic oil will protect your engine better than any additive.

Everyone is afraid and constantly running this or that in their oil not knowing it may harm their engine or do nothing at all.

I run 5W-30 in my trail rig and 20W-50 in my tow rig and a Wix or Champion Labs filter and have had NO oiling problems. The only reason I run oil so heavy in my tow rig is that it is so worn out, it hardly has any oil pressure at all. With the 20W-50 it has 20 psi or so @ hot idle so it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy to not see the gauge drop to 10 or so.
 
Sounds like my 400 small block in my plow truck--it loves 20w50 too,but it gets hard to start when its below 20 degrees,so I have to use 10w30 in the winter,and watch the gauge approach 10psi at idle in drive /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif--in the summer its alot better with 20w50--too bad they dont make 50w50! /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
A lot of my customers used engine flush,in about 50% of the cases the engines spun bearings or developed ticky or collapsed lifters,especially old ones that had non-detergent oil or infequent oil and filter changes.A few old timers use 15w40 diesel oil to help clean the motor out,since it has a very high detergency nessasary for soot control in diesels,but I have heard a few horror stories using that too--I used "Tufoil" in my van when it was a 6 cylinder,didnt kill it,but the lifters always clatterred after that--(tufoil has teflon in it too). /forums/images/graemlins/ignore.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
Teflon does not belong in your engine. Dupont even says that it doesn't belong there!



[/ QUOTE ]
I always laugh when I see the Ads for that, teflon adheares to metal at about 1200 degrees. Even there own tests showed a piece of teflon the size of one sand kernal on a rocker arm right after adding it to a motor. This was their claim it "worked" Other tests run show the 5% of teflon in the additive after 3000 mi. 3% drained with the oil the rest went out the exhaust.........
 
i always use a little lucas oil when i do a oil change.it seems to help my tired chevy out a little.i have it in my diffs and trans/transfer also.it quiets things down a bit. /forums/images/graemlins/thumb.gif
 
Think about what all that snake oil claims to do - stick to engine parts in order to form a "layer of protection". So what's to stop it from building up and plugging oil passages up? Or just plugging up the oil filter? I've yet to see a test from an independent lab that shows any additive as being beneficial, and I've seen more than one that shows them to be detrimental.
 
Update:

I changed out the oil for some run of the mill 10W30, and a new filter. I didnt run the flush. I went for a ride out the highway, and she smoked all the way. When I got back to home it wasnt as bad as it was. I checked the oil, it was fine and still clean so I let her cool down totally, then went out and took it for another quick run, then out back on the little trail nearby. It has almost stopped 'noticeably' smoking (I can still smell it) until I step into it and get the revs up, or load it up at low RPMs like crawling up a hill. Then she spews out pretty good, but from what I can see, its only out one side. I figure there may only be one cylinder on the drivers side that is causing the issue. I am going to go out, let her idle and pull the plug wires one at a time until the smoke stops. This should tell me what Im dealing with. With any luck, maybe it will be just some rings and valve seals.

Thanks for the responses!

Mike
 
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