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Lucas oil additive

Westex

Member
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Location
El Paso, TX
Lucas is great stuff. The tackiness of it has saved more than one gearbox during my adventures. I am currently running 2 quarts in my hardtop crankcase and you can actually see the difference in consistency when checking the oil. After reading this post, I'll probably run it in the gearboxes. I would look up some other threads within this site dealing with using Lucas as a fuel additive, though.
 

jimm1009

Well-known member
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70
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Location
Louisville, KY
I really really appreciate all the replies.
I was told at the NAPA store that there is a Lucas oil additiive for synthetic oils too so obviously that would be better for 100% synthetic oil.

I'm going to purchase a set of the spin filter adapters, change my oil, and go with the Lucas.
I did put 1 quart in yesterday since I was about 1/2 gallon low on oil.
Sort of an introductory trial. Since I can't quite affor the filter bases it will be about two more months and that will give the small amount that is in there a chance to help too.
Thanks again for all the replies. It's really great to have others help confirm one way or the other about these non-military improvements to our toys.
Hope to see all the semi-local owners at Tim's place this spring too!
Think O.D. Green :beer:
jimm1009
 

bigmike

Well-known member
Steel Soldiers Supporter
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83
Location
Dixon CA.
I trucking friend highly recommended both the Lucas oil and fuel addititives. I put about 1 gallon in during oil changes and use only Lucas to top off when low. When I first bought my truck, I put a gallon of Lucas fuel additive in the tank then topped it off with fresh diesel. Today I always add a quart or two with each fill up.
 

militarysteel

New member
255
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Location
Southern Ohio
as a side note, i have a 1993 blazer with a 4.3 cpi, the rear main had a dribble, added 1/2 quart of lucus and it stooped the dribble, its still a little wet, but no dribble, also raised oil pressure and lowered temperature by one bar,

lucas in the M35A2 is about the best thing you can do for it. it will love you for it.
 

saddamsnightmare

Well-known member
3,618
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Location
Abilene, Texas
March 8th, 2010.

Jimm1009:

I know you are worried about your deuces engine, but consider how old the design was (and is), how much abuse and use it had before you got it, and how much better a lot of our lubricants are now compared to the 1940's and 1950's (much less then farther back, image what a Model T engine has had to take to survive?).The Lucas gear additive for transmissions is a heavy gear oil formulated to resist shearing as the gears rub togather. The engine oil additive is probably nothing more then a gear oil added to the usual 15W-40, which in that case, it would lubricate no less then straight 15W-40.
My M35A2 had a bad leaking rear main seal that got worse and worse, when you parked it it looked like a Model T had been there (Model"T"'s are notorious oil leakers, it's just the technology available at the time of the design), and the truck went from using a quart every 1000 miles to one every 250 in short order. After the main seal got replaced, the truck has not had the problem of big leaks, but it is a rare M35A2 that doesn't drip here or there occasionaly.
Before Edwin Drake's celebrated Oil Well at Titusville, Pa, (1857), machine operator's were at their wits ends as to how to handle increasing rotational speeds with tallow and animal/vegetable based lubricants. Without Drake, the Civil War might have well been fought with sticks and stones, as the machinery was taking horrendous abuse from lubrication failures. I have run 1830-1864 machine tools and overhead drive trains, they were designed for tallow (the bearings), and to get them to operate today takes 50/50 4o weight oil and 90 weight gear oil mixtures, to keep them from throwing the lubrication out of the bearings.
Your deuce has the same problem as most of ours without JATONKAS lube filter kits, in that after 6 hours of shut down time, almost all the oils in the sump (crankcase), and the cranks, crankshaft and camshafts are sitting on essentially dry bearings. Due to the time it takes to fill and pressurize all the galleries and bearings on start up, out truck engines suffer excessive wear to the bearings that could have been avoided in the original design by permiiting the pooling of some oil in the right places. The thicker anti leak additive to the Lucas oils allows some, like gear oils, to stick to the bearing surfaces and buy us some time by reducing wear on the rotational bearing surfaces. Over the long term these engines will suffer bearing failures prematurely due to this quirk of the original design, unless compensated for. The engines would probably go a million miles if we didn't shut them down every day or every few miles, but we do, and they pay for it.
A lot of fellows swear by the additives, others swear at the addittives, it's almost like family politics and religion, what your father taught you is law, and most of us quail at deviation from the Holy Writ. Marvel Mystery oil??? ATF! but it is good a breaking free frozen or stuck engine parts for rebuilding, and it helps keep my 1958 Ferguson MF65 Continental gas engine running on unleaded, as otherwise I get sticking valves. Some things, like some engines, make their own demands to survive. Just go with it and your deuce may go a few more miles before the inevitable overhaul.

Just a thought, Good luck with your quest for enlightenment,


Cheers,

Kyle F. McGrogan:D
 

stumps

Active member
1,700
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38
Location
Maryland
I'm not a big fan of oil additives. The oil manufacturers want you to have a good experience with their product so you will buy more. If there was a magic bullet, they would put it in their oil to gain market advantage.

I will admit that my prejudice against oil additives began after I added Slick 50 to my PU truck on one oil change, and within a few weeks, the oil pressure went to zero, and spun all of my bearings. I'll never know if the additive killed my engine, or if it was just due. It seemed a little young to die (150,000 miles).

Here is an independent test of Lucas oil additive by a guy that I trust:

What about Additives?

It is not very favorable to say the least!

-Chuck
 

saddamsnightmare

Well-known member
3,618
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Location
Abilene, Texas
March 8th, 2010.

Stumps:

You only got 150,000 miles on a civillian pickup truck? What, man, were you doing to it!?! I know that some of you gentlemen are coming from a very different background then I am, as I can only speak to you as a man who has operated 170 to 95 year old machine tools, steam and diesel locomotives and railcars, and as a practical machinist. In addressing Jimm1009's original concerns, I based my answer on practical experience with the M35A2 series trucks. If the oil manufacturers wanted us to keep these vehicles, they would come up with something better then plain old dinosaur droppings!
The deuce, like most larger, old design diesel engines, has a tremendously sloppy, by modern machinist terms, fit between the journals and the bearings, which is only aggravated by the dry starts caused by the lack of a drainback system in the engine. Any engine whose mass in the rotating parts approached that of a Multifuel engines, does very little good to a dry bearing start. The engine could probably stand addition of a small amount of 80 or 90 weight oil to the crankcase fluids (say 1 or 2 quarts) with no ill effects given the micron size of the lube filters. ANYTHING that passes as lubrication that will stick to the journals in some small amounts and prevent dry starts would benefit the engine's life expectancy.
Locomotive engines, and towboat engines of the age of the deuce run many millions of miles or thousands of hours without overhaul, but they are very rarely shut down dead for various reasons (gaskets, lack of anti freeze, etc) and it is because they are running and not stopped and kept at a fairly even operating temperature, that they live so long. We, however, can rarely keep these trucks running 20/7, much less 24/7 because we aren't trying to win a war or to move freight day or night, so dry starts are an unfortunate reality.
I would very likely be fitting JATONKA's kit to my truck as soon as I get back to work regular, because I get to see what a dry bearing start does for engine life and I'm not thrilled by beating a poor little engine to death. Most of us don't want to trash our investments if we can avoid it. It's just food for thought.

Cheers,

Kyle F. McGrogan:smile:
 

stumps

Active member
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Location
Maryland
March 8th, 2010.

Stumps:

You only got 150,000 miles on a civillian pickup truck? What, man, were you doing to it!?!
I didn't do anything to it... other than have a weak moment and fall for the promotions of the Slick50 company...

I'm of the opinion that the Slick50 killed the engine. I cleaned out the oddest carbonized foam from the engine and its oil system, replaced the bearings with undersized, and put her back together. I have since put another 100K on the engine.

I will not put additives into oil. The name brand manufacturers are already blending the best additive packages they know how to make into the oils they sell.

As to your assertion that you could add some SAE80, or SAE90 to your engine: SAE90 gear oil is the same viscosity as SAE50 engine oil. SAE85 gear oil is the same viscosity as SAE30 engine oil, and SAE 80 gear oil is the same viscosity as SAE20 engine oil. So, except for the additive packages, they are in the right viscosity range for a MF engine oil.

-Chuck
 

DUG

Senior Chief/Moderator
Super Moderator
Steel Soldiers Supporter
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Mesquite, NV
I will not put additives into oil. The name brand manufacturers are already blending the best additive packages they know how to make into the oils they sell.


-Chuck
And Toyota is building the highest quality accelerators they know how.................................
 

rorybellows

New member
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Location
warshington
theres a company up here in the pnw called power punch. basically the same thing. im surprised noones said this yet. as this stuff is really thick and sticky, plan to devote a good half hour to an hour lettin this stuff ooze into an engine. dumped a few in others otr trucks, and a "carberator" hole doesnt even help with the flow its so thick and sticky. dont get it on your fingers or anything else you dont want permanently lubricated
 

stumps

Active member
1,700
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Location
Maryland
And Toyota is building the highest quality accelerators they know how.................................
And you know, somehow, that they aren't?

I have had throttles stick on Fords, Dodges, Plymouth's, and Toyota's... and even a Rupp minibike. And these were all mechanical. Things like springs break, cables get hung-up, ice forms in the wrong place... and in the case of the Ford, the brass screws that attached the throttle fly sheared off, sticking the throttle shaft at full.... in heavy traffic.

I don't work for, nor do I own any Toyota's, but the record shows that Toyota has had one (1) involuntary recall in the last 52 years. The big 3 in the US have had 141 in the last 12 months.

If adding thick sticky goo to your oil is such a great thing to do why not fill your crankcase with SAE50, and do it right ;-)

The last, most famous, purveyor of thick sticky goo for your engine oil was STP (The racer's edge!), and they got slapped down pretty heavily for selling a product that didn't work as advertised. Slick 50 was adjoined from selling their product too.

Have a look at the link I posted. From the test shown, Lucas doesn't seem to be an improvement over ordinary oil.

-Chuck
 

wdbtchr

New member
883
3
0
Location
St. Louis, MO
I'm not a big fan of oil additives. The oil manufacturers want you to have a good experience with their product so you will buy more. If there was a magic bullet, they would put it in their oil to gain market advantage.

I will admit that my prejudice against oil additives began after I added Slick 50 to my PU truck on one oil change, and within a few weeks, the oil pressure went to zero, and spun all of my bearings. I'll never know if the additive killed my engine, or if it was just due. It seemed a little young to die (150,000 miles).

Here is an independent test of Lucas oil additive by a guy that I trust:

What about Additives?

It is not very favorable to say the least!

-Chuck
:snopes check:I'm always amazed at some of the odd things that turn up on the internet.
Number one: just exactly who is "Bob the oil Guy" that works for an oil company, apparently his only qualification? Maybe he worked the register down at the local gas station.

Number two: under what conditions were the tests run? The only data had to do with a PS Ford, nothing to do with his demostration. I can take a bottle of vegatable oil out of the refrigerator, put it into the blender and whip up a batch of Cool Whip. What would that prove about a diesel engine? What RPM was used and it's relation to the real world? A few still photographs don't provide much in the way of scientific results.

Number three: the rather limited oil samples? The results were against Schaeffers synthetic oil. Maybe in fairness if he had put Lucas in the Schaeffer's representitive and got the same results, it might mean something.

Number four: what exactly do open gears spinning in a sump of oil have to do with the conditions inside an engine with pressurized lubrication? The gears just represent the afore mentioned blender whipping air into the liquid. The oil plump pickup is under the surface of the oil in the sump no air to pickup. The oil drains down the sides of the inside of the engine giving it time to lose the entrained air it may have picked up. I'd be more impressed with a sight glass in the oil line of an operating engine.

Number five: to condem all additives because you spun the bearings in one engine is fool hardy in my opinion. What was the history of the engine? How many miles when the Slick 50 was added? What was the RPM and engine temperature at the time the bearings spun? And most of all who bought the theory of powdered Teflon suspended in oil accomplished anything? I've seen more bearings spun by overreving a cold engine than anything else.

My conclusion: somebody, maybe a clever salesman for Schaeffer came up with a way to condem a competitors product to sell more of his.

Use and little common sense and consider the source of anything you see on the web.2cents
 

digitaldust

Member
529
2
18
Location
Twp Flint ,Mi ,
I have a van with a large battery kit and large inverter 10K for my cutting tools.
I run the van for hrs and days on Shell Rotella T 15w 40 . When the van had 450K Miles + and who only knows the time on the motor. BTW PM's every 4.5K miles. Then one day she started leaking kinda bad drinking the oil. I was driving on a hot day when I noticed the pressure dropping and flicking at idle. she had been empty of oil for a wile. I could hear a rod knocking starting. That is when I started using Lucas Oil add. The Rod knock was a lot lighter. The oil pressure was a lot better but not fixed. I did get one more season out of her.

When I was driving her up on the car hauler to scrap her out. I revved the P! out if it burned lots of other stuff but could not throw the rods. I might have been the sticky snot in the oil
but for 8.99 a QT I held off buying a $8000 replacement van.

I'm about to add it to my deuce
does it matter what Oil addon Lucas diesel or gas ?
 
Last edited:

militarysteel

New member
255
1
0
Location
Southern Ohio
anyone who is smart will use Lucas oil stabilizer in their duce, engine, trans, tcase, axles. This is not a myth, this is proven technology.

Slick 50 was a total sham, but you can't be a moron and base all the additives on one, with a truck that was warn out that you beat to death with 150k miles.
 

jimm1009

Well-known member
1,165
70
48
Location
Louisville, KY
I want to thank everyone for their input.
I believe that I have enought information to make and informed decision
now and will procede accordingly.
Thanks so very much.

Think O.D. Green!

jimm1009 :-D
 
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