Date:         Thu, 19 Nov 1998 16:22:08 -0800
Reply-To:     YauMan Chan <YauMan@CCHEM.BERKELEY.EDU>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         YauMan Chan <YauMan@CCHEM.BERKELEY.EDU>
Subject:      Oil Additive (Press DEL if you are sick of this)
Comments: To: vanagon@vanagon.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

I was very intriqued by the recent postings about oil additive like Slick 50.  So today at lunch at the faculty club, I set down with a few old chemical engineering professors and ask them what they think.  Couple of them worked for DuPont as Post Doctoral fellows in their younger days!  There are some concensus and some diagreement on the subjects.
So..here we go: 
1. Teflon is DuPont Chemical trade name for Polytetrafloeraethylen (PTFE) and has the dubious distinction of having an entry in the Guiness Book of World records as the "slickest" substances created by man (yes a Man - male human - did invent it!) 
2. Dupont, holder of the Teflon trademark and patent DO NOT acknowledge any advantage of adding Teflon to motor oil. However in order to quiet down legal actions (restraint of trade?) from oil additive makers, reluctantly agree to sell Teflon powder to them but with the sitpulation that they not use the Teflon trade name. So, they have to say they use PTFE as additive. PTFE is now also made by other chemical companies like ICI (UK) using some other trade names.
3. The PTFE in very fine powder form is mixed in suspension in a base moter oil. It does not dissolve - the instruction in the oil additive bottle say "shake well before use."  The consensus is that it is impossible for these PTFE power in motor oil to somehow coat the moving parts of the engine to provide the "slipperiliness" to work. One of the most faq DuPont gets from the public is "if nothing stick to Teflon, how do you stick the Teflon to the pan?"  Very carefully.. involves sand blasting to pit the surface and coat with some intermediatery polymer.."if I tell you how - I'll have to kill you - <wink><wink>.. "  In any case mixing Teflon powder in oil and shaking violent ain't it!
4. While PTFE is slippery because of it's molecular struture, it is not that slippery under extreme pressure - the kind of pressure and sheer force found in engine bearing is sufficient to distort the molecular chain and thus changes the slippery characteristics. (It is in fact this sheer force breaking down oil molecules that give synethic oil the advantage over nature oil!)
5. Dupont cannot prove that Teflon in motor oil can damage engines. The chem.eng. prof friends at the lunch table agree that diluting moter oil with a plastic power suspension will not do great harm directly. However, they are divided as to whether it will clog up the oil filter.  The consenses is that the size of the PTFE powder is small enough to go through the oil filter pores.  However, it is possible that some PTFE grandule will build up around the edges of the filer pores and eventually dam up the pores.  There is no concenses on how long that process will take (shorter than one filter change cycle?) if at all. There is also no concensus on whether the PTFE will clog oil passage ways or build up around oil orifices.  Eddy currents - not unlike the ones you see in white water rapids can swirl and concentrate particulates in various oil pooled areas in the engine and oil pump and around sharp corners.  Their suggestion is to consult with hydrodynamicist and surface/material sciences professors for the anwser.. or simpler yet, ask mechanics who have torn down engines after prolong use of oil additives!!!

Conclusion: probably harmless... but certainly a waste of money!

Yau-Man Chan
87 GL