Disco 2 Additives - Waste Of Time?

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Yes, I have looked up dozens of the SeaFoam vids after stumbling on the first one a couple of months ago, to be honest I tend not to ask about additives here as you can get a right old roasting from the "Snake Oil" brigade who still think electronic ignition in distributors to get rid of points to be sacriligeous and a perversion of nature :eek:



There is an American product from Lucas Lucas oil Heavy Duty oil stabilizer Does it really work? Friction test that I want to try on the old 200Tdi, I've used molyslip in the past with good results in quieting the valve train and also using Wynns "Super Charge" for oil, I used that on the little Peugeot 206 a few months ago after the second oil change and it really helped to reduce some of the rough noises that came out of the engine, smoother and much more refined after that, just the SeaFoam treatment now to try and loosen up and dispose of some of the built up carbons in the rings and combustion chambers and I think it will be back up to a reasonable standard of health.

Obviously I would rather strip it and rebuild it but I also have to factor in the life span of the vehicle, 19yrs old, very basic 1.6 petrol car, doubt it will see another 5yrs under my ownership as I hope to move her over to an all electric car within 2yrs but it is her learners car, my 200Tdi Discovery is being built to take us through the other side of the zombie apocalypse and nothing will stop me from rebuilding the old lump if ever it needs done.

The obvious thing on older trucks is to up the maintenance levels and change oils more frequently than the manual states and especially if they get worked hard in harsh terrains, nothing will last forever when test to it's limits regular ;):)
I have found similar results as the claims of many of the additive "pushers" simply by changing over to full synthetics, (this subject is near punishable by death on here, but, I'll continue), I was convinced of the benifits of synth whilst working a a maintenance engineer for a manufacturing company many many years back, I thought it was worth a try and though more expensive I've had a great run using it in every engined thing since. I have a lawnmower, Briggs and Stratton 3.5hp engine, I've had that mower in constant use since 1977 when I bought it new, still using it, engine never touched except to change air filter and oil once per year. Ducati 450, Wifes car Mitsubishi mirage, my Disco 1 Tdi, Harley Davidson Electra glide 88 Ci, could be imagination but I'd say not, never had any engine problems while using it. Makes gearboxes smoother and engines run nicer, I'm one happy customer.
 
Yes, I have looked up dozens of the SeaFoam vids after stumbling on the first one a couple of months ago, to be honest I tend not to ask about additives here as you can get a right old roasting from the "Snake Oil" brigade who still think electronic ignition in distributors to get rid of points to be sacriligeous and a perversion of nature :eek:



There is an American product from Lucas Lucas oil Heavy Duty oil stabilizer Does it really work? Friction test that I want to try on the old 200Tdi, I've used molyslip in the past with good results in quieting the valve train and also using Wynns "Super Charge" for oil, I used that on the little Peugeot 206 a few months ago after the second oil change and it really helped to reduce some of the rough noises that came out of the engine, smoother and much more refined after that, just the SeaFoam treatment now to try and loosen up and dispose of some of the built up carbons in the rings and combustion chambers and I think it will be back up to a reasonable standard of health.

Obviously I would rather strip it and rebuild it but I also have to factor in the life span of the vehicle, 19yrs old, very basic 1.6 petrol car, doubt it will see another 5yrs under my ownership as I hope to move her over to an all electric car within 2yrs but it is her learners car, my 200Tdi Discovery is being built to take us through the other side of the zombie apocalypse and nothing will stop me from rebuilding the old lump if ever it needs done.

The obvious thing on older trucks is to up the maintenance levels and change oils more frequently than the manual states and especially if they get worked hard in harsh terrains, nothing will last forever when test to it's limits regular ;):)

Worst additive I ever used was Radiator Stop Leak! Was 19 years old and driving my first car - an old '63 Cortina. I kept a full watering can in the back seat floor to replenish the radiator on longer trips! Radiator Stop Leak looked like the go! Poured in a bottle - seemed to work, so I poured in another bottle for good measure to well and truly fix the problem!!! Result - engine overheated! Ended up with an old coat hanger and the head off slowly removing all the gloopy Stop Leak from the cooling channels and then gave it all a good flush and put in a radiator I picked up from the wreckers! Caused me so much pain! Definitely open to additives if they come with independent assessment - seems to be a lot of spin and marketing around some though - those Stop Leak promotions got me!
 
There has been a lot written about additives, but some of the best results for TD5's and indeed for many diesels appear to come from adding 500ml of MINERAL two stroke oil to a full tank (100litres) of diesel. This is at the rate of 5ml oil per litre diesel. They seem to like this, I believe as a result of the lack of sulphur in modern diesel fuels, but the sulphur acts as an upper cylinder lubricant. I, as do many others on D2BC run mine with the appropriate amount of 2SO in it and it loves it, runs much smoother, maybe a little quieter. Many have found the same. Another alternative is to use premium diesel from BP or Shell and NEVER supermarket fuel. Your choice.

Tony
 
There has been a lot written about additives, but some of the best results for TD5's and indeed for many diesels appear to come from adding 500ml of MINERAL two stroke oil to a full tank (100litres) of diesel. This is at the rate of 5ml oil per litre diesel. They seem to like this, I believe as a result of the lack of sulphur in modern diesel fuels, but the sulphur acts as an upper cylinder lubricant. I, as do many others on D2BC run mine with the appropriate amount of 2SO in it and it loves it, runs much smoother, maybe a little quieter. Many have found the same. Another alternative is to use premium diesel from BP or Shell and NEVER supermarket fuel. Your choice.

Tony
Our two large supermarket chains over here own most of the petrol (service) stations so no problem with supermarket fuel. Some fuel is refined locally, but more and more is coming out of super refineries in SE Asia. Again, it would be good if an independent, statistically robust test was done on fuel from different suppliers to see where the differences lie - suspect not much difference these days.
 
I have an ESSO and Apple Green petrol stations on the island where I fill up, TBH I have found them to be cheaper than the supermarket fuel stations, Tesco use ESSO fuels and they're actually good quality, they only work out cheaper when there is a store promo such as recently 10p off a liter when you spend £50 or more, Morrison's the same, use SHELL fuels and give promo pence off a liter over a certain value of groceries.

No caustic baths coming but I am going to be testing out some oven cleaner redneck degreasing of a new secondhand gearbox & bellhousing awaiting fitting on my drive.
 
I have an ESSO and Apple Green petrol stations on the island where I fill up, TBH I have found them to be cheaper than the supermarket fuel stations, Tesco use ESSO fuels and they're actually good quality, they only work out cheaper when there is a store promo such as recently 10p off a liter when you spend £50 or more, Morrison's the same, use SHELL fuels and give promo pence off a liter over a certain value of groceries.

No caustic baths coming but I am going to be testing out some oven cleaner redneck degreasing of a new secondhand gearbox & bellhousing awaiting fitting on my drive.

Yeah, watch the hot caustic baths - still remember the young bloke's face after he seen the big sign on the Monday morning and realised his block was aluminium!
 
Worst additive I ever used was Radiator Stop Leak! Was 19 years old and driving my first car - an old '63 Cortina. I kept a full watering can in the back seat floor to replenish the radiator on longer trips! Radiator Stop Leak looked like the go! Poured in a bottle - seemed to work, so I poured in another bottle for good measure to well and truly fix the problem!!! Result - engine overheated! Ended up with an old coat hanger and the head off slowly removing all the gloopy Stop Leak from the cooling channels and then gave it all a good flush and put in a radiator I picked up from the wreckers! Caused me so much pain! Definitely open to additives if they come with independent assessment - seems to be a lot of spin and marketing around some though - those Stop Leak promotions got me!
Used as proscribed Rad stop leaker is a reasonably good, "get me home" cure for some leaks, has helped me a couple of times but ive also heard that cracking an egg into the rad can work, never tried that one though, I dont like poached eggs.
 
Used as proscribed Rad stop leaker is a reasonably good, "get me home" cure for some leaks, has helped me a couple of times but ive also heard that cracking an egg into the rad can work, never tried that one though, I dont like poached eggs.

Yeah, when you're young you always think if a little is good then a lot must be better - did apply to one thing though!:D:eek:
 
Fifth Gear dyno test Redex with surprising[ly positive] results


Well there was some science there, although often these tests don't take statistical variation into account and simply relate any improvement/detriment on a single test to whatever "controlled" change was made, nevertheless the Redex looked like it did something didn't it!? Don't think we can get hold of Redex easily here in Australia - wonder what a good equivalent (for a diesel) would be over here? Will have a look.
 
'Redex' is just a brand name for a upper cylinder lubricant or injection cleaner along their other automotive products, the company has been around a long time, since we purchased our fuel in gallons, petrol had a star rating and when Redex was free issue at the petrol pumps, one shot for each gallon from a hand held dispenser.

Anyway the shouldn't be an issue in obtaining an equivalent product in Australia.
 
Well there was some science there, although often these tests don't take statistical variation into account and simply relate any improvement/detriment on a single test to whatever "controlled" change was made, nevertheless the Redex looked like it did something didn't it!? Don't think we can get hold of Redex easily here in Australia - wonder what a good equivalent (for a diesel) would be over here? Will have a look.
Free rev, hold on governor for 5 minutes continuous, pray that the governor works.
I was doing work on a 398 Caterpillar V12 in a loco that had been sat on a wharf at Townsville, hadn't run for years, lots of rust about it all over.
Cranked it up and added a bit of stuff called "start yer bastid", I kid you not, Aerostart on steroids, through a plug in the inlet manifold, the bastid sure started. But the governor and overspeed bolts were seized in the IP, up she ran up getting faster and faster, theyre a bluddy beast at the best of times but this thing with rusted exhaust was absolutely thundering.
Chucking stuff over the turbo compressor air inlets didn't work because they were rusted out, only way to stop it going into orbit was to slacken the flare nuts on the lines to all 12 injectors. I had been abandoned by all my crew colleagues and got drowned in diesel, as each inject stroke of the pump puts out about as much juice as an bull elephant ejaculation, all the while expecting the engine to explode and go into deep space orbit, fu'kin' scary! But the 398 started good every time after that "tune up", governor and o/s bolts freed accordingly.
 
Did you see this video?

He compares the cylinder head of a lawn mover BEFORE and AFTER seafoam. The sea-foam Iooks to have made a bit of a difference - but as one of the commentators noted, any carbon deposits in this part of the engine (forged under heat and pressure) tend to be denser - finer, tougher crystalline structure. I seen a Liqui-Moly product that you spray into the intake downstream of the MAF and it gets good reviews, but it's not cheap? Would just love to see an independent, lab-based assessment of some of the additive engine cleaners.


have u seen the videos where people inject water into there engines :eek:
 
Hard to say chemically and scientifically, but just in my experience the answer is no, for oil additives at least.
I owned an "E" type Jag for 15 years, got talked into putting a very expensive "liquid teflon" additive into the engine early in my ownership, I had the sump and head off to do timing chains after a few years of running, found the "additive" just sitting in the bottom of the sump, in its own stratified layer like a sludge, hadn't mixed at all well with the engine oil and seemingly never drained out properly with oil changes. Never used additives of any sort since then, oil, fuel or anything except what a manufacturer calls for, except I always use full synthetic engine and gearbox oils, (but that's a subject best stayed away from on here). Use the best quality oil in the recommended range spec'd by the oem you can afford is a good policy.
Your inlet manifold is only subject to incoming air, to remove deposits it may be better to remove the manifold and give it a caustic bath to remove the baked on crud, as we used to do with our ancient two stroke motorcycle exhausts back in the 50's, before "low ash" two stroke oils were developed.
Additives could come into the "smoke and mirrors" area.

for me i also wouldn’t ever add these, only ever used millers and that was it , see so many things on the market would scare the life out of me injecting into my engine

see all sorts of utube videos where people try different ideas

think the magnet saving mpg was one of the funniest ones
 
There has been a lot written about additives, but some of the best results for TD5's and indeed for many diesels appear to come from adding 500ml of MINERAL two stroke oil to a full tank (100litres) of diesel. This is at the rate of 5ml oil per litre diesel. They seem to like this, I believe as a result of the lack of sulphur in modern diesel fuels, but the sulphur acts as an upper cylinder lubricant. I, as do many others on D2BC run mine with the appropriate amount of 2SO in it and it loves it, runs much smoother, maybe a little quieter. Many have found the same. Another alternative is to use premium diesel from BP or Shell and NEVER supermarket fuel. Your choice.

Tony
Never heard of that before! So it actually does some good then? I always use good diesel and put a bit of Redex in at every fill but it's a bit dear.Always change oil every3k miles too with good gear and Mahle filters. I'm probably wasting money but I was always told oil and grease are the cheapest thing in the world
 
For oil treatment I use ZX1, after seeing the demo on their stand at Billing, so I purchased a bottle of the stuff and pored it into my RR engine and started the engine and after 10min the idle speed went up from 700 to 2000 rpm, so it was doing something, and I then find someone with an hex key so I could readjust the idle, as I expected at a Land Rover show everyone had a toolkit with allsorts of spanners... that's except me.
I used the stuff again in my disco but this time as the engine speed increased it was quickly taken care of by the ECU,

In my early motoring days STP was the stuff to use

http://www.team-zx1.com/
 
have u seen the videos where people inject water into there engines :eek:
What ya need is the water they use in nuclear reactors to absorb stray neutrons, the old "heavy water" (the deuterium isotope of hydrogen in the H2O - that's the good stuff!) they get it from 'ere in Australia - all the heavy water flows to downunder!:D We use it in our engines down 'ere - let me tell ya, when they go - they sure do glow!:D:eek: Yes, on a serious note, I don't think I'll try water just yet, but always keep an open mind I say!
 
What ya need is the water they use in nuclear reactors to absorb stray neutrons, the old "heavy water" (the deuterium isotope of hydrogen in the H2O - that's the good stuff!) they get it from 'ere in Australia - all the heavy water flows to downunder!:D We use it in our engines down 'ere - let me tell ya, when they go - they sure do glow!:D:eek: Yes, on a serious note, I don't think I'll try water just yet, but always keep an open mind I say!

lol, plus don’t forget ur sea is heavier as it’s at the bottom of the earth , oh hang on that’s not right , the world is flat :eek:;):D
 
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