Do you miss the days of Everything PTFE / Teflon? Any positive snake oil experiences?

[Mainia]

The only thing I add to my oil now a days, is HPL Engine Cleaner.

 

[SOUNDMAN5000]

Slick 50 as part of every oil change in my 1983 Ford Thunderbird Turbo Coupe back in the day. Went 230k miles before getting rear ended in 1998 and that was that. Burned oil on start from even at 25,000 miles, was the valve guides in that 2.3L engine that were the issue. Oil was cheap, and I don't recall adding oil between the "3,000 mile or your engine will die" intervals that were the rage back in the day. Ran 10w30 Valvoline Turbo V in that engine for most of its life until I couldn't find it anymore.

Interesting tid bit... Remember Arco Graphite? The nastiest black stuff ever to stain a driveway if any got spilled on a change or when adding oil. I ran that (10w40) for an OCI in the summer of 1990. Stuck a ring and that T-Bird made a better mosquito fogger for a bit until I got that oil the heck out of there. As well, my family's 1981 Buick Skylark with the Iron Duke 2.5L stuck a lifter running Arco Graphite 10w40 while on vacation. Local shop in the town we were traveling through put a qt of ATF in the crankcase and by the next town it was freed. Great concept, but I think my family weren't the only ones that had issues.

I do remember seeing the old cans of Arco but I think it was off the market before I started driving in 1981? My good friend had turbo T-Bird, I was a fan as I was a early Ford guy as my fist new car purchase was a 1989 Mustang LX 5.0! Back then not 3K but I did 1,500 mile oil changes in my beloved Mustang! I remember Fords Motorcraft oil was the first oil to get the SF rating...
Boy we come a long way!

 

[Bonz]

Arco Graphite was on the market until the late 80's/early 90's, at least that was when I got mine that I described the issue in the summer of 1990 in my '83 Turbo Coupe. Bought it locally at an auto parts store, could have been NOS that had been sitting around. The issue with it in the Buick Skylark was in the early 80's.

 

[vipergg]

Growing up as a young driver in the 80's - 90's I kinda now miss the late night snake oil TV commercials, The early Slick 50 adds in the back of Popular Science magazine...

Standing in the Snake Oil section of my local auto parts store reading the back of the oil additive bottle that all but promised if I parted with my $50 bill in my pocket my car may run forever!

Personally, I hated to see the PTFE / Teflon fade from the market even with the bad snake oil rep.

I had one very positive experience using PTFE / Teflon!

Back in 1992 my wife then owned a 1990 Mazda Protege ( the base model single OHC ) low milage car 15k miles at the time if I remember, I also had a family member that owned a 1991 Protege ( loaded top model with the Dual OHC engine ).

He asked me one day if my Mazda had a tick in the engine and I responded YES it does have a tick when idling. He informed me he had taken his car in to Mazda because of that noise and his Mazda mechanic suggested a product called T-Plus with PTFE / Teflon and said thats the only fix for the Mazda tick and my family member tried it and it worked!

I start doing my research as everything was all about Teflon engine treatments back then, Fram even put the stuff in a oil filter!

The only place I could then find a bottle of T-Plus was my local K-Mart, The product suggested it was better than Slick 50 as it had much more ( I think it was 3x or 5x the PTFE ) and was also a multi grade base oil when I think Slick 50 was a straight 30W base oil.

If I remember the T-Plus was around $12 and the Slick 50 was $30+ in 1992 money, So yes I had to try it!

When I poured that bottle of T-Plus in the engine I noticed it looked to have lots of PTFE as it was almost white in color! The engine was running as I slowly poured the bottle in and that tick that was always present vanished / faded away AS I was adding that bottle of Snake oil! Like Magic "POOF" Noise ticking 100% gone as soon as I finished pouring that bottle and the noise NEVER CAME BACK!

Thats the only bottle I ever purchased, the only bottle I ever used in that car or any car, I did many normal ( no additive ) oil changes after oil change that tick never returned!

I remember the Slick 50 commercials suggesting you only had to use it once!

Say what you will but a $12 bottle of Snake oil did remove a engine tick and the tick never returned the next 5 years until I no longer owned the car!

So was PTFE / Teflon Snake Oil or did it work for anyone else?

The $8 Bottle of Greased Lightning oil additive was the last product I remember seeing on a auto parts shelf that had PTFE in it, Napa still shows its in stock on the website but I can't find if its still produced?

I know all the negative about Teflon / Dupont and not to be used in oil but am I the only one that can say it did something positive and I kinda miss those late night TV Snake Oil commercials...

I used a great product called Tufoil and I will swear by it to this day even though I no longer use it . I put it in some of my cars back in the 80's and the stuff worked great . The four cylinders were noticeably quieter and ran much smoother than just normal oil . Ran it a long time in my engines , never clogged any oil filters , never had any issues with it . Started much better in cold temps . Think they still make it but don't advertise it like they used to . Makes you wonder if you should run it again seeing they are using these water oils like 0W-8 now .

 

[4WD]

I used a great product called Tufoil and I will swear by it to this day even though I no longer use it . I put it in some of my cars back in the 80's and the stuff worked great . The four cylinders were noticeably quieter and ran much smoother than just normal oil . Ran it a long time in my engines , never clogged any oil filters , never had any issues with it . Started much better in cold temps . Think they still make it but don't advertise it like they used to . Makes you wonder if you should run it again seeing they are using these water oils like 0W-8 now .

Looks like it’s alive and well:

https://www.fluoramics.com/tufoil/

 

[vipergg]

https://www.fluoramics.com/tufoil/

I used this stuff and it worked great and the motors were noticeably quieter . Made a big difference in the old Chrysler 2.2 and 2.5 motors .

 

[vipergg]

Yea, I remember the PeP Boys! As a young driver of 16, I would spend hours reading all the bottles of go fast engine Snake Oil, And I would buy my Rain Dance paste wax! That stuff would last a long time on a car! And a bottle of Turtle Wax Vinyl to wax! Yes my first car has a Vinyl top!
And don't forget the bottle of STP Son Of a Gun for the dash!

I love STP son of gun for vinyl . It softens even older vinyl . I use it on my boat seats which are 26 years old and they feel like brand new .