"Engine Restorer" VOA
- Thread starter Racer USA
- Start date
JHZR2
Staff member
I feel like there was one long, long ago. Feel free to search.
I bought a can of that stuff several years ago, when they were marketing it on TV every 5 minutes. It's still sitting on the shelf. To be perfectly honest I don't know why I bought it. Perhaps I'll try it in my 1985 Honda generator if it ever gets, "tired".
I did the same thing with "Prolong" back in the 90's. All of this crap works about the same. If they poured it on the ground, instead of into your engine, you would never know the difference.
I did the same thing with "Prolong" back in the 90's. All of this crap works about the same. If they poured it on the ground, instead of into your engine, you would never know the difference.
dnewton3
Staff member
https://www.restoreusa.com/
Not one bit of truly useful info on their site; no PDS or (more importantly) a SDS.
A very long page of garbage marketing talk on the FAQ page and the only thing I can find of interest is the following quote:
That's a hard pass for me.
Not one bit of truly useful info on their site; no PDS or (more importantly) a SDS.
A very long page of garbage marketing talk on the FAQ page and the only thing I can find of interest is the following quote:
"CSL is an extreme pressure EP lubricant that provides extraordinary lubricating protection beyond the range of normal motor oil. As a solid lubricant, it protects the metal surface of engine components under severe conditions when the liquid hydrodynamic oil film breaks down.
RESTORE does not contain polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), zinc dialkyldithiophosphate (ZDDP), chlorinated paraffins, naphthalene, xylene, acetone, isopropanol, sulphur compounds, or any other chemicals which could potentially harm the engine."
That's a hard pass for me.
That the can says, "8 Cylinder Formula", is enough for me.
NOTE: The letters "B" & "S" are not to be found in "8 Cylinder Formula".
NOTE: The letters "B" & "S" are not to be found in "8 Cylinder Formula".
8 cylinder sized bottle might be what is meant, but 8 cylinder formula does sound more... tailored.
Does this version include those miracle pellets you drop in the spark plug holes to fill the wear areas on your cylinders, pistons and rings as you drive to increase compression and reduce oil burning? Then it's some good stuff.
Even that doesn't make sense. My old LT1 5.7L V8 takes 5 quarts. My wife's 3.7L V6 takes 6 quarts. It's just some marketing nonsense catered to the "more is better" crowd. Gullible people with V8s will see it and go "oh, made just for me!" and the gullible people with 4 and 6 cylinders will see it and go "Oh, it's good enough for a V8, it'll be great for my little 4 banger!"
Marketing is 80% psychology, 20% sales trends, and 100% BS! Generally, the more flashy advertisement and deceptive marketing tactics a brand uses, the more I'm skeptical of them. It's one of the reasons I like HPL so much. A good product will sell itself. Just look at NHRA where Lucas oil pumps millions upon millions a year into advertising. HPL pays out $0 in advertising, and yet more than half of the Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle fields use HPL.
If the product is "designed to" fill in cylinder imperfections and increase perfection, wouldn't an increase in the surface area to be treated merit an increase in the amount of product use?
I'm not for or against this particular snake oil, but the wording on the can makes sense to me.
I added a can of Restore in 1990 to the engine in my 1976 Buick Electra 225 (with a Buick 350 engine) and drove several hundred miles on the highways immediately after and nothing changed. No increase in gas mileage, no increase in engine power, no extra get up and go, no decreased oil consumption (of course the engine did not burn oil), nothing.
Good thing I only paid about $5 for the can (it was on closeout) or else I really would have been miffed!
Good thing I only paid about $5 for the can (it was on closeout) or else I really would have been miffed!
Pretending for a second that it's actually useful in such a way, the concentration in the oil would have a rather big impact.
I recall a product like this, perhaps this is the actual product, it contained a lot lead. Would temporarily restore compression but lead to other problems with time. CAT failure and emissions problems? Possible use, getting a final year out of a lawnmower.
1988 S-10 2.5 4 banger. Work truck. Used oil and engine shook worse then it should have. I put in 1/2 bottle V8 stuff. After about 50'ish miles the engine did idle smoother, almost stopped using oil and it had more power. It worked for me. I got 90K miles out that little truck.
of course it is, didn't need spelling out, which is why I didn't
guy i worked with used it on his 1.8t 2001 golf. he did compression tests before and after, and it did indeed bump the compression up and slightly reduced oil consumption. we were all very surprised
Maybe post the question on one of the hooptie forums. Not many people will admit to using the stuff here letalone spring for a VOA. I mean, if you're tying to save a buck on repairing your engine, you ain't going to spend money on an oil analysis.
I’m not entirely sure what a spectrographic analysis would show in terms of effectiveness.
MolaKule
Staff member
"This product stems from a 1980 patent which originally had lead and copper spheroids suspended in an oil carrier (what we call a "colloid.") and they later added some silver particles as well, but the silver ratio is very low.
A thin film of this colloidal material spread out on a glass plate will glitter in bright sunlight.
The original patent had the diameter of the spheroids as high as 20 microns so a large percentage of the suspended spheroids could conceivably be trapped by a filter's synthetic media. [Later they said 8 microns].
This product was for use in a highly worn engines and I don't see any useful application in any engine that is not worn and on its last "leg."
The theory was the soft metallic particles would fill worn surface voids such as scratches in cylinder walls and increase compression Temporarily and until the engine could be rebuilt. There were no factual tests that showed this product could rebuild bearings.
Using this stuff in a non-worn engine simply increases the particulate load which may be filtered-out by more modern filter media, and may actually interfere with the clearances between say the piston ring and the cylinder wall in a good engine.
A search would have found this:
https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/engine-restorer-glittery-oil.329256/page-2#post-5476522
A thin film of this colloidal material spread out on a glass plate will glitter in bright sunlight.
The original patent had the diameter of the spheroids as high as 20 microns so a large percentage of the suspended spheroids could conceivably be trapped by a filter's synthetic media. [Later they said 8 microns].
This product was for use in a highly worn engines and I don't see any useful application in any engine that is not worn and on its last "leg."
The theory was the soft metallic particles would fill worn surface voids such as scratches in cylinder walls and increase compression Temporarily and until the engine could be rebuilt. There were no factual tests that showed this product could rebuild bearings.
Using this stuff in a non-worn engine simply increases the particulate load which may be filtered-out by more modern filter media, and may actually interfere with the clearances between say the piston ring and the cylinder wall in a good engine.
A search would have found this:
https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/engine-restorer-glittery-oil.329256/page-2#post-5476522
