Seal and gasket conditioner additives
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None that I wold trust in an already formulated oil.
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Deleted member 89374
Lucas Heavy Duty Oil Stabilizer will get rid of your leaks along with your engine
Seriously though, I recommended you use some high mileage oil but if you can't replace the leaking seals, try Castrol EDGE 0W-40. That's about as thick I would go if I had your engine. It will not do any miracles for you, but keep the rest of the engine running well until you fix it. Don't expect any miracle products that claim they seal leaks to actually work. They will probably do more harm than good.
You mentioned that your rear main seal was leaking. There is no way to permanently fix that with an additive or some miracle product. It needs to be replaced.
There is no such thing as a chemical that "conditions" a seal or gasket that is in a state of physical failure- if it needs 'conditioning" it needs replacing.
You can do a few work arounds on leaks and such but that's all they are and eventually they will stop working around.
There is a legitimate circumstance for them so they aren't bad per se but don't buy the hype that anything has been 'made better"
"here is no such thing as a chemical that "conditions" a seal or gasket that is in a state of physical failure- if it needs 'conditioning" it needs replacing."
There are seal swelling esters that will make a dry hard elastomer soft again and will swell in size. "dry" oils will over time casue seal shrinkage and drying out so it will NOT follow the crankshaft or whatever any more allowing leaks a quality PCMO will acount for this.
There are seal swelling esters that will make a dry hard elastomer soft again and will swell in size. "dry" oils will over time casue seal shrinkage and drying out so it will NOT follow the crankshaft or whatever any more allowing leaks a quality PCMO will acount for this.
Actually no but there is a lot of misleading ( badly worded) and simply wrong information published on this.
It also depends on the exact composition of the seals so it cannot be answered in a broad shotgun manner and be correct either.
I do the seal forensics so listen to the "other side" from what they say- not just from the view of the oil blenders.
But in general terms......
PAOs often shrink many seal material recipes whereas Esters will swell them- that's a known condition and blenders frequently put additional additives in them to enhance or retard these effects for the specific recipe.
However, when a seal material degrades ( usually due to a combination of factors such as chemical attack, simple age, heat and pressure) it physically changes the compound. Depending on the material and effect, this can be a surface condition or over the entire compound.
A separate consideration is the mechanical properties of the seal such as shaft fit, abrasive wear at the contact surface, surface finish, contact geometry and garter tension.
so, depending on a host of variables the naked eye cannot detect, identify or discern,- just dumping a new chemical in there that may cause a temporary reaction and shrink/swell a part of a seal can have unknown and undesirable consequences in both shot and long term usage.
But in no case do these additives "fix" anything or even "condition" ( insert word of choice here) the seal material.
D
Deleted member 89374
Don't these seals degrade due to heat cycles and age?
What happens if you use a motor oil like Red Line that is mostly made of PAO?
Absolutely, I believe I said that upthread
Honestly, little to nothing. Let me explain that.
The blender has done the homework and has balanced his recipe with whatever benefits (or liabilities) the PAO may bring with whatever other additives are required.
He also knows that he is not going to do something radical that has the potential to possibly react with "brand X" oil and cause some kind of reaction leading to damage. ( doesn't want the lawsuits or brand tarnish and stigma)
In short, there will be very little significant actual performance improvement horizontally between oils in a particular class and about the same vertically between top line oils and things such as High Mileage. ( "very little" does not mean "none")
Most of this is simply advertising hype trying to psychologically influence you to believe there is a difference you "perceive" so you will buy and secondly promote the product to others. This is where you are conditioned to desire an outcome then if it happens to anecdotally attribute it to the product. ( that's old marketing psychology)
Ask yourself this.
What did we ever do before High Mileage oils existed? ( we did nothing except maybe fix the problem or trade the car)
Since the most benefit comes from viscosity making it leak through the holes less- just bump up the grade and be done with it.
Yes they degrade with heat cycles and age, a fact of life. The short answer is the oil you mentioned "may" help, and it "may" not help. Bottom line is nothing lasts forever, and a lot of money can be wasted trying to make something that wasn't designed to last forever, last forever. A good oil and a good maintenance schedule will help to extend engine life, how long? No one knows for sure.
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Deleted member 89374
That's all true. I might add that how you drive your vehicle and use it also has something to with how long it lasts, as well as where you live. Car manufacturers definitively didn't intend for vehicles to last forever, that's for sure.
agree on this
Along with this, if seals and gaskets are worn and leaky, does a conventional, synthetic blend, or full synthetic make a difference in terms of how much leaks out?
D
Deleted member 89374
Nope. All motor oils are blends of various base stocks and what the manufacturer is looking for are characteristics, so these days it's more marketing than anything. It works wonders on our minds though. As a last-ditch effort try this along with Castrol EDGE 0W-40: https://www.amazon.com/Lubegard-LG-...rds=lubegard+anti+leak&qid=1599242636&sr=8-18
Follow the directions to a "tee". Lubegard seems to be as serious as they come when it comes to this kind of stuff.
I can obviously see that you're concerned about your mode of transportation and probably due to budgetary constraints you're not able to get the car fixed properly or trade it in for something better.
The solution above is what I would do. I had my share of leaky cars in the early to mid-2000s so I kept several quarts of ATF and Castrol GTX 10w30 in the vehicle with me at all times. When I stopped at a gas station it was more like "check your fuel and fill your oil
".Bearing in mind my "leak auditing" experience is 99.9% industrial ( not automotive) and as such we generally are petroleum or synthetic (no blends) so there could be a third choice but....
I have never witnessed a difference between the two so I'll say IMO no, it makes no difference.
I have seen different viscosity ( going thicker) slow class 2 leaks to a class 1 but never really seen a difference on class 3 leaks
Hope that helps you
@ABN_CBT_ENGR , this is somewhat of an off-topic question.
Is seal compatibility still a significant issue with differential oils? When GM first launched Dexron-LS gear oil, they required for the axle seals to be replaced prior to using the new oil due to a seal compatibility issue.
https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2014/SB-10069269-9133.pdf
I always thought that seal compatibility (with oil), especially for gear oils, is a non-issue these days. Thoughts?
Is seal compatibility still a significant issue with differential oils? When GM first launched Dexron-LS gear oil, they required for the axle seals to be replaced prior to using the new oil due to a seal compatibility issue.
https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2014/SB-10069269-9133.pdf
I always thought that seal compatibility (with oil), especially for gear oils, is a non-issue these days. Thoughts?
I'm not going to speak for another, but the API gear oil licenses also require ASTM seal compatibility tests such as ASTM D5662.
My best answer is... ( this has come up before and i have had numerous conferences with both seal and oil OEMs over the years and the answers are consistent)
In industry, there is no such thing as taking seal compatibility for granted because of the lubricant, process chemicals, etc. ( whole different animal)
Its my understanding from what little fleet stuff I do that in the automotive world there are standard seal materials and they are tested for compatibility with the major standards and as such its not a consideration these days. I tend to believe that is correct because nobody hears of incidents where oil "X" has a reputation for killing seals.
I do know of some situations outside of that standard but those are still industrial applications and not a concern for the average car owner.
Thanks. In other words, it is generally a non-issue due to standardized seal compatibility test and materials, but there are always "one-off" situations....and that TSB may be an example.
I would think so and a "one off" could be on either side of the seal
It could be the environment external to a seal damaging it from that end or a "special sauce" mixed with the oil for reasons aplenty.
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