Tufoil

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I recently heard about Tufoil, "the most slippery substance known to man." It sounds like it might have potential. Has anyone had any real experience with this product? I have heard good things, read some mixed reviews and found that it has quite the steep price tag. What do you guys think?
 
well if it's really expensive it must be good...LOL
Only kidding, 20 yrs or so ago i had a guy that sold that stuff (im pretty sure it was that stuff)come into my engine shop saying it was the best stuff on earth. We bought some of it just to see if we noticed any difference we did not and figured it was just another brand of snake oil. My professional belief is that the oil makers spend millions on r&d and they blend their oils based on all their research so i personally would buy oil and not try to out blend them.
 
Thanks for the input crazyoildude!

Originally Posted By: Trav
Genuine snake oil. Just another worthless PTFE concoction.


That is a strong opinion. Any particular reason why?
 
Their website says,

"How does Tufoil affect engine wear?
Tufoil stands head and shoulders above the rets. We have run thousands of abrasion tests in our lab over the last 25 years and no other oil additive performs close to Tufoil. For results of these tests call us and we'll be happy to send them to you FREE of charge."

Seems like they are confident in their product and it looks like this would be a good place to start. Has anyone done this already?
 
Long ago I used Tufoil for a while. They had pretty convincing advertising compared to Slick50 and there was even an article in Popular Mechanics Magazine about Tufoil. I owned a used Toyota Corolla station wagon car that ran good but the engine rattled a little on startup. The Tufoil seemed to help with that which made me believe even more that Tufoil worked. It never really occurred to me that I probably could have achieved similar results by using STP or 20W50 motor oil in the summertime.

The last time I checked they were still using the same old advertising. And most experts have concluded that PTFE should not be used in car engines (or probably any solid particles at all). So several years ago I moved away from using Tufoil. I think it was a mistake for me to use it but I guess it was a good learning experience.

I was always interested in every new oil supplement because I guess I did not really trust the big oil companies. And actually motor oil several years ago certainly was not as good as today. But I have tried relatively few products over the years.

Today I have pretty much moved away from oil supplements. I still like Lubegard products and I liked Schaeffer's Oil engine supplement. And for cleaning I think MMO and Kreen are useful. And beyond that just fuel system cleaner like Techron and fuel stabilizer for the lawnmower and weed trimmer engines.

The only Tufoil product I might be willing to try today would be their PTFE gun oil. A guy who makes .45 handguns (can't remember his name offhand) said that the gun oil was pretty good. And he was not trying to promote Tufoil products. He had his own gun oil and gun grease products.
 
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Even if I dont go for the engine oil additive, I am always looking to try a new firearm lubricant!
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Thanks for the review Mystik!
 
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If you try the Tufoil gun oil let me know what you think about it. I have never tried it. I would not recommend the engine PTFE additive. Most people seem to agree today that solid particles should not be used in an engine. And motor oils today are much better than when Tufoil first came out.

Even when it comes to gun lubes I think you can do better. At this time I recommend CorrosionX for gun lubrication and protecting a gun from corrosion. But use something else to clean, such as Hoppes Elite.

But I am curious as to how well Tufoil gun oil lubricates and protects.
 
Dupont themselves say teflon is not recommended for use in engines.
This is another case of a good lubricant being exploited by additive makers. PTFE works great in other products like grease and dry lubes.
 
Originally Posted By: jk_636
Thanks for the input crazyoildude!
Originally Posted By: Trav
Genuine snake oil. Just another worthless PTFE concoction.

That is a strong opinion. Any particular reason why?

PTFE or Teflon is not a particularly good thing in engine oil. Dupont, who invented Teflon (and owns the rights to the Teflon name) prohibits the use of the name in connection with engine oil additives. Search this forum or the net - responsible studies have only cast PTFE-as-oil-additive in a bad light. For example:
Originally Posted By: NASA Lewis Research Center, from a footnote in Wikipedia's article Oil Additives
"In the types of bearing surface contact we have looked at, we have seen no benefit [from presence of PTFE]. In some cases we have seen detrimental effect. The solids in the oil tend to accumulate at inlets and act as a dam, which simply blocks the oil from entering. Instead of helping, it is actually depriving parts of lubricant."

Here's word straight from the horse's mouth"
Originally Posted By: Dupont
DuPont's Fluoropolymers Division Product Specialist, J.F. Imbalzano said, "Teflon is not useful as an ingredient in oil additives or oils used for internal combustion engines."

This is not intended as a negative comment on Teflon - it's great stuff, but just not as an engine oil additive.

A popular infomercial scam (which almost always involves a PTFE-based additive) is to put in the additive, run the engine a a bit, drain out all the oil, and then drive off into the sunset. Of course, you could have done exactly the same without the additive (and after 12.63 miles - and off camera - your engine will be toast). For whatever reasons, the scammers truly love PTFE. Maybe because it permits them to have short, dramatic Youtube video demos that look really neat (and mean really nothing).

Another user mentioned the FTC vs. Slick-50 case (Slick-50 being another PTFE additive). At the end of that case, Slick-50 went bankrupt. The name 'Slick-50' was sold to an Ohio company who still makes an oil additive with the same name, but it's a whole different product.

Maybe someday, someone will figure out how to use PTFE/Teflon in motor oil. That day has not yet arrived.
 
PTFE is a great oil additive.
Tufoil is something you should test for yourself.

When Dupont heard about slick50, they were just mad because they didnt think of it first. Slander away when you miss a great opportunity.

But, this is a Tufoil thread and not a slick50 thread.

The armchair bandits that never have used Tufoil tend to be the loudest naysayers.
 
So you have used it with good result?

Also, I just contacted tufoil to get the results of the tests. I will post them when delivered if anyone is interested! Thanks for all the feedback so far. Looks like there are more nays than yays...
 
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The only good place for Teflon is as a thickener in greases or as a solid coating on lightly loaded bearings and journals.
 
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Originally Posted By: jk_636
Their website says,

"How does Tufoil affect engine wear?
Tufoil stands head and shoulders above the rets. We have run thousands of abrasion tests in our lab over the last 25 years and no other oil additive performs close to Tufoil. For results of these tests call us and we'll be happy to send them to you FREE of charge."

Seems like they are confident in their product and it looks like this would be a good place to start. Has anyone done this already?


What do you expect them to say? Every oil add website claims their stuff works.
 
I have not checked out the Tufoil website in a long time but the last time I was there they were using some of the same advertising they had been using for a very long time. That is one thing that made me wonder. If the product is so great they should have some new examples.
 
For those of you who may be interested, I heard back from Tufoil and they emailed me the results of the four ball test they performed. This literature was published in a 1993 Tufoil newsletter...so it is not terribly recent. They sent me a 5 page document of how their oil faired during the test with some miscelaneous charts, graphs etc. I have only uploaded the results page, due to the file size of the document. It appears to be older research that was performed by the Tufoil company itself and not a third party. I can't say this is a deal breaker, but engines have changed quite a bit since 1993, and I really was hoping for something a little more recent and solid. Enjoy
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I just now checked out the Tufoil website and they are still using as far as I can determine some of the advertising they were using literally years ago. Can't they at least have some new advertising? I don't think you will see Exxon/Mobil running the same commercial for 20 years.

Some of the statements they are making and examples they give are exactly the same, as far as I can determine, as when I last used Tufoil, which was a very long time ago. I last used Tufoil some time before 1994 when I bought my first Saturn new car. So something like 20 years. I did not use Tufoil in any new Saturn car that I bought. In fact I do not believe I used Tufoil in the new Toyota Tercel that I bought before I bought my first Saturn car.

The website itself is different in appearance but I distinctly remember some of the examples they used. As far as I am able to determine some of the examples are word for word the same. For example they have a diagram that supposedly shows how much better Tufoil reduces friction compared to various motor oils. To the best of my memory that is the same diagram that I saw many years ago.

Maybe they need some updated advertising and new examples.
 
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