Does anyone have any technical knowledge of whether 'Slick 50' or similar products are OK for the Impreza Turbo Engine & Gearbox. I have used the products before in other vehicles and found benefits in fuel economy and ease of shifting. As well as peace of mind should there be a problem with oil flow for some reason.

Mick

 

A tale from old...

A few years back a tuner that built me an engine commented on Slick50.

He said..

"We built 2 identical engines from new parts and put them side-by-side on a dyno. The difference in hp was around 5bhp and used as a constant.
We ran the engines for 2 days solid on varying loads, one with normal oil and the other with oil+Slick50.
During and after the 2 day run the power difference was...5bhp. Each engine has loosened up a little and was showing increases in power/torque but the charts showed no difference that could be put down to an additive.
Our advice..if you have a new(ish) engine then you're wasting your time/money. There may be some benefit on an older not-so-well-maintained engine cos the Slick50 apparently dissolves deposits.
We sent our results to Slick50, they threatened to sue if we published them or gave to a magazine and said the tests were unfair/wrongly done etc"

So..unless you have an older (knackered?) engine whats the point ?

 

DON'T DO IT!

The lubrication system is not designed for particulate additives of the PTFE type. You risk damaging your engine by reducing oil flow in the filter and by constriction of running clearances in the engine.

Use the money to buy good quality engine oil instead. Same applies to transmission, if you must, then drain and refill with high grade synthetic gear oil.

checkout [URL=http://www.miata.net/garage/slickftc.htm]

[This message has been edited by WESTFIELD (edited 07-08-1999).]

 

Cool!
Thanks for the advice. I have used the product assuming the advertising was genuine test results.
It seems as you say a good quality synthetic oil would be the best option. Any advice on brands or is 'Halfords' synthetic as good as 'Mobil1' etc.

Thanks

Mick

 

See other threads about oil on this bulletin board.

I think the handbook recommends 10W-40, but the most common Mobil1 oil is 0W-40. According to my old 4-stroke tuning book (first published 1981) this means that 0W-40 oil has the characteristics of a 0W oil at low temperatures and of 40SAE at high temperatures. Hence it flows well when cold. But the vi improvers used to achieve this are not necessarily completely stable at high shear loads and can temporarily loose their structure resulting in the protection afforded by the base oil. Hence 10W-40 oil will offer more protection than 0W-40 oil in extreme conditions.

Having said that I use Mobil1 with the blessing of my dealer, but it is recommended in the new reference book from MRT that mineral oil be used at least until the first 7.5K service. Apparently the engine bores are quite hard and it takes some time to bed-in the rings. The protection afforded by a fully synthetic oil slows down the bed-in process.

UK cars are supposed to be supplied with running in oil which is changed at 1K miles so I'm not sure about the relevance of this. (Are new cars supplied to the Australia market filled with running in oil?)

Anyway I think that I would rather trust in the formulation of Mobil1 0W-40 than use some other brand of 10W-40 oil.

 

Subaru Factory DO NOT reccommend Mobil 1 synthetic oil - its too thin and will not give the required protection - You should use 10-30 or 10-40.
Subaru UK is factory advised to use Shell Helix 10-40

 

OK - so we have SUBARU recommendation for engine oil, Dr Hu. How about the best oil for the gear box ?

 

I think you will (correctly) find that Power Engineering, amongst others, state that the NORMAL Mobil 1 is TOO THIN and to only use Mobil 1 MOTORSPORT

All oils are NOT the same - use the best you can afford - after all it only stops every moving part rubbing together!