Cobie Fair Posted April 17, 2023 Report Posted April 17, 2023 Hi Vinny, Lots of questions but let's start with viscosity and engine temp. Specifically, now long do I have to wait to start driving (in this case my car)? Some say most engine damage is done at start up. Some say oil pressure happens very quickly, but others say you must warm the engine. Can you fill us in on this, specifically how long to warm an engine before using it? Can one drive slowly/easily in the beginning? What part of the engine gets the most wear if driven too hard to cold? Quote
Hotfoot Posted April 25, 2023 Report Posted April 25, 2023 This is a great question, following! Quote
ktk_ace Posted April 25, 2023 Report Posted April 25, 2023 not sure if i can chime in on my observations BUUUUT on all the fancypants LCD screen bikes... the redline is visibly LOWER on startup (starting at 5500RPM) and starts to increase as temps go up... I think bmw knows whats up but wont share. Quote
Vinny Russo Posted April 26, 2023 Report Posted April 26, 2023 Thanks fir the question Cobie. I would like to add that my answers are all based on "when using the proper engine oil". Some say most engine damage is done at start up. - I agree, that most "wear" happens on start-up. Some say oil pressure happens very quickly, but others say you must warm the engine. - There is oil pressure immediately, but only the optimum range when the oil is warmed up. How long to warm an engine before using it? - A vehicle can be driven straight away, but would not take to any extremes until warmed up. Can one drive slowly/easily in the beginning? - Yes. What part of the engine gets the most wear if driven too hard to cold? - The tightest fitting areas inside an engine. EX -piston areas, cam lobes,camshaft bearings etc.. 2 Quote
Cobie Fair Posted January 29 Author Report Posted January 29 Liqui Moly use in my personal cars: You'd expect me to have a biased opinion, but I can say this factually: A number of us at School pay retail to run LM in our personal vehicles. I just took a trip to NM from Calif in my 2010 GMC Sierra truck. Right before we left, did an oil change, and added the fuel treatment (for trucks, with larger gas tanks). If I get 18mpg in that truck, that's very good. I got over 19mpg. Just changed the oil in my '06 Mustang, added the Ceratech. Best mileage I've gotten on that car too. Mixed mileage part fwy, part city driving, 18mpg is reasonable. Got over 19. This isn't a long-term test yet, but I track every tank, with both vehicles, got a pretty solid idea of their mileage. I'd also noticed that oil consumption is down in the Mustang. Both my vehicles have lot so of use. The truck has almost 300k, the Mustang has 130k. This product line just looks outstanding. 2 Quote
gpounce32768 Posted February 7 Report Posted February 7 Never tried any of the oil additives on any of my vehicles. Oil consumption in my '12 F150 125k miles is mostly due to a worn rear main seal, and the gasket under one of the valve cover bolts- so more of a leak than a consumption sort of loss. RTV and various measures help with the valve cover bolt until thermal cycling breaks the seal again. Higher viscosity oil helps a little bit with the rear main. I get 18 to 20mpg depending on terrain and speed. Thankfully the motorcycle doesn't consume or lose any oil. IIRC on a small engine (below 1000cc) oil flow is up into the valve train by the time the crank has gone around a couple times. Quote
Cobie Fair Posted February 9 Author Report Posted February 9 Pretty good mileage out of that truck! Both Mustang and truck are still getting best ever mileage after the changes. Quote
gpounce32768 Posted February 9 Report Posted February 9 Actually 150k- just looked at the odo today. Mm old Bandit 1200 liked a periodic seafoam treatment until I jetted and balanced the carbs. I generally don't go for snake oil, but I <think> the lean and unbalanced factory tune tended towards somewhat messy combustion. The seafoam evened out the idle for a couple tanks or so. After the rejet, valve adjust, ignition advance, balance and A/F adjust the engine was sweet and didn't noticeably benefit from the stuff. That work made a big difference, smooth at all thru the rev range and got the bike up to 43mpg or so, depending on how much fun I was having. The R6 didn't care a bit about fuel conditioning, a set of new plugs and it was happy, which was fortunate because the '99 carb adjustments are theoretically possible but formidably difficult to do and the aftermarket ignition advanced rotor is unobtanium. Both bikes really liked ethanol-free gas which was another significant but perhaps not huge improvement in mpg. My current bike '22 GSXS-1000 gets a solid 5mpg improvement from E0- love the New England states for having it at many pumps. Quote
Cobie Fair Posted February 10 Author Report Posted February 10 Had to look up E0...we don't have it Quote
gpounce32768 Posted February 10 Report Posted February 10 Same.. no ethanol-free around here either. I pay the swingeing premium on 10 gal cans- happily- because it goes into all the lawnmowers and whatnot I service for folks. I <<hate>> fixing up carbs and lines destroyed by ethanol gas. I service bikes for a couple folks too- always put ethanol free in for testing and overhaul. Up in Vermont almost every station offers E0, so painless. A fair number of gas stations in NH and in NY up around the Adirondacks have it also. Quote
Cobie Fair Posted February 15 Author Report Posted February 15 GP, can you elaborate a little more on the ethanol and issues it causes that you have seen...fuel lines destroyed? Also, what does it do to carbs? Don't have much that has carbs, but small engines (chainsaw, shredder, etc.) Quote
gpounce32768 Posted February 17 Report Posted February 17 I've had fuel hoses in a couple chainsaws/weedwackers made brittle & crumble from ethanol mix. The combination of the ethanol fuel and sitting is also tends to make the pump diaphragms rigid. Sometimes new hoses and soft stuff will bring the carbs back to life, other times replacing the whole carb seems to be the only fix. I work on a friend's '92 Nighthawk. When I first dug into it the carbs had a substantial accumulation of fairly hard greenish sludge of dried out hydrolized ethanol fuel in the bowl which apparently also somewhat eroded the jets, that likely the source of the green. Its a 4 cylinder 750cc engine- a nice power curve and a fun bike to ride, a good bit of grunt but quite tractable. So all 4 carbs needed to be fully stripped, new gaskets and o-rings- also an opportunity to shim the needles to make the top end a bit less lean. That green sludge had to be scraped out and the bowl surfaces wire-wheeled to clean them up. The jets were salvageable, though the rubber tips of the float valve needles had gone hard and leaky, so they needed replaced also. To be fair some of the issues with the soft stuff is due to age, but when running engines on E0 you can let the bowls evaporate dry and there is no storage issue. He doesn't ride a lot so those carbs did a lot of sitting with the bike indifferently stored which surely didn't help. The small engines run better and start easier on E0. I maintain a couple mowers for friends, one of whom is quite fussy about hers- she insists on new spark plugs and oil change every year. She's older and not up for much pulling on the cord so likes anything to make it start easier, and thus so do I since that means she only comes by for a refill from my can of ethanol free. A couple years ago I suckered myself into buying a '82 Yamaha XS400 and have been chasing various gremlins in it since. Since it can sit for months here and there I use E0 on it because I like not being concerned about problems of moisture accumulating in the carb bowls while the fuel evaporates; the bowls and the fiendishly small starting circuit fuel passages end up dry and clean. The pic below is the state of the brake master when I opened it up. Not an ethanol issue as such, but brake fluid is also hygroscopic- so this is the direction the carbs are headed when ethanol sits in there. Quote
Cobie Fair Posted February 29 Author Report Posted February 29 Thanks for all that, and the picture too! Quote
Vinny Russo Posted March 7 Report Posted March 7 On 2/7/2024 at 7:51 AM, gpounce32768 said: Never tried any of the oil additives on any of my vehicles. Oil consumption in my '12 F150 125k miles is mostly due to a worn rear main seal, and the gasket under one of the valve cover bolts- so more of a leak than a consumption sort of loss. RTV and various measures help with the valve cover bolt until thermal cycling breaks the seal again. Higher viscosity oil helps a little bit with the rear main. I get 18 to 20mpg depending on terrain and speed. Thankfully the motorcycle doesn't consume or lose any oil. IIRC on a small engine (below 1000cc) oil flow is up into the valve train by the time the crank has gone around a couple times. Sorry so late to see this, but we make a great oil additive that you can add to any Car/Truck oil, and it will help recondition any rubber seals. In the case of any oil getting by the shrunken dry valve guide seals, front or rear main seals etc...our Motor Oil Saver (#2020) helps to regenerate rubber or plastic seals close as possible to original size. One can treats a bit over a gallon of engine oil, and can be added anytime as long as you have at least 500 miles left before an oil change. Otherwise I would wait and add it with the new oil. It usually takes effect from 100 to 400 miles. This additive should only be added ONCE every 10K-15K miles to not over soften anything. Quote
Vinny Russo Posted March 7 Report Posted March 7 On 2/28/2024 at 9:03 PM, Cobie Fair said: Thanks for all that, and the picture too! Again, sorry so late to this as well. Ethanol is detrimental to plastics such as the lines in a fuel system, which will become brittle and possibly crack just when you don't need it. And of course water in fuel eventually can corrode the metal in the system. Tough to find Zero Ethanol gas out here as well. Regular use of our 4T Additive for Motorbikes, (#20142 Shooter 1 - 2.5 gallons or #20048 for 4 - 5.5 gallons) not only will clean injectors and carburetors from gum, lacquers and varnish, it will not allow any water or ethanol to interact with the plastics or metal of the fuel system. Even when after a treated tank-full is gone, it still has a residual effect and protects for a few more tank-fulls. We also have two versions for cars and Trucks, depending whether Port or Direct injected. Quote
Cobie Fair Posted March 11 Author Report Posted March 11 Thanks Vinny. I don't know my car and truck, which injection type they have...I'll do some research. Quote
Cobie Fair Posted March 20 Author Report Posted March 20 Vinny, my Mustang ('06 GT) is port injected, and looks like my GMC Sierra is too. What would I use in those? You have given some rough guidelines in some emails we've shared, but wanted to ask here for others to see the response. Quote
Vinny Russo Posted March 25 Report Posted March 25 On 3/20/2024 at 7:19 PM, Cobie Fair said: Vinny, my Mustang ('06 GT) is port injected, and looks like my GMC Sierra is too. What would I use in those? You have given some rough guidelines in some emails we've shared, but wanted to ask here for others to see the response. Hi Cobie, you should use 2 of our effective additives in 2 different tankfuls (not at the same time). - Jectron (#2007) - add to full tank of gas every 12-1500 miles to keep injectors clean from gum and lacquers. It also protects the total fuel system from any water or ethanol in the fuel from corroding the metal or hardening/cracking plastic fuel lines for 12 - 1500 miles. - Valve Clean (2001) - same application/same effective time. Cleans intake valves and combustion chamber of deposits (carbon) and prevents new formation. Quote
Cobie Fair Posted March 27 Author Report Posted March 27 Great Vinny, thanks for that. I told you, but not sure I put it up here, but the last time I used both of those products I got an honest 1-2 in improvement in commuting mileage, and on the Mustang that's significant. 1 Quote
Graybeard Posted June 28 Report Posted June 28 I use the Liqui Moly in my RAM 2500 gasser. Always try to let the temp rise to around 125* before driving. I also have seen an increase of 1 mpg on HWY only. It’s a thirsty truck and have seen as high as 18.9 on a MD to MI trip last summer. My R6 has a Translogic pit warm up button. When activated, it auto blips the throttle until the temp is somewhere above 125* and then goes to regular idle. I have not run any oil additives in any of my bikes. Quote
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