scottm
Hardcore RCTalk User
I agree they are exagerated - exaggerated badly and misleading. I had an auto shop teacher in HS who ran an engine with the oil pan completely off. The plain bearings in a car engine only need a drop of oil to prevent metal to metal contact between the parts. Have you ever put a drop of oil between two pieces of glass? Engine parts are inherently durable. I used to work in a lawn mower repair shop, and we amused ourselfs on slow days by holding them wide open with no oil and pouring valve grinding compound down the carb. It is amazing what even an old worn out engine can take.
I am a mechanical engineer, and I have been butting heads with advertizers my whole career. They are non technical, and could be hair dressers just as easily! Facts literally mean nothing to them, and that is true of every product out there. I used to work at a laboratory that tested engine coolant for the auto industry. Check the back of a jug of antifreeze and read the list of tests it meets or claims to. Legit companies proudly identify the labs that report good results. It is the snake oil peoble who are evasive about where their stuff is tested, and that is ONLY because there are no good results to report. Do you think an advertiser would let good results go unreported? Hell no.
The fact is most engine wear is caused by fine dirt that gets past the air filter and the oil filter. The best thing you can do is change your oil more often, so it is fine to use cheap oil. Remember when synthetic oil said you could go 50,000 miles before changing the oil? A coworker actually tried it, just changed the filter every 10,000 or so. At 60,000 his engine was wasted, burning oil like crazy.
I am a mechanical engineer, and I have been butting heads with advertizers my whole career. They are non technical, and could be hair dressers just as easily! Facts literally mean nothing to them, and that is true of every product out there. I used to work at a laboratory that tested engine coolant for the auto industry. Check the back of a jug of antifreeze and read the list of tests it meets or claims to. Legit companies proudly identify the labs that report good results. It is the snake oil peoble who are evasive about where their stuff is tested, and that is ONLY because there are no good results to report. Do you think an advertiser would let good results go unreported? Hell no.
The fact is most engine wear is caused by fine dirt that gets past the air filter and the oil filter. The best thing you can do is change your oil more often, so it is fine to use cheap oil. Remember when synthetic oil said you could go 50,000 miles before changing the oil? A coworker actually tried it, just changed the filter every 10,000 or so. At 60,000 his engine was wasted, burning oil like crazy.
