Anybody use Z-Max in their deseil trucks? Just curious.

 

Howdy,

I have a 94 6.5L diesel Suburban. I bought it new. It now has 170,000 miles on it and doesn't burn more than about 1 qt in 5000 miles....which is considered much better than normal for a low mileage engine.

I also have a 2001 VW TDI bought new also, with 130,000 miles. It burns NO oil between 10,000 mile changes.

I have NEVER used ANY oil additive in these vehicles and no engine manufacturer recommends using them ....in fact, some say "Do not use....and using oil additives may void your warranty etc"


Oil already contains additives in the right amount. Multi-million dollar chemical engr companies like Lubrizol spen millions of dollars designing additves for the oil companies to use and the API, SAE and ASTM have go t this all figured out. If the oil needs something else they will add it!

All additional over-the-counter additives do is make money for the people selling them.

Just change your oil and filter at the suggested interval and use either a 15W40 or 5w40 syn. If you make a lot of short trips where you don't fully warm it up, change it more often.



Regards,

Rick

 

Z-Max is listed as a scam on many websites. Just google it.

A good diesel additive is Powerservice Diesel Engine Oil Additive. Used to sell 3 qt jugs at walmart. Lot of zddp and TBN.

 

I don't think additives are a good substitute for quality oil. You should use better oil instead.

 

TBN and ZDDP deplete through an OCI. I don't see anything wrong with boosting it either at the beginning or peridically through the OCI. I know of someone in the industry who regularly boosts the add pack in their oil and takes the OCI way out past recommended. Over 200,000 miles and UOA support, no problem. They are saving a lot of oil and time changing oil.

 

What about seafoam?

 

Seafoam isn't a oil add pack booster.

It could be thought of as more of a detergent, originally done for the Marine industry, to remove piston, combustion chamber & exhaust port deposits.

I know some who use it as a fuel stabilizer for Marine & lawn & garden equiptment & as a yearly internal fuel system & engine carbon tidy upper.

Some as a intake side & combustion chamber deposit cleaner upper for their vehicles engine.

Some have added it to their oil, to unstick & quiet noisey lifters, or remove sludge & varnish, from the top end of their engines & hope they won't clog something really important up, if the crankcase is sludged up too!!!!!

I wouldn't use it as a crankcase oil additive, unless you know the internal deposit nature or level of the engine deposits, or try to extend an OCI, or do any hard driving.

If you have intake side, or combustion chamber carbon deposits, it'll work to remove them, but if you ingest it, in mass, through a vacuum line on the intake side, you'll likely have to remove the plugs to clean, or replace them & change the oil & filter afterward, so that would offset it's initial low price advantage.

If you use it in the gas tank, at the specified dose ratio, it'll tidy things up at a slower rate, without having to change the oil, filter & plugs.

There are imo, better carbon removers, like Chevrons "Techron Concentrate Plus", that treats the gas, to remove intake & combustion chamber deposits, but it's more expensive than "Seafoam".

Lots of folks have used Seafoam, with good results & it's been around for a long time, so if you decide to use it, do so as specified, just don't get crazy with it!!!! lol