Open discussion on using TC-W3 oil as an additive

[radioranger]

Truck definitely runs smoother on first start, more off the line torque as well, I figure the top cylinder lube is better, than shooting pure gas in there.gotta be less wear also at startup and some more lube left on shutdown

[WesternStarSCR]

Finally used up my Lucas UCL so that I can re-use the bottle for the TC-W3. Added to my car finally.

Tip 1: If you are using a clear bottle for measuring, with graduations, shake it a few minutes before you go out to car, so the blue color can settle back into bottle and not block your view.

Tip 2: Squeeze the Lucas bottle less than you would for the original Lucas product. TC-W3 is thinner, & more comes out per squeeze.

Tip 3: Check often if using this method, so as to not overdue it: 1 oz per 5 gallons.

[RH77]

So, I'm early into my 2nd tank with the additive...

Observations:

Subjective -- Occasionally at fully-warm idle, there feels to be a more pronounced stumble (singular engine shake) and reduction in overall smoothness. No detonation/ping was heard. No other notations (no smoke noted, engine power seems the same, warmup times may be longer -- not sure).

Objective -- This was a real shocker for me... Despite the wind, temps in the single-digits, Holiday rushing around, snow, and offering my Mother-in-Law an urgent ride (had to drive faster than normal) -- FE was slightly better, where an expected drop has occurred when Winter conditions become more harsh (as in this time of year). Oddly, the SG2 expected the tank to be around 31-32 mpg instead of the 35.4 at fill. More fills to eliminate possible pump errors, changes in conditions (see oil below), and a retrospective comparison is needed to look at past winter situations.

Condition Changes: (Late into tank-1) I hadn't checked the oil for a while, and thankfully I did. A tiny amount remained on the dipstick on each of 3 checks (cold engine). 1.5 quarts of oil added (a variety of oils have been used the last couple of years, depending on what I have at the moment: conventional, high-mileage, synthetic / high-mileage blends, and full synthetic). Valvoline SynPower 0W-20 full-Synth added -- change/filter due soon. Secondly, one headlamp burned-out (It looks to be the original).

Continuing the experiment at 1 oz per 5 (correction: gallons), as previous...

-RH77

[radioranger]

lucky you checked the oil, the tcw might have saved you some wear there, I've noticed and it was actually used in WW 2 that if your oil level is low you will get more power, this due to foaming or the crank hitting the oil in the pan, Many times you'll here stories about how a car was running better than ever , just until the oil light came on and it broke down, for this reason I'm assuming, might even be the cause of your better milage, oil could have gotten hotter, interesting result, MY truck does seem to ping more on hills so next tank bought some high test and it fixed that with a few gallons of it, back to regular fuel now and my feeling is it is a good idea to run the tcw once in a while , say every other tank and lube up the system , perhaps maybe only one ounce in 10 gallons, inconclusive but so far my testing is it is much smoother on start up , I try to run my truck about i/2 quart low on oil , to the half way add oil mark on the stick and it does seem to help FE. Might want to try Castrol Syntec, Our old Subaru did well with it . could actually feel the difference in power over conventional,

[Prophecy99]

just started my first tank yesterday

[RH77]

Originally Posted by radioranger

lucky you checked the oil, the tcw might have saved you some wear there, I've noticed and it was actually used in WW 2 that if your oil level is low you will get more power, this due to foaming or the crank hitting the oil in the pan, Many times you'll here stories about how a car was running better than ever , just until the oil light came on and it broke down

I've noticed an increase in FE many times with lower engine oil levels. If I'm getting unusually-high FE readings, it's time to check the oil...

Originally Posted by radioranger

MY truck does seem to ping more on hills so next tank bought some high test and it fixed that with a few gallons of it, back to regular fuel now and my feeling is it is a good idea to run the tcw once in a while

Interesting notation with pinging. Ardent mentioned the same problem with his truck (higher FE, but ping under load)...

Originally Posted by Ardent

I also puzzled over how this could be helping mileage. ... I think I found the answer though when I towed a heavy load with my pickup. When merging onto the highway with that heavy load on an moderate uphill grade, the engine experienced some severe preignition ping/knock that I had never heard before. Retarding the timing by 2 degrees in the high load areas fixed that problem.

I believe that the mileage increase is because of the octane reduction caused by adding oil to gasoline. An engine with safe/conservative ignition timing then benefits from the timing "advance" caused by the added oil. I expect that I could see the same mileage increase by more optimally dialing in the timing.

I run premium/91-Octane fuel, due to some modifications (hotter thermostat, Warm Air Intake, full mechanical advance on the distro, and a full radiator block in Winter). I notice pinging whenever I use 87 or 89 in the Summer, and 87 in the Winter. The solution was to run higher octane all the time. The combined effect of better FE has outweighed a slightly higher cost per tank. So, I'm keeping an ear on it, in case the oil does lower the octane rating.

Regarding the oil selection -- I used to exclusively use Castrol engine oil until about a year or so ago. I noticed one day that it was a BP brand, which I stopped using after the Gulf mess. Add to that an existing Exxon/Mobil avoidance and the options were thinning out. I tried Valvoline "Next Gen" recycled oil when it was on sale and found it to do the job. With a leaky cam bearing seal, I have been trying different products and viscosities (with a focus on that FE-Longevity line of balance). It may be beyond "conditioning" with additives, but we'll see...

-RH77

[oil pan 4]

I did the ABA with the town car and couldn't see any difference.
So if it helped me it was a sub 1mpg improvement. Needed about a 1mpg improvement to pay for the oil.

[radioranger]

Must concur with that one , hard to pin down gains except for high test gas difference in performance. however with the coming e 15 or more , may definitely help with protection of components, metal included. so good to test now, I used to run the really good synthetic Golden spectro racing two stroke stuff in the boat and some got used in the four stroke lawnmower and it ran smooth as could be, i remember one day cutting through some tall gas and it didnt even slow a bit , then i realized i hadnt taken the rpm off high idle, pretty impressive, also outboard ran a few hundred rpm's more top end, little six HP johnson, so may pick up some more of that and test , around 10$ a pint though, but could be interesting,

[RobertISaar]

i just picked up a 16 oz bottle tonight... i won't be able to track fuel economy gains due to the route that gets driven changing so much, but if there is an idle stability benefit to be had, that i will certainly be able to see....

so i guess this should be interesting. i think i paid $3.57 for some Quicksilver brand from the local Wal-Mart. i have a syringe with a max capacity of 1/2 ounce(and lots of marks in between), so i should be able to get a nice consistent ratio too.

[RobertISaar]

well, first trip with it done.... ~60 miles total.

put in enough oil for roughly 4 gallons of fuel.... turns out there was about 2.5 in the tank... thanks to that and the truck's joke of an exhaust system, i did get a noticable scent out of it.

i just loaded my syringe and shot it into the filler... no fuel followed it, so a good deal of it was probably sitting in the filler neck. coming back from what i needed to do, i pumped in 3 gallons of fuel to get the ratio closer to target and to mix in the oil that was sitting in the neck. noticably reduced the scent doing that.

so far, no changes that i can see/feel, but i'll wait to pass judgement on it until i at least get close to the end of the bottle. not like i have much else that requires 2-stroke oil.

sidenote: either the O2 sensor or it's heater is impaired in some way... if the truck doesn't get driven for at least a little distance before the ECM wants to drop into closed loop, the fueling goes WAY lean until the O2 heats up enough to respond properly. not sure if this will effect my experience with the oil or not.