What do motor oil additives do?
Auto parts stores are jam-packed with aftermarket motor oil additives and oil treatments that promise a great number of advantages and benefits. These claims include:
Increased fuel economy
Reduced friction
Maximum horsepower
Improved engine cleanliness
To provide this additional performance, aftermarket motor oil additives use chemical components to boost the motor oil formula. Some aftermarket motor oil additive products have added ingredients like Teflon, molybdenum or graphite. Some have used chlorine, which can be highly corrosive when mixed with water.
Should you use motor oil additives?
The fact is, motor oil must fulfill several obligations. While wear protection is first in the list for most vehicle owners, your motor oil must also do a multitude of things. They must help keep engine parts clean by holding contaminants in suspension so they don’t form harmful deposits on metal surfaces. They cool engine parts by absorbing heat and carrying it to a place where it can be safely dissipated, such as an oil cooler or the oil pan. Oil additives act as a dynamic seal to minimize combustion by-products from contaminating the lubricating system, such as the piston ring/cylinder wall interface. They dampen shock to help protect against wear and prevent corrosion to engine parts by chemically neutralizing corrosive products or setting up a barrier between the components and the corrosive material.
Oil additive companies work hard to fine-tune their formulations to fulfill all the requirements of motor oil. While aftermarket additives may claim to boost performance in one or two areas, they can’t hit them all. Aftermarket oil additives are not necessary for fully formulated oils. High-quality engine oils are blended with additives that are carefully balanced to be synergistic, performing well together. Modern oils, in essence, are nearly as sophisticated as the engines in which they’re used. Tampering with the balance by adding other chemicals can adversely affect overall oil performance, sometimes dramatically.
What do motor Oil Catch Cans do?
An Oil Catch Can is able to make the same claims as Oil Additives do.
Improve Fuel Efficiency
Improves Engine Performance
Eliminate Engine Coking
Maintain Engine Performance
Keep Your Engine Running Cooler
An Oil Catch Can have no chemical or even mechanical components in them. A catch can is placed to filter the "dirty" air before it re-enters back into your engine. That dirty air is made during the combustion process. As fuel and air are injected into the cylinder a spark from the spark plug then ignites the mixture and the piston is pushed down. With this combustion, blow-by is created and has a combination of carbon, acid, oil, and water. As this blow-by "gas" is created and pushed down in the cylinder and the gas escapes past the piston rings into the crankcase. It has been stated that blowby, the dirty air, is the silent killer of an internal combustion engine. Sooner rather than later the wear process begins and engine coking is a result.
So Oil additives claim to Increased fuel economy, Reduced friction, Maximum horsepower, and Improved engine cleanliness do this by adding chemical components and if not done correctly can harm your engine. Even if you are using the correct formulated oil in your vehicle "blow-by" is still going to be produced. Engine coking will still happen no matter what. As your vehicle gets older this "blow-by" seeping into your engine will increase more and more. Installing an Oil Catch Can into your vehicle will do the same things as an Oil Additive without the possibility of harmful chemicals entering your engine.