Which Engine Oil Additive Claims Brand Wins?
This head-to-head test of 2 engine oil additive claims options has the measured results for each. See how they ranked and watch the full test video.
Slick 50 engine treatment / oil additive
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The measured results
Every number below is read straight from the test. Products are listed in the order they finished.
All measurements (7 more)+
Drained oil appearance
- 1Slick 50 engine treatment / oil additive
a lot darker than the SAE 30, described as clearly almost black
- 2SAE 30-weight oil (conventional, no additive) regular motor oil, used as the control/baseline
more of a brown color, lighter than the near-black Slick 50 oil
Dosage used
- 1Slick 50 engine treatment / oil additive
package instructions call for 10% if the vehicle holds 6 quarts or more; tester instead used about 20% (4 oz of Slick 50 concentrate added to reach a 20 oz total fill for the small lawnmower engine)
- 2SAE 30-weight oil (conventional, no additive) regular motor oil, used as the control/baselinenot tested
Operating temperature test (engine at full temp, before draining)
- 1Slick 50 engine treatment / oil additive
kept the engine noticeably cooler than the plain-oil engine; cylinder head and crankcase temperatures were both down, running about 10, 20, 30 degrees cooler or more than the engine without Slick 50
- 2SAE 30-weight oil (conventional, no additive) regular motor oil, used as the control/baselinenot tested
Dry-crankcase torture test (both engines fully drained, run with zero oil until seizure)
- 1Slick 50 engine treatment / oil additive
seized/locked up way quicker than the SAE 30 engine; reached 420 degrees F with visible smoke at the point of lockup; both engines combined seized within about 7 minutes of starting the test
- 2SAE 30-weight oil (conventional, no additive) regular motor oil, used as the control/baselinenot tested
Amount used
- 2SAE 30-weight oil (conventional, no additive) regular motor oil, used as the control/baselineabout20 oz
to fill the second (control) engine
- 1Slick 50 engine treatment / oil additivenot tested
Operating temperature test
- 2SAE 30-weight oil (conventional, no additive) regular motor oil, used as the control/baseline
ran hotter than the Slick 50-treated engine by about 10, 20, 30 degrees or more
- 1Slick 50 engine treatment / oil additivenot tested
Dry-crankcase torture test
- 2SAE 30-weight oil (conventional, no additive) regular motor oil, used as the control/baseline
outlasted the Slick 50 engine, seizing after the Slick 50 engine had already locked up
- 1Slick 50 engine treatment / oil additivenot tested
How it was tested
- operating temperature comparison (cylinder head and crankcase temperature) between the Slick 50-pretreated engine and the plain SAE 30 engine, both at full operating temperature before draining
- dry-crankcase torture test: both engines' oil fully drained, then run simultaneously (started a few seconds apart) until each seizes, to see which lasts longer with zero oil
Data notes and caveats
This is a myth-test of Slick 50's own marketing claims (reduces heat, lets an engine run without oil) using two otherwise-identical small engines as test subjects, not a ranked comparison of competing purchasable brands, so per the myth-test rule winner/runnerUp/budgetPick are left null rather than forced onto either engine. The video's two sub-tests point opposite directions: Slick 50 ran measurably cooler with oil present, but seized first (failed the core 'runs without oil' claim) once both crankcases were fully drained - both outcomes are preserved in each product's own results/notes rather than collapsed into a single winner field. Meta chapters ('Slick 50 runs cooler than SAE 30', 'Slick 50 engine begins to slow', 'Sudden death of engine at 02:44') align cleanly with the transcript's narrative order, so chapterMap is true. Transcript is clean throughout with no brand-name garbling or numeric ambiguity requiring a flag; confidence is high even though the video itself only gives coarse figures ('10, 20, 30 degrees or more', 'about 7 minutes') rather than precise numbers for the seizure-time gap.
