ndabunka

After reading how badly Road rage schooled this guy, I decided to delete my above post. Unfortunately, it appears that I've waited too long to do so. If an admin wants to purge my post above they are welcome too. BTW - That Zmax action was initiated in 2001. It's 2004 now. Is there an outcome of the action yet? BTW - I live in Concord NC about 5 miles from the speedway. If you have an address, I'll drive by to see if they still have a building.

Agent47

OK.. so the FTC filed legal papers.. anyone know the outcome? (the links is dated 2001)

I just went by my experience. Guess I should just credit Toyota engineering then.

So now that I am done admitting I am more that likely wrong, anyone have recomendations for LEGIT additives (other then just using Amsoil, Mobile 1, etc.)

Probably should get my oil changed while its still under a 1000 miles if the FTC comment about bearing corrosion is true.

Agent47

http://neptune.spacebears.com/cars/legal/zmaxpres.html

SPEEDWAY MOTORSPORTS ANNOUNCES RESOLUTION
OF FTC VS. OIL-CHEM LITIGATION
CONCORD, NC (March 20, 2003) - Oil-Chem Research Corp. (Oil-Chem) and Speedway Motorsports, Inc. (SMI) announced today a resolution to their dispute with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) concerning the advertising of zMAX Power System.

"We at Speedway Motorsports are very pleased that the staff of the Federal Trade Commission has specifically confirmed that Oil-Chem can continue to make the following claims in its advertising and promotion of zMAX," stated Marylaurel E. Wilks, vice president and general counsel of SMI.

This confirmation is specified in an exchange of letters with the Division of Enforcement of the FTC. Oil-Chem's letter lists the tests and other documents that substantiate the zMAX claims (provided by Oil-Chem to the FTC during the litigation), and the FTC responded that no compliance action would be merited as a result of Oil-Chem making such claims.

Oil-Chem and SMI have not admitted any liability in this litigation. However, in order to avoid the significant expense and time involved in the litigation, the FTC, Oil-Chem and SMI have agreed to end the litigation by the signing of an order, which, in summary, states: (a) Oil-Chem and SMI do not admit any liability and continue to deny any liability; (b) The FTC has issued its compliance letter (which confirms that enforcement is not merited for the eight specified claims); (c) Oil-Chem and SMI will not make advertising claims which are not properly substantiated; and (d) Oil-Chem and SMI will offer a refund of up to $1 million, in the aggregate, to certain purchasers of zMAX, who bought zMAX before January 31, 2001. No refund will be offered to purchasers after that date. For more information visit zmax.com.

zMAX was developed in 1947 by Joe Lencki as Speedway Cocktail. Sold to the racing industry and car dealerships since it development, it has been marketed as zMAX since1998. AVBLEND, the zMAX formula for aviation, is FAA approved for all piston driven aircraft and has been available since 1980. In addition to company efforts to market zMAX through infomercials, zMAX is available at better auto parts stores including Advance Auto Parts, AutoZone, Checker, Kragen, Murray's Auto Parts, O'Reilly Auto Parts, PepBoys, Schuck's, Strauss Discount Auto, VIP as well as Target stores and BJ's Wholesale nationwide. zMAX became a part of Speedway Motorsports in 1996.

Speedway Motorsports is a leading marketer and promoter of motorsports entertainment in the United States. The Company owns and operates the following premiere facilities: Atlanta Motor Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, Infineon Raceway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Lowe's Motor Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway. The Company provides souvenir merchandising services through its SMI Properties subsidiary, and manufactures and distributes smaller-scale, modified racing cars through its 600 Racing subsidiary. The Company also owns Performance Racing Network which broadcasts syndicated motorsports programming to more than 725 stations nationwide including XM Satellite and NASCAR.com, and Oil-Chem Research Corp., the manufacturer and distributor of zMAX. For more information, visit the Company's website at gospeedway.com.

Road Rage

[QUOTE=Agent47
What do you suppose they make "synthetic" oil from??? The same crude oil all lubricants are made from. The expense is from the extra refining and detergents.

.[/QUOTE]

Zmax - one in a long line of miracles in a bottle - if it did all it says it does, wouldn't all mfrs use it in their cars? They spend millions to eek out a fraction of an MPG - if something does not make sense, it usually isn't factual. I have read Zmax's claims, I have read the court decision (have you?), and neither convinces me that I want to have Linkite in my engine until I see some long-term wear studies. Putting it in your tranny is asking for trouble, because it will change the coefficient of friction, perhaos for the better, perhaos for the worse. But Acura's supplier of trannies spent a lot of time determinig what should be in its lubricant, and it is madness in my opinion to use one's car as a test bed - this is not a $10 junior high school project.

Synthetic oil can be made from petroleum, you are right - but that is where your rightness ends. First, it is not "extra refining" that makes synoil, that is hydrocracking - true GIV synpoils are made molecule by molecule in a chemical reaction. You also imply that synoil is only made from petropleum oil- wrong - It can be also be made from natural gas, and also from completely renewable resources, like corn and acids. That is how esters are made. Esters are formed from alcohols and acids. We have plenty of bioth right here in the US, and when cheap foreign oil (we get most of our foreign oil from Canada, Mexico, Venezuela and not the Middle-East, as most people think - so much for the Blood for Oil crowd) disappears or is used up, the US will develop a synoil program like Germany did in WWII, or else the shale conversion will start to make sense financially. Whatever it takes, I have high confiudence in American ingenuity, technology, and the driving force of capitalism.

Germany lost North Africa in 1942, but was able to wage war for 3 more years. How? Because they had an active synoil program, having :borrowed" the technology freely from the Library of Congress, using Standdard Oil's recipes. Standard did the original research on the formulation of effective synoils in the 1930's.

Agent47

We have a oil solution "made in America" already

http://www.changingworldtech.com/home.html

They already have a facilty converting all the turkey waste from a ConAgra Butterball plant in Missouri into light sweet crude, natural gas, etc.

Anyone have experience with Amsoil???

2002 Maxima SE

Sounds like it wasn't doing it's job then. The oils job is not only to lubricate but to move the oil/carbon away from the engine. If your oil was just as clean a 6k as when you put it in there is a problem.

Road Rage

Today i went to 3 GM dealers to buy some Syncromesh Friction Modified tranny fluid for my S2000's manual. None of them had the FM stuff. One guy said that the techs use the regular stuff, and then throw in a bottle of rear axle positraction friction modifier. As a tribologist, I know this is completely wrong, but it is a good example of what many "techs" do - they do things the easy way, and when they get into areas where they have no expertise, they improvise. One parts guy kind of laughed at me - so tomorrow I will go in there armed with my proof that FM exists, as well as the engineering analysis I did of it.

Point is, many techs are OK, but many will do whatever they please, and concoct some story to support it. I doubt they put too much oil in your car, but they cannot charge for 4.5 quarts, and it is a bit miserly to bring in only 4 IMO. You kinda reaped what you sowed.

Xpditor

I belong to the First Church of Mobil 1 where I was baptized 15 years ago with 10W-30. My soul is well lubed and expected to last another 100,000 miles at least.

XP

jdb8805

Of course they didn't object. The price of the oil is built into the price of an oil change and you gave them the oil, so they made double profit if they didn't charge you less.

go_blue

Mr. Road Rage,

So what brand of Syn Oil you would recommend ? Mine just had 280 mi, and I like to plan ahead.

Thanks.

Road Rage

Have you read "The RR Journals"? I really do not like to give flip Internet one-liners, as it depends.

I would use Motorcraft's 5w20 synblend if you plan to use that viscosity. It is a very advanced formula, developed for Ford by Conoco. It uses amine additives which are at the cutting edge of today's lubrication engineering, and will be widely used in the next API generation of oils down the road.

I am going with Lubrication Engineers 8130 10w30 synblend. It is the same oil I use in my S2000. Very creative and advanced additives, proprietary to LE. I am more and more convinced that synblends done right have practical advantages to full synoils - the mineral oil has better uptake of the add pack is one theory my tribology associates are talking about these days. I have posted on this in detail elsewhere, so read what I have posted in links to my work at s2ki.com LE is primarily a professional oil services corporation, and they make their products ther best they can, and then price them. Most oil companies do the opposite - they target a price and then develop it. Example: Mobil's pricing of the 'R' race oil is outrageous - that formulation should be offered in their regular line.

Road Rage

I have - is there a question you would like answered? Be specific please.

93SHOcar

Come on. Of course the dealer subtracted out the price of the oil. My point was that I checked with the dealer before I carried in any of my own items since it does cut into their profit margin.

MyJohnson

I take baths in 'syn' oil 'cause its "synful"!