vfm@ihu1h.UUCP (Vern Metzger) (05/01/84)
Instead of a summation of user testimonials and dealers sales
pitch, I submit the following:
In the September 1, 1983 issue of "THE AVIATION CONSUMER" there is
a 6-page article titled "How Good are the Teflon Additives" that
contains information that should answer all your questions
regarding Teflon additives. This article gives you the history of
the stuff and a run-down of the most popular(?) ones including
Microlon, Matrix and Slick-50. If you use the stuff or know of any
dealer that has read the article and continues to sell it I would
question their ethics or ask them to comment on the article.
The following are excerpts from the afore mentioned document.
-1- In 1980, the plot not only thickened, it nearly coagulated.
Industrial giant E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Company, owners of the
trade name Teflon, on February 1, 1980 issued a formal announcement
to the effect that it was no longer selling TFE micropowders to
firms or individuals engaged in the promotion of Teflon-fortified
oil treatments. DuPont had decided, after a review of data from
inside and outside the company, that "Teflon is not useful as
ingredients in oil additives or oils for lubricating internal
combustion engines."
What's more, DuPont threatened to take legal action against any
additive makers who persisted in using the names of Teflon and
DuPont on their products.
Perhaps not surprising, spokesman for Avco Lycoming and Teledyne
Continental support the DuPont viewpoint. "We've tried nearly
every additive that"s come down the pike, including the Tefoln
stuff," one of the Big Two engine makers told us. "And for the most
part, they're worthless."
-2- A NASA Lewis Research center spokesman responded to a question
on how effective the Teflon additives are for automobile and
aircraft engines by saying, "I haven't seen much good, sound,
scientific data. In the types of bearing-surface contact we have
looked at, we have seen no benefit. In some cases, we have seen
detrimental effects. Because if you think of that converging inlet
that the oil or lubricant must enter, or through which the
lubricant must enter the contact, what tends to happen in a pure
sliding situation, at least-is that the solids in the oil tend to
accumulate at the inlet, and they act as a dam, which simply blocks
the oil from entering.
-3- The makers of Microlon, Tufoil, and other Teflon-related
products claim that the effects of "plating" or "impregnating" are
visible in electron-microscope pictures of metal treated with their
products. An experienced laboratory technician told us, however,
that preparation of scanning electron micrographs of metal surfaces
can be handled in such a way as to produce almost any desired
result. Tending to corroborate this in a 1979 report by the
University of Utah in which lifters from a 259-cu-in. Chevy six-
cylinder engine were examined microscopically before and after use
of Petrolon Slick-50. "No qualitative change could be seen"
-4- Results of oil analysis reports. "In the case of one Baron
owner, iron and aluminum actually went up 10 to 20 percent in both
engines - similar results reported by the University of Utah. More
than one engine expert we talked to pointed out a likely
explanation: "When Teflon gets into the combustion chamber, it
decomposes, one of the products is hydrofluoric acid, which eats
metal."
Vern Metzger
ihu1h!vfm