At 03:09 PM 10/4/99 GMT, Dereck C wrote:
>Has anyone had any experience using Militec (oil additive)? .... I am
usually skeptical when it comes to quick fixes, ....
>
>Check it out at http://www.laniganperformance.com/
I too am maybe the world's greatest skeptic, and I hate disinformation and
marketing hype. So I spent considerable time browsing their entire web
site, reading between the lines and around all the hype, and I wan't
terribly impressed. From only the information I can see on that web site,
it looks to me like 100% synthetic motor oil and little else. Having a
stock number in the military only means that it can be purchased, not that
it has any actual prescribed use in the military.
As usual, most of the avid testimonials are single case events without
sufficient backup data to determine cause and effect relationships.
Reduced friction or heat may be just because the additive is fresh oil and
the stuff already in the gearbox or engine was old and dirty or breaking
down, or it could be because of a fresh oil change at the time the trick
juice was installed. Reduced iron or copper content in the oil with
continued use of an engine or gearbox after the additive was installed, may
be the natural course of life of the unit with or without the additive.
Reduced friction may also be a natural course of aging of the mechanism as
the working parts get broken in.
Very few of the "tests" or "testimonials" include a real side by side test
of the conditions with and without the additive. You can usually speculate
about different ailments or different lubricants that could cause the same
effect, or about what may have been wrong with the unit in the first place
that could be masked by the additive. In a few cases they mention what
they knew to be wrong with the device before hand, and it would be common
sense to repair the device rather that doctoring it with an oil additive.
I can usually shoot holes in the logic of such "testimonials", and
blanketing you with many dozens of such cases is still only marketing hype
and lends nothing more to the integrity of the product.
There are a few examples there on line of real comparison tests or real
world operation of industrial engines and hydraulic pumps and motors with
and without the additive that seem to benefit somehow from the product, but
the final explanation of why this happens is seldom produced, so there's no
way of relating these instances to our beloved personal cars (mandatory LBC
content). If anyone wants to consider specific examples shown there I'd be
happy to debunk most of them, but would prefer to do it off-list. Best
wishes to the sellers of the product, but it won't be my money supporting it.
$.02,
Barney Gaylord
1958 MGA with an attitude
http://www.ntsource.com/~barneymg
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