Slick 50 Transmission Treatment

[Bob_Roller]

I was going through the cabinets in my garage today and found an old, and I mean old, like 22 year old bottle of Slick 50 manual transmission treatment .

Still sealed .

Anyone ever use it in a manual transmiision ??

I was thinking of putting it in one of the R65's at next transmission / final drive oil replacement .

Good / bad idea ?

Or put it on eBay as a curiosity !!!

[Dustybin]

I've used the engine treatment on an old talbot Samba which had an appalling splash gearbox. It was a revelation. Got to watch out on motorcycles with wet clutches but until advised different I can't imagine that it would do any harm?

[Lucky_Lou]

I would put it on eBay....... given the sensitivity of the seals to "synthetic" products, I believe a lot of those snake oil products were naphtha/benzene  based which would be illegal now.
Lou

[Bob_Roller]

It's not a synthetic blend, it's 90wt gear lube (GL5) with Telfon additive .

[nhmaf]

I'm in the "if it ain't broke don't try to fix it" camp on this one..

[steve hawkins]

I am in the 'stick it in and let us know how you get on' camp.

I am with Tony on this.  It can do little harm.

Full report in triplicate please.

Cheers

Rev Light

[Lucky_Lou]

It's not a synthetic blend, it's 90wt gear lube (GL5) with Telfon additive .

If that's the case then I would use it.........
Lou

[wa1udg]

Dupont said for the record that Telfon had no place in an engine. Nevertheless I used something called "Tufoil"  not in an engine but in the 5 speed SAAB 900 transmission which used motor oil as the lube.  It seemed to help, of course the transmission had its own sump.  I got 400K out of that transmission, while watching 900s passed down from parents to kids eat a transmission in a matter of weeks.  

[Tony Smith]

Slick 50 will probably do no harm, but I can guarantee that it will also do no good.


There is not a single (real) scientific report that has anything good to say about the product - DuPont the IP holders for Teflon went so far as to once issue a statement that their product had no place inside an internal combustion engine.

Still, if you truly believe, there are things like energy polarisers, positive ion concentrators, pryamids and various varieties of beads and bangles that also claim beneficial properties.
 
A long time ago I remember drinking coffee in a fuel and food stop frequented by truckies. Just outside of town there was a long steep hill and the driver of one of the trucks was holding forth on why a dozen mothballs gave his truck the extra performance needed to get over that accursed hill (I on instructions from the owner of the truck I was driving used to slip 2 gallons of "power" kerosene into the prime tank and it really did make one gear difference going over that hill, but I digress....
 
After the mothball man left I asked the buy next tome what he thought of the idea, he said that Fred would go quicker if he put the mothballs in himself!

[Barry]

From what I remember slick 50 is just PTFE suspended in oil.  I expect it will have settled out in the bottom of the container after 22 years so will need serious agitation to get it mobile again.  I wouldn't consider putting it in an engine out of concern for blocking the filter but I doubt it would do any harm in a gearbox. Whether it would do any good might depend on whether or not it settles out at the bottom.

The usual charge against snake oil products might be applicable. "If it was any good all the oil manufacturers would put it in as standard"

Back in the day graphite and Moly were the other oil additives - what happened to them ?

[Semper Gumby]

I also have a bottle on the shelf.

I prefer changing my gear oil twice a year with the Valvolene Semi-synthetic  blue bottle 85W140 in the summer and the 80W90 in the winter.  At a 126,000 miles on the original transmission it is hard to argue with success.

BTW - I put no more than 120cc in the drive shaft as at 70 mph the oil migrates forward though the vent hole into the transmission when I put 150cc in the drive shaft.  Since there is a good chance there will be moisture in the drive shaft oil I suggest that sharing drive shaft oil with the transmission is also a bad idea.

[Justin B.]

I've tried a jug of it in a 12" open differential that I had in a 1965 Impala and at least it didn't screw anything up!