Opinions on Activ8

[William]

saw a very convincing demo of this product at the Motor Show, it's an additive that enhances bonds between oil and wearing part to reduce friction. VERY convincing demo had me almost buy some, but just thought I'd check first if anyone had any experience or opinions.

Here's the product:

http://www.activ8.uk.com/

[Demlotcrew]

Just buy good oil!

Andrew

[William]

Precisely what I thought before seeing the demo andrew. They had a very simple setup with a metal wheel sitting in a sump spinning off an electric motor, and an arm with a wear pad and a force guage on the lever. You had to press down on the wheel with the lever and see how much force was required to stop the wheel spinning. With Magnatex in the sump, an amount of force was required, with the Activ8 additive, the force requried to stop the wheel was enourmous, at least 3 times as much. He then gave a demo replicating a blown head gasket, the additive once again enabled huge amounts of force to be applied to the wheel without wearing the pad. I was very impresses, this experiment was with top grade oil and could not have been faked (I carried the tests out myself). KTM are using this in their superbikes this year.

[Demlotcrew]

William they could have used anything in that display. If it was so good why dont Oil companies add it to their oils?

Andrew

[William]

Point taken, I thought through it and decided that I witnessed a product make a huge difference to an oil, regardless of what that oil was and decided that if the Magnatex was in fact not Magnatex, then it was irrelevent as the same changes would be seen on any oil used. Thinking about it, I guess Magnatex might have those sort of qualities already built in, and the oil masquerading as Magnatex in the demo was in fact useless and adding water would have made it better!

I did ask about why oil companies didn't use it if it was so good, unfortunately I don't remember the reasons given. Doubtless it was some story about them having not seen the demo's or something equally lame.

Thanks Andrew, made me think a bit more about it, its probably bollocks.

[Demlotcrew]

William i have had the opportunity to strip down some high mileage/driven hard engines and there is a massive difference between their conditions and wear. It was clear that those run on Fully synth had very little wear and didnt need as many parts replaced compared with those which have had long oil change periods and those with sketchy histories.

Use fully synth on your engine (10w40 or 5w40) change every 6-8k miles depending on how hard you drive it. Do a filter change every 4k miles. But if you just drive it around town and give the sport function a blast for a few miles then stick to Magnatex you wont benefit from Fully synth. (till the engine gets stripped down)
Andrew

[andyborris]

Being a old fart, I've seen these additives come and go under many different names.

One company, many years ago did a demonstration where a car had the additive added (the type that "bonds" to metal!) and was then driven through the Australian outback in outrageous heat with the sump plug out and no oil. Much was made of how long the engine keep going without seizing.

All very impressive, till an Australian motor magazine brought the same type of car and drained the oil, it then drove further, much further than the treated car!

Draw your own conclusions. One thing I do know and that's Halfrauds synthetic oil is rebranded Mobil 1!

Andy