Prolong Engine Treatment

[AKrunner]

Hello all, new T4R owner here. I'm wondering if anyone here has experience with the Prolong engine treatment product. I know some guys who are good home mechanics who swear by the stuff, but I'm wondering if any of you good people have info on the subject.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[V8Limited4wd]

never put any of those products into your engine... they are all money making marketing scams.

ive read alot of articles actually testing the validity of so called "engine treatment" product's claims and tests showed they did more harm than good.

the only stuff you should be putting in your engine is engine oil.

 

[olliebear]

I'll second that.

I too have read numerous articles from engineers on oil and they all reject the claims from these oil additives. Good oil from the major manufacturers already come with plenty of additives to stabilize, clean, and lubricate without any further additives. :iagree:

 

[bulldog-yota]

I have to agree. Dont use that stuff. Your 4R is new I would recommend just start using MObil1 synthetic oil, you will maintain your warranty (I dont think Amsoil is DOT approved yet) and it is easy to get. Next oil change have them put M1 syn in, and keep doing it at your normal change intervals. I do mine every 5K as I normally do a bit of offroading.

Guys have engines last well over 100k with little if any wear when maintained properly. Some guys do more than 300k on an engine and dont use anything but engine oil.

 

[olliebear]

Remember,

folks who take good care of their cars will have a long lasting car, and it has very little to do with adding oil additives or what type of oil they use. They tend to make sure everything works as usual, notice any little deviation and fix them before it becomes a problem.

Folks who abuse or neglect their cars will not have a car too long regardless of what snake oil they put in.

Use a good quality oil or synthetic and change it every 5,000. Change the rest of the fluids once a year or at 36,000 miles or according to your owner's manual.

 

[Larry]

Some Amsoil is API rated, the premium stuff is not.

Prolong has been hammered by the FTC about their claims. Never, never put any of those snake oil products in your engine. Try this http://neptune.spacebears.com/cars/legal/prodecis.html or http://www.ftc.gov/opa/1999/09/prolong.htm or just hit your search engine with "Prolong ftc".

You'd be better throwing rocks at your car. At least the rocks are free.

And their fuel additives....take a leak in your fuel tank instead, at least it's free, too.

We build racing engines and did the Prolong test....on a good engine, broken in, we used Prolong, with a Prolong salesman supervising. Ran the engine for an hour, drained the oil and started the engine.....wham! It ran for a few minutes, but on tear down it was a mess and we cound not find the Prolong guy. I guess he had to go.

If you wanted some Prolong you could have had the stuff he left, a case or so. We dumped it in the hazmat tank.

The run without oil demos on tv are a fraud. Next time a sales man (person) makes those claims tell them to bring the car in for an oil drain and test.....

 

[shintaro29]

Mobile 1 - Experience

I have my Mit. Monte Ge2 at about 300K all on mobile 1 and engine is still strong and clean. However, the tranny and axle died (service facility failure) and so I gotta rid of it. Not worth the trouble, now I have a 4 Gen 4runner! Also missed my 2nd gen 4runner. Always USe Mobile 1, best oil!

 

[Gryphon]

I have run several different treatments over the years in several older cars of various types. My overall experience: Don't use any of them! Stick to one good brand of oil you like, change it often with good filters (NAPA Gold are the best in my opinion, don't want to start a "discussion" but I was a parts-man for a local shop for a while, had to learn all about the various filters, gaskets and spark plugs...NAPA has good stuff IMHO).

Several addatives do really weird things when you heat them up. I have found ONLY one I would trust: Lucas Oil. But, if your rig is new-ish, I would just stick with the oil and filters.

I do run fuel system cleaners regularly, and have good results with that.

I also run distilled water in my radiator. I have terribly hard water here, and I know what it does to my pipes and water heater in the house!