"Restore" oil additive improves compression?

Has anyone used "Restore Engine Restorer & Lubricant with CSL"?

This oil additive claims to restore compression and horsepower in older engines. I found a can at Auto Zone and the label states: "If your car has over 40k miles, we guarantee you will feel the increase in compression and power within 500mi or..money back."

The manufacturer claims their product fills in fine scratches worn in cylinder walls and improves piston ring seal to restore compression balance across all cylinders.

My '74B engine only has 22k miles but it is 32 years old. And the best compression I can get by adjusting valves and running "SeaFoam" in the oil and gas is roughly 130psi across all cylinders. Not terrible but only 90% of the 145psi spec'd. (I interpret it as missing 5.5hp from a 55hp engine!)

I'm curious but suspicious.

Dan Elkins

Most snake oil is just that. The only snake oil that I have ever found works is seafoam.

BTW does your engine have an "L" in the engine number?

if so it only started with about that much compression

also compression testers and testing methods are notoriously inaccurate.

I have used it in the past, over ten years ago, I was young and couldn't afford the engone rebuild my 77 spitfire needed. It claims to have a ceramic additive that coats the inside of the piston cylinder walls and fills in any scrapes and scraths, claiming to give better compression. I saw no noticlible improvement, but the claim that it works over 500mi is misleading to me, how can you remember whow your car drove 500mi ago and compare it to now?

The best improvment i've seen is by running seafoam thru the fuel system and crank case.

The only things I found that truly work are Seafoam and Bar's Radiator Stop Leak. This stuff may work magic, but I think with your motor's good condition it will be hard to tell.

I have tried it a few times...I had a 95 Jeep Wrangler with a 4 cylinder (worst engine I have ever owned) and it did a good job at quieting some of the racket from the engine. Not sure of compression but my neighbor now owns the Jeep and loves it....seemed to have no ill effects.

I use it - can't say it helps more than quieting noisy lifters, but it doesn't seem to do any harm, either. Used "Slick 50" years ago - cost like $50.00 in 1982 money. Seafoam I use regularly, and CD-2 in the fuel (lead replacement) - got about 25 mpg on my last 125 mile trip to Anchorage.

I have used Restore on other engines. Seemed to work for a while. I don't believe it is a cure-all for rebuilding an engine, though

I bought a 1995 Escort for $400 and got it drivable. It's a beater with an engine which smokes a bit; it burns oil. Everything is good except the engine, and the engine's not all that bad--just smoky. It goes about a hundred miles before it needs a quart of oil added, but the car's 35 MPG makes that a non-issue. AutoZone 5W-30 is $1.70 per quart, so what the hey.

I decided, what the heck, when am I going to have another car I can test "snake oil" additives on? I'm going to replace the engine anyway, so why not?

I tried that "Engine Restore" stuff, it did NOTHING but suck $7 out of my wallet.

Then I tried Rislone's "Ring Seal". That actually has helped control the oil burning problem. It's not entirely gone, but it helped a bit, to the point that I am now going much more than 100 miles before having to add oil.

I have not tried checking the compression before-and-after, though.

The Rislone just thickens the oil; it comes out of the bottle like honey and the instructions recommend that you add it to a warm engine. It's $3 per 16 oz bottle, which treats 4-5 quarts of oil; you dump it into a full crankcase, and/or at every oil change.

Rislone engine flush unstuck the carboned-up rings of Dad's '77 MGB back when he bought it, in 1987--which improved the compression--so I was prepared for a Rislone product to do SOMETHING other than merely suck money from my wallet. :D In fact, whenever I buy a used car, I always use a quart of Rislone engine flush in the first oil change.

Ed

Ed - ever try Casite Motor Honey? I assume it along the same lines as Rislone. My NAPA guy says Motor Honey seens to work, and he doesn't even sell it! The Western Auto store here has it.

Jim K Wrote: