Gadgets That Just Can't Work. (Or Whatever Else You Have).

[topher5150]

What is the one that Carroll Shelby endorsed about a decade back. Some kind of oil additive, and their gimmick was they drained the oil from a car after adding this magical additive, and then ran it all day at the race track, and the engine was perfectly fine.

[rbohm]

i have a book written back in the mid 70s on improving fuel economy. there was a line in the book that said;

"you have to be careful adding items that improve fuel economy, because you may add so many that you start making fuel, which creates a fire hazard as the fuel backs up out of the tank. this is not a problem though if you also install parts that improve performance as well allowing the car to accelerate to 300 mph in 3 seconds easily outrunning the fire."

also note that any of the add ons that these people sell improve fuel economy up to what ever percentage they choose. that way they get around the truth in advertising laws.

[bagster]

Spark plugs are another gimmick. Some may had a tiny bit of horsepower or gas mileage, but I'd stick with OEM when it came time to change plugs.

[unfocused]

Originally Posted by canadian citizen

...the wooden bead seat cover.


Jim B.

I use this in the summer, keeps my back from sweating.

[Malloric]

Originally Posted by blazerj

I think the problem with K&N air filters is that people don't know how to properly wash and lube them.

The 1st time I washed and lubed, I thought I was fine (the filter looked good to go), but I left it on a plastic bag on my bathroom counter. The next morning when I was going to install the filter before work, there was a pool of the pinkish lube sitting there. I way over lubed the thing and all of that oil would have gone into my air intake system.

It looked fine, but was way to oily. If I had put that in, I would have hated my K&N, but was lucky and always wait a night before putting the lubed filter back into the car.

Lube isn't going to really hurt anything other than maybe your MAF. The problem is K&N filters let in several times as much particulates as paper filters. Particularly if you're driving a turbocharged car or in the dirt, really think twice about using an oiled filter. Either way they really don't do anything except wear your engine out faster. They do flow better which isn't an issue on most cars at all anyway but aren't as good at filtering, which is the point of a filter. Paper>K&N>no filter.