Things and products that we should avoid!

I didn't want to post this into the original thread, since it is not all that serious.
I'd like to see us do what Brian was talking about and create a list of things and products to avoid. Here's Mikeys list of things to avoid::::
1. avoid super glue next to your bed! ~ its really difficult to call 911 for help
2. avoid Prep H on same shelf as toothpaste. ~i can whistle really good, but i can't even eat this jellybean.
3. avoid putting rat poison in the same cabinet as your spices. ~unless in-laws are coming over for a visit.
4. avoid cubic zircornia ~ trust me she knows.

uh i think blazee ment automotive products, lol
these are ones i can think of off the top of my head;
- turbonators
- tornado
- ebay "juice boxes"
i could think of more if i wasn't so tired, lol

Mothballs
used firestone tires from a Ford

Couple of things that I read on this forum...
Bosch spark plugs
Fram oil filters

Ebay Speed Chips
Fuel Mileage Gas Capules http://www.cthomas.myffi.biz/products.asp
Fart Cans just in case someone thinks of doing it

I'm kind of thinking that we should also do a sister thread, on things that are benificial, and give a 1 or 2 reasons why it works if possible.

I'm about to head off to work. If I think of anything along the way I'll post it.

Why didn't anyone think of this one earlier.

Shady mechanics, and ripp off shops



Armor All


If you live in a dusty area think twice about geting a K&N air filter

Stop-Leak

Why didn't anyone think of this one earlier.

Shady mechanics, and ripp off shops



Armor All


If you live in a dusty area think twice about geting a K&N air filter


ARMOR ALL?!?!?!?!?!?!

ARMOR ALL?!?!?!?!?!?!


Apparantly it contains Alcohol, which dries out the dash and what not.

For the price difference which is usually none your better off using another brand.

Why take a risk if you don't have to.

Apparantly it contains Alcohol, which dries out the dash and what not.

For the price difference which is usually none your better off using another brand.

Why take a risk if you don't have to.


Right on this thread was a good idea

Armor All Sucks.

Thats wierd i never have had any problem with it/

wait about 2 years and you will.

I used it for years, shortly after it became popular, and never had any problems. But from what I understand I got lucky. Lots of friends cars ended up with cracked dashes during the same time.

I just figure now that it isn't worth it taking the chance.

I use "Black Magic" Pro shine protecant. I think mecguires makes it. Ive used it in alot of cars and never had a problem w/ it. It doesn't really last that long though a for a few days it will look "wet" than it will collect dust again

What bout them IAT? deals. Where they move it to a cooler spot or something?Someone correct me on that if im wrong.

i got the armor all leather cleaner for my leather steering wheel and it just destroyed it. i will post pictures later. Also it dried out my dash on my astro.
I use the Black magic trim and tire polish and that stuff works mircales and megiuers interior. the megiuers doesn't make your dash look all greasy, it makes it look like new. i highly recomend it.

avoid iac and maf mods, avoid egr mods and most aftermarket cats, avoid stop leak at all costs, unless changeing your heatercore sounds like fun, autozone and advance auto, any simple product that simply sounds to good to be true, ie bosch quad fires dont realy work, tornados, work, on a carborated moter ONLY wet manifolds, electric superchargers, k&n (all oil cotten filters for that matter) on any vehical with a maf sencer, cheep oils, filters, and gaskets

at all costs AVOID ANY PRODUT MADE BY RAIN X works well for 1st few days then its all squikey and a hazzerd in the sun plus it makes a layer of film that makes water impossable to remove on the 1st pass and this film is unremoveale my friend had to have her windshild replaced after her so called wise friend put rain x in the wiper fill canter

at all costs AVOID ANY PRODUT MADE BY RAIN X works well for 1st few days then its all squikey and a hazzerd in the sun plus it makes a layer of film that makes water impossable to remove on the 1st pass and this film is unremoveale my friend had to have her windshild replaced after her so called wise friend put rain x in the wiper fill canter

I've used this stuff for years and never had a problem. I even use the washer fluid for the winter. The only other thing I do is wipe my wiper blades down with a little rubbing alcohol every month or so to get the slime and dirt off of them. Really improves the wipe!

Armor All , HUH . I use it faithfully on the dash of my T/A and a few weeks ago a corner of the dash near the "A" pillar broke off about 3 " long . This theory has some meat in it to me . Rob

is there a prblem with fram filters? thats all i use. i havent had a problem with them(as far as i know).
and bosch plugs, yeah, i had to find out the hard way a few years back. my dirty old ac delcos were much better than a new set of those. champion isnt much better these days. i stuck with acdelco.
armuor all is no longer in my vocab. i use a silicone base spray. cover spray by carbrite.
one thing i avoid are the yearly tool show at my locale fair grounds. a 20 peice drill bit set for $2 is to good to be true. a $5 angle grinder is to good to be true. i spent damn near a $100 in one afternoon there and learned a valuable lesson. 10 cent drill bits bend not cut, $5 angle grinders only last a week,and $100 dont really get the job done.

is there a prblem with fram filters? thats all i use. i havent had a problem with them(as far as i know).
and bosch plugs, yeah, i had to find out the hard way a few years back. my dirty old ac delcos were much better than a new set of those. champion isnt much better these days. i stuck with acdelco.
armuor all is no longer in my vocab. i use a silicone base spray. cover spray by carbrite.
one thing i avoid are the yearly tool show at my locale fair grounds. a 20 peice drill bit set for $2 is to good to be true. a $5 angle grinder is to good to be true. i spent damn near a $100 in one afternoon there and learned a valuable lesson. 10 cent drill bits bend not cut, $5 angle grinders only last a week,and $100 dont really get the job done.

yes, they are cheeply made papper filters that shouldnt be used, stay away from the ornge boxes

Slick50

Any product with teflon.

After we get a pretty good list I'll consolidate everything so it will be easier to follow.

uh i think blazee ment automotive products, lol
these are ones i can think of off the top of my head;
- turbonators
- tornado
- ebay "juice boxes"
i could think of more if i wasn't so tired, lol

Why avoid tornado?
I have one in my 98 and also have a k&n filter too, nothing has gone wrong only thing is banks run rich. Let me know why not to use the tornado would really like to know.

tornados are said to spin the incomming air into your intake causing better atomization of the air and fuel molicuels, truth is your moter is a multiport, so the only thing its doing for you is spinning the air into the intake causing a drag, maken the moter work harder to get the volume of air it requires (reasons why your running rich) the air and gas dont need that kinda mixture untill the combustion chamber, and if its a vortec it does an excellent job of mixing the a/f up inside the cylender, avoid k&n because you have a maf sencer (mass air flow) which does not like the oil used on the cotton filters, most owners don;t have an issue untill they clean the filter and oversaturate the cotten fiber with oil, this can and will wreck the maf (expencive as hell bugger too) on some cases the maf can get damaged on initial install to the vehical

What is the problem with stop leak? Is it just that one brand, or all oil leak products?
Also, whats is wrong with slick 50? Is Restore any better?

Apparently armor all uses a new formula now that does not contain alcohol

it says it right on the bottle

What is the problem with stop leak? Is it just that one brand, or all oil leak products?
Also, whats is wrong with slick 50? Is Restore any better?

All oil stop leak problems. They are made to sludge up holes in a leak, but it is impossible to just seek out the leak, so it ends up sludging up the whole engine, the stuff is terrible.

What is the problem with stop leak? Is it just that one brand, or all oil leak products?
Also, whats is wrong with slick 50? Is Restore any better?
I don't recommend the use of any oil additives.

Slick50 contains teflon. Teflon has been known to cause problems in engines, and even dupont says that teflon should not be used in automotive applications.


Another product with alot of hype that should be avoided is Lucas. (Link courtesy of Brian R.)
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/images/lucas/lucas.htm

tornados are said to spin the incomming air into your intake causing better atomization of the air and fuel molicuels, truth is your moter is a multiport, so the only thing its doing for you is spinning the air into the intake causing a drag, maken the moter work harder to get the volume of air it requires (reasons why your running rich) the air and gas dont need that kinda mixture untill the combustion chamber, and if its a vortec it does an excellent job of mixing the a/f up inside the cylender, avoid k&n because you have a maf sencer (mass air flow) which does not like the oil used on the cotton filters, most owners don;t have an issue untill they clean the filter and oversaturate the cotten fiber with oil, this can and will wreck the maf (expencive as hell bugger too) on some cases the maf can get damaged on initial install to the vehical

I really don't know much about the tornado but it has been my blazer for a 3 years along with the k&n filter, nothing has ever gone wrong not even after cleaning the filter, the key is not to oversaturate and to let it dry before you but it back in, this much I know, as for the tornado have to say by the fuel log I keep since it has been put in I get better gas mileage, which is a good thing for this fuel hog which when it was bought new only got 18 mpg on highway and now gets with these gas prices 21 mpg on highway and to me that is better then 18, so I will keep these in my blazer till I see it has not done bad, but thanks for your in put.

your mpg may have gone up, but your running rich which is hurting gas mileage, try taken the tornado out and seeing what happens

then use the tornado as a nice paper weight

One thing ive always thought was funny was on those tornado commercials they use that water spinning in a bottle trick to show how "spinning flows more"...complete load. since when does your engine suck its air from a closed container, poke a hole in the bottom of a bottle like that and see how fast the water goes out going straight compared to spinning. Ive always thought the straighter the intake the better.

I love the bottle trick too. It is true that it works better in a closed system cause the funnel opens an air hole in the middle. It's only good for emptying bottles though~

Ok so I had taken out the tornado have to say the blazer seems to run better now, I can admit I was wrong. I never knew, my bf said it was good cause his dad had put it in and that siince he works for GM he must know it. After reading the post though I had gotten to take it out just to see, and well he called his dad and told it is out for good, his dad though has now put one in his other truck which is a 2003 silverado, think he is taking it now though. Well thank you all what you said was very helpfull.

I got a Craftsman 1/2" impact gun when I bought my air compressor from sears, and it's a piece of junk. It wouldn't loosen my lug nuts, in fact with it set on max I can hold the socket with my hand to keep it from turning.

You could always take it back. There is a risk of defect on any product.

When using your impact gun, what did you have the air pressure set at on the compressor?? You may not have had enough pressure to run the impact gun, they use a lot of airflow (ft3/min) and high pressure.

The compressor is rated for 6.4 SCFM at 90 Psi.

What does the inpact gun require? Different guns have different flow and pressure requirements. 90 psi is normal, but the flow is critical. Should be on the box or in the specs on the manufactures web site.

In my experience, Craftsman air gun work great. Have to have a compressor that feeds it though.

The owners manual says that the average air consumption is 4 cfm and that the max air pressure is 90 psi. It's not the compressor. I spoke to someone I work with and he had the same problem. I'm going yo buy an Ingersol Rand gun as soon as I get the chance. Thanks.

now IR makes a damn good gun

Maybe the quality of Craftsman guns has gone to hell...??

Things to avoid,

I just ran thorugh this real quick, but has anyone mentioned Dex-cool (or the "X" motor)? :smile:

if your system takes dex cool, use it! im no chemist, but i have had a few classes, and the bases of dex and green are different the base in green 'eats' away at the plastic/rubber gaskets that a dex moter has in them, the dex base is rubber and plastic safe

We're not going to turn this thread into another Dexcool debate.

Either anti-freeze is fine to use. There's nothing wrong with switching a vehicle over from Dexcool to standard green, you'll just need to thoroughly flush the system first. You can also safely run the newer formulations of Dexcool as long as you monitor the coolant level closely and keep it full.

i was not trying to turn this into a debate, sorry, just pointing out that there is no reason to avoid dex cool and it can be damageing to switch to green, if any one has done it and had no problems, congrats, but i do see it more often then not when switched to green it opens a can of worms

anyway, got 2 more products that have not worked for me (and maybe other people also);
- Mr. Clean auto dry car wash; bought this about 6 months ago but decided to add it here. i followed all instructions and after i finished the complete process, i was left with a thin, soapy film all over the car. they claim spot free shine but this did not happen for me on repeated attempts on different days w/ vairying weather conditions.
-Triple Edge silicone wiper blades; installed them to replace old damaged rubber blades. the manufacture also clames streak free performance. well, when i use them, they leave a streaky film across the window. also, if there is not enough water on the window or if it is coated with mist, the drivers side wiper skips across the window (never did this with rubber blades). the durability of the blades may be their only saving grace, so only get these if u live in extreme heat or cold areas and get little rain (i guess so they will not melt or stick to ur window or something).