Many years ago, a family friend who is also a successful mechanic recommended an engine additive called RESTORE to me. This stuff is a can of thick blue gunk that is added to crankcase during an oil change and claims to restore cylinder compression by “filling in” minor scratches associated with engine wear. It’s marketed for cars with high mileage. I’ve used it before in older vehicles and it did actually seem to put some kick in the pants of some of my other vehicles.
Now I own a 2004 Ford F150 with a 5.4L 3-valve Triton that has just turned 50,000 miles. I’ve been dutifully using Castrol 5W-20 synthetic blend without any additives, but am curious if using a can of RESTORE will be helpful to the engine (I really don’t have any complaints about the truck’s performance, but this is the first full-size pickup I’ve ever owned, so I don’t have any sort of performance benchmark in my head). I jokingly refer to this truck as “my other wife,” so I want it to run well for a long time.
Is this stuff worth the 10 bucks it costs, or is it just snake oil?
Snake oil. Try switching to 10w30.
If your truck is running good now, why bother trying it? It’s 4 years old now, give it some new spark plugs, change fuel/air filters, oil and transmission fluid
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
I would hesitate to use some additive that the factory doesn’t recommend in a good performing engine with only 50,000 miles on it.
Save the magical restoration additives for last ditch help for an old beater you don’t care much about.
My 2 cents worth.
Just some more worthless snake oil! At 50k miles, your truck is just nicely broken in. If you keep up with maintenance, it should go at least another 100k. Use only the type and weight of oil recommended in your owner’s manual and change it regularly.
[b]I’ve used RESTORE in several engines that were burning oil due to worn rings/cylinder walls, and if it didn’t stop the oil burning, it did slow it down substantually. So it does work.
However, I wouldn’t use it in an engine that shows no evidence of massive oil burning. This is a product you use in an engine that is worn out, and you want to get the most miles out of it before engine/vehicle replacement is required.
Tester[/b]
Not as you descibe your truck. Maybe if you had a oil burner.
This stuff DOES work. It was the ONLY way I was able to get my Vega to run keep running past 50k miles.
But it’s NOT to be used for a perfectly good running engine. It’s only for worn engines that are having oil problems. I would NOT use this stuff unless the engine is on it’s last legs and you need to keep it running for a while longer. If used in a good running engine it could actually damage it.