Do Stop Leak Products Work? Do They Damage Engine Seals? Will They Destroy an Engine? Let's Find Out

a car oil leak can cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars to repair so the question is do oil stop leak products actually work or are they just a bunch of snake oil well let's find out we're going to find out if snake oil works just as well as these stop leak products and the first test we'll see which product does the best job of softening hardenedo rings then we'll see which one has the least impact on oil viscosity we'll also see if these products cause harm to new rubber engine components at a price of only eight dollars is this bars leak's heavy duty formula it claims to stop all oil leaks includes timing seal cover cam seal rear main and other hard to stop oil leaks the bottle of 16.9 ounces is designed to treat four to six quarts of oil the Bar's Leak is made in USA so some of the stop leak products contain powerful solvents which might actually hurt the protection offered by motor oil so let's test the lubricity or film strength of the motor oil first and then we'll test each of the products I'll first add 40 milliliters of oil into the test cup I'll coat the test wheel and the test pin and motor oil so we avoid damage from a dry start the lubricity test will provide some great information on how these additives impact motor oil all shortness test to only 30 seconds to avoid causing damage to the test equipment if there are poor performing products while this test doesn't simulate engine operating conditions perfectly it'll definitely provide us with some great information to get an accurate worst car measurement I'll use a microscope to properly line up the calipers and the motor oil performed well at 7.05 millimeters between each test I'll use brake parts cleaner to clean up the test equipment and then I'll use sandpaper to resurface the test wheel now that we have our Baseline let's test the bars links using a 50 50 blend of motor oil and bars leaks I'll use a new mixing straw with each brand after five minutes the bars leaks in the oil are not separating and there's more friction with the bars leaks and motor oil blend compared to the straight motor oil and the motor oil test pin is on the left and the Bar's Leaks is on the right and the bars leaks hurt the performance of the motor oil 7.52 millimeters at a price of 14 is this liquid Bali motor oil saver maintains and regenerates rubber and plastic seals the active ingredient is ethylene glycol the liquid Molly is made in Germany after five minutes the oil in the liquid Molly are staying together and there's definitely less friction with the liquid Molly oil blend compared to the straight motor oil and the energy use meter is showing that the liquid Mali is performing very well compared to the straight motor oil and the local Molle and motor oil blend actually outperformed the straight motor oil with a wear scar of only 6.85 millimeters at a price of 16 is this Loop guard seal fix it's designed to be used inside of engines power steering systems automatic and manual transmissions and differentials the lube guard is made in USA after mixing the lube guard into the oil the blend became very cloudy after five minutes the loop guard separated from the motor oil and settled at the bottom of the container I'll go ahead and stir the lube guard once again just before the lubricity test and there's definitely more friction with the lube guard compared to the motor oil or the liquid Molly oil blend and the lube guard test pin has the most damage at an 8.07 millimeters also the price is 16 the same price as a loop guard as this CD too it claims to be the number one selling oil stop leak it claims to offer anti-wear protection we're gonna test that cd2 is made in USA and there's no cloudiness when mixing the oil in the cd2 and the oil in the cd2 are getting along nicely and not separating after five minutes and there's actually more friction with the cd2 than there is with the lube guard and the test pen is very hot to the touch and there's a lot of damage at 9.33 millimeters which is by far the most yet at a price of 18 is this bar doll no smoke stop leak a world without friction the dosage depends on the number of cylinders of the engine made in USA and the bar doll reminds me of motor honey with a very high viscosity no issues with the bardahl separating from the motor oil and the very high viscosity of the bar Dallas helping it perform well in the lubricity test with less friction than most of the other brands and the Bordeaux has done the best yet at only 6.52 millimeters at a price of 18 is this Lucas engine oil stop leak Lucas calls for one part of the oil stop leak product to four quarts of oil the Lucas is made in USA and the Lucas has a very high viscosity but not quite as high as the bar doll no issues with the Lucas separating from the motor oil after five minutes just like the Bartel the Lucas is performing very well on the Liberty test with less friction taking place compared to straight motor oil and the Lucas test bin has a smaller wear scarf than the motor oil test pin at 6 6.9 millimeters had a price of twenty dollars is this zado Adam X stop leak zado claims it contains special components that restore elasticity of gasket materials that results in rebuilding a tight contact of gasket and metal the Zeto is made in Ukraine and Asado has a very low viscosity compared to 5W30 motor oil note issues with the zado separating from the motor oil and there's a lot of noise in friction taking place with the zado with the energy use meter at over 570 watts and a test pen is pretty hot and has a large wear scar at 8.8 millimeters compared to 7.05 for regular motor oil also the price of twenty dollars is this at205 reseal which claims to stop leaks fast it's supposed to work in the engine transmission power steering differentials and hydraulic systems at205 is made in USA and the at205 in the oil are very cloudy and don't seem to be getting along after five minutes the at205 has settled at the bottom of the container I went ahead and mixed them back together just before the test and there's a lot of friction taking place with the energy use meter at over 570 watts and a test pin is very hot and is blowing off some steam and the at205 test pin has a pretty large wear scar at 8.42 millimeters at a price of 22 dollars is this Justice Brothers engine stop leak it claims that it stops and prevents Engine Seal leaks reconditions old dry rubber crankcase seals and gaskets will not harm internal parts of the engine the Justice Brothers is made in USA and the Justice Brothers and the oil became very cloudy but they didn't separate after five minutes and there's a lot of damage taking place with the energy use meter at over 580 watts and at Justice Brothers test pin is extremely hot with the oil and the Justice Brothers turning into vapor and the damage to the Justice Brothers test pin is the same as the cd2s at 9.33 millimeters at a price of 22 dollars is this Blue Devil oil stop leak it claims to be number one in the country the Blue Devil claims to make a permanent repair the Blue Devil is made in USA and the Blue Devil in the oil became very cloudy when mixed together just like the lube guard and the at205 the Blue Devil separated from the oil I mixed the oil and the Blue Devil back together just before the test and there's quite a bit of grinding taking place ice and the introduce meter is pretty excited just like the Justice Brothers the blue devil is blowing off some steam the test pen is pretty hot and there's quite a bit of damage to the Blue Devil test pin at 8.53 millimeters at a price of 24 as this wins engine stop leak stop and prevent engine oil leaks Revitalize Rubber and neoprene seals and O-rings the winds is made in Belgium and the winds as well as the oil seem to be getting along nicely and they stayed together after five minutes unfortunately there's a lot of damage taking place with the winds and the energy use meter is in the 580s and the test pen is extremely hot from all the metal on metal contact and the worst car on the test pin is the largest yet at 9.35 millimeters at a price of 35 dollars is this hapco tri-seal makes a permanent seal and prevents future leaks the hapco is made in USA and the hapco oil blend became very cloudy when mixed together however they did not separate after five minutes and there's quite a bit of friction with the watt meter in the 560s but not quite as much as some of the other brands and the hapco test pin has a wear scar of 8.42 millimeters which is quite a bit smaller than the winds at a price of 35 dollars the most expensive brand will be testing is made by Seal Lube it's a seal expander it claims it positively stops Rubber seal leaks in any fluid system the seal Lube is made in USA and a seal Lube in the motor oil became pretty cloudy when mixed together and the seal Lube separated from the motor oil after a couple of minutes I went ahead and mixed them back together just before the task and there's a lot of metal and metal contact taking place with the energy use meter in the 580s and the test pin is pretty hot to the touch and has a pretty large wear scar at 8.91 millimeters is it possible that this snake oil works just as well as these stop leak products let's find out and the steak oil didn't have any problems mixing with the motor oil and it didn't separate after five minutes and there's a lot of damage taking place with the energy use meters starting off in the 580s and the test pin is very hot to the touch and the worst car is very large at 9.22 millimeters but it's still better than some of the brands so the very high viscosity bardol additive mixed with motor oil actually performed better than straight motor oil with the wear scar of 6.52 millimeters the liquid Ali performed well at 6.85 Luke is 6.9 in the control or straight motor oil 7.05 millimeters so all the other products did have a negative impact on the performance of motor oil for anti-wear properties before we kick off the next test let's take the oil from the test cups and pour it back into the beakers some of the products claim that they do not have any impact on viscosity so let's place the oil in the freezer that set the minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit for 24 hours and we'll check back on this later in the video Let's expose brand new O-rings to the products and see if they have any impact on healthy rubber gaskets and seals the Baseline thickness of the O-rings is 0.206 inches some of the products do separate and fall to the bottom of the containers so let's go ahead and expose the O-rings to the products without mixing into oil since there won't be any heat exposure let's allow the O-rings to soak for 48 hours Let's place the gasket material in the O-rings into motor oil and let's heat it up to 350 degrees Fahrenheit for two hours this will definitely cause the rubber gasket material as well as our rings to become very hard I'll stir the pot several times during the two hours it's been two hours and the oil has cooled off to room to temperature a short a durometer measures the hardness of rubber the higher the number the harder the material and the O-ring that was not exposed to hot oil has a hardness of 75. so after two hours in the oil the O-ring now has a hardness of 89.5 so there's been a lot of damage before the heat exposure the O-ring was 0.206 inches and it now has a thickness of 0.194 so that's about a six percent loss in thickness which will definitely cause an oil leak let's see if these oil additives can restore the O-rings back to the original like new condition before we heat the oil let's measure the weight of the measuring cups along with everything in it the simulate engine operating conditions let's heat up a 50 50 oil and additive blend along with the hardened seals and Gasket to around 200 degrees for two hours and the Justice Brothers oil blend is actually boiling at around 200 degrees Fahrenheit it's been right at two hours so once the container is at room temperature we'll weigh them once again and the motor oil started off at 86.46 grams and the container now weighs 86.44 a loss of only 0.02 grams and the bars leak started off at 99.34 grams and it now weighs 99.33 a loss of 0.01 grams which is very good and the O-ring had a thickness of 0.194 inches after being damaged from the Heat and after two hours of heat exposure the bars like o-ring is at 0.1965 so very little change and the untreated damage o-ring has a hardness of 89.5 after two hours of exposure to bars leak the O-ring is still at 89.5 and the liquid Valley started off at 95.73 and it now weighs 95.1 a loss of 0.63 grams and look what Molly performed about the same as the bar leaks at 0.1965 on the O-ring however the liquid Molly did seem to soften the O-ring a small amount at 88 and the lube guard really struggled going from 98.07 to 96.24 a loss of 1.83 grams the most yet and the lube guard actually works the O-ring did recover some of its original size and it's now 0.2015 inches it's also back to its original hardness number of 75. and the cd2 performed well going from 99.88 to 99.83 a loss of only 0.05 grams unfortunately the cd2 2 didn't help the O-ring expand in size however it did soften the O-ring just a little to 85.5 and the bar doll was completely unfazed by the Heat and didn't experience any loss unfortunately it just didn't do much to help the O-ring return to its original size 0.196 inches and the O-ring is pretty hard at 88. and the Lucas also did very well going from 96.93 to 96.9 a loss of only 0.03 grams and the Lucas performed about the same as the bartol with a thickness of 0.197 and the hardness was the same as the bardol in the Lucas at 88. Zeto started out at 97.74 and dropped the 97.68 which is only 0.06 grams and a Zeta o-ring is also at 0.197 the same as a Lucas and the O-ring hardness is at 88 and the at205 separates from the oil and it experienced a lot of evaporative loss at 2.21 grams and the O-ring is almost back to its original size at 0.2055 inches very impressive and the O-ring is actually softer than new at 65.5 and the Justice Brothers boiled off 8.78 grams the most of all the brands and it did better than average with expanding the oil seal at 0.199 inches and a Justice Brothers also did a great job of softening the rubber at 74 which is very close to its original hardness and the Blue Devil dropped from 101.34 to 99.81 grams a loss of 1.53 and the Blue Devil also helped the thickness of the O-ring a little at 0.199 inches it also softened the seal with a hardness score of 80. and the winds performed well dropping from 95.04 to 95 grams and the winds also help restore the o-ring's thickness a little at 0.198 inches the O-ring is a little bit softer than the control at 84.5 and the hapco dropped from 100.35 to 99.57 for a total loss of 0.78 grams and the hapco did deliver some improvement to the seal with a diameter of 0.197 inches it's also a little bit softer at 81.5 and the seal Lube experienced a bigger loss in the hapco at 1.32 grams seal Lube claims to be a seal expander and it did just that at 0.2025 inches it also did a great job of softening the O-ring with a hardness of 73 and a snake oil actually performed well in this test only losing 0.1 grams it did not evaporate and it also didn't help the oil seal at 0.1965 inches and the seal remained very hard at 89.5 what's very interesting is that the products that perform well as far as evaporative loss just did not perform well as far as restoring the O-ring and the at205 came in on top for expanding the thickness of the O-ring at 0.2055 inches Co lube also did well at 0.2025 in lubeguard 0.2015 inches the at205 also came out on top for softening the rubber o-ring with the lowest hardness score of 65.5 seal Lube 73 Justice brother 74 and Lube guard 75. the rubber fiber gasket is a lot thinner so let's see if the thinner material helps some of the products perform better I'll use the pointed end of the pick to measure how much force it takes to puncture the gasket so after two hours of intense heat the rubber fiber gasket is very hard and it takes 798 grams to puncture the gasket and the snake oil performed better better than the control at 704 grams unfortunately the bars just wasn't able to soften the gasket at 886 grams and the liquid Molly has done the best yet at 682 grams and the lube guard did a great job of reconditioning the rubber o-ring and it's done the best so far on this test at 528 grams and the cd2 performed a little bit better than the control at 760 but not quite as well as the liquid Mali in the lube guard and the bar doll did a little bit better than the cd2 but not enough to make a huge difference at 724 and the Lucas did a little bit better than the bar doll but the Improvement is pretty small compared to the Lube guard and asado performed very close to the same as the bardahl and the Lucas at 718 and the at205 did a terrific job of softening the gasket at 430 the best yet and the Justice Brothers also did a great job of softing the gasket at 542 to move into third place behind the at205 in the lube guard and the Blue Devil performed very close to the same as a Lube guard at 526. and the wind showed sub-improvement at 686 and the hapco delivered decent results on this test at 492 or 200 grams better than the control and a seal Loop did even better than the hapco at 446 to move into second place behind the at205 once again the at205 came out on top at 430 grams the seal Lube did almost as well at 446 and hapco 492 grams the stop leak products have been in the freezer for 24 hours so let's see if the stop leak products have any impact on viscosity of the oil at extremely cold temperature and the motor oil is a lane one barza lane 2 liquid Molly Lane 3 and Lube guard 4. and the lube guard separated from the oral and quickly went down the slide and the motor oil is outpacing the bars in the liquid Molly unfortunately the liquid Molly is frozen and it looks like an egg yolk going down the slide so it's motor oil in Lane 1 cd2 Lane 2 bar doll 3 and Lucas 4. and the cd2 is Flowing a little bit faster than motor oil but the viscosity isn't too far off from the motor oil unfortunately the bar doll and the Lucas had a huge impact on the cold oil flow performance motor oil is in Lane one Zeto Lane 2 at2053 and Justice Brothers 4 and the at205 separated from the oil oil and it went down the slide way too quickly zado and Justice Brothers are moving a little bit faster than the motor oil but the viscosity seems acceptable and now it's motor oil Blue Devil wins in hapco and the Blue Devil separated from the motor oil and the winds in the hapco are flowing a little bit faster than the motor oil and the final three include motor oil seal lube and snake oil and a seal Loop separated from the oil and it went down the slide quickly and snake oil is Flowing a little bit too fast as well so all the products had some impact on the performance of cold temperature oil flow it's been 48 hours so let's see if the stop Lake products have had any impact on brand new O-rings that have not been exposed to heat and the O-ring that was only soaked in synthetic motor oil has a thickness of 0.207 inches and a hardness of 75. bars leak did the same as the motor oil at 0.207 and 75 and 0.208 for liquid Molly is close enough to the control and no change in hardness at 75. and the lube guard cause a new o-ring to swell to 0.2125 inches it's also softer at 71.5 0.2095 for the cd2 which is a little bit larger than the control all however the hardness is the same at 75 and the bardol is at 0.209 and has a hardness of 75. and the Lucas didn't seem to cause any change to the new o-ring at 0.206 and 75 just like the Lucas the Zeto didn't seem to hurt the new o-ring at 0.2065 and 75 and the at-205 did cause a new o-ring to swell a little bit to 0.215 inches it also went from a hardness of 75 to 70. and the Justice Brothers also caused a new seal to swell to 0.213 inches and it's a little bit softer at 71. and the Blue Devil performed almost the same as the Justice Brothers at 0.213 and 71.5 and the winds had very little impact on the new o-ring at 0.208 inches and 75. and the hapco caused a new seal to swell to 0.213 inches and it softened to 71. and the co lube also caused a new o-ring to swell to 0.215 and 72.5 for hardness some of the products did cause a new O-rings to swell and some of the products also caused the new O-rings to soften When taking into account both the wear scar size and evaporative loss the at205 had an average finish at 3.6 in Seal Loop 4.4 if it's all about effectiveness of stopping oil leaks and not about potential risk the at205 easily won this showdown with an average finish at first place however all of the top six finishers demonstrated pretty good Effectiveness as stop leak products one of my vehicles had a very bad rack and pinion leak several years ago and I used a Stop Lead product fortunately it did a great job and I've only had to add fluid one time in about five years however there are potential risks with using stop leak products and I would never use a stop leak product in a vehicle that didn't have an active leak also I'd rather make a proper repair instead of using a stop leak product on a much newer vehicle all the videos in this channel including this one our viewers suggested so if you have a video idea I hope you take time to leave a comment thanks so much for watching please take care and look forward to next time

Channel: Project Farm

Views: 744,935

Keywords: project farm, Stop leak, engine stop leak, motor stop leak, engine oil stop leak, rear seal stop leak, motor oil engine stop leak, engine motor oil stop leak review, engine oil stop leak products, AT-205 engine stop leak, bardahl stop leak, liqui moly motor oil saver review, lucas stop leak, bar’s leak stop oil leak, lubegard stop leak, hapco stop leak, blue devil stop leak, xado stop leak, seal lube stop leak, cd-2 stop leak, justice brothers stop leak, wynn’s stop leak

Id: fqD4Ha766w8

Length: 18min 48sec (1128 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 26 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/Busterlimes]

No. Fix the fuckin leak kids. If you use this shit, I'm taking away your hotboi auto enthusiast sticker

[u/EjackQuelate]

If you hate your car and want to destroy the motor, use this crap.

[u/Low-Village-766]

Lol man you fellas have all the money in the world to fix everything as soon as it happens