Feedback

Everything You Need To Know About Additives

What Is Additives?

The substances which are added to engine oil, transmission oil and coolant are known as additives. They upgrade their properties. They are also added to the fuel as well as oils in refineries. In the absence of additives, neither fuel nor oil would be able to deliver the needed power. If the latest automobiles were filled with fuel and there were no additives, then they would not go anywhere. If there were no additives in the engine oil, then it would have struggled to withstand the stresses as well as strains of the latest engines and it would also cause them irreversible damage. Additives are very essential for cars. Each and every driver utilizes these all the time, even if they are not familiar with it.

Types Of Additives

Have a look at the various types of additives below:

 

  1. Gasoline Additives - There are a lot of functions performed by this best fuel additives. In the first place, there is a requirement to control the rate of combustion and at the same time to prevent premature fuel ignition. Then there is the requirement to decrease the noxious emissions and then thirdly, to condition the car fuel.
  2. Gasoline Fuel Additive - There are two groups in which the gasoline fuel additives are divided. They are the gasoline additives and diesel fuel additives and both of them perform slightly divergent functions. The additives which are in the gasoline work majorly to upgrade the process of combustion and on the other hand in diesel they condition the fuel.
  3. Diesel Additives - It is the diesel additive which would clean the fuel injectors and then the lubricity of ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULS) is also improved. It can be utilized on a continuous basis, or as and when needed, to properly clean the grubby fuel systems.

Important Features Of Additives

Here are some important features of additives:

 

  • It should intensify the existing base oil properties with antioxidants, corrosion inhibitors, antifoam agents and demulsifying agents.
  • It must suppress unacceptable base oil properties with pour-point depressants and viscosity index (VI) improvers.
  • Then it should also impart new properties to base oils with extreme pressure (EP) additives, detergents, metal deactivators and tackiness agents.

How Do Additives Work?

Are you searching how the additives work? Then all you have to do is to have a look below and then you will be able to understand everything.

 

  • The engine oil is also sometimes known as the motor oil. It has two mail purposes: To oil the moving parts of the car engine which would minimize the friction and the other one is to safeguard the metallic surfaces from the process which is known as corrosion -- aka rust. The car engine oil can easily do these things in the absence of addition of extra chemicals and the most essential of these engine oil additives are viscosity index improvers (VIIs).
  • Now let’s talk about viscosity. The viscosity of oil is more or less equal to its thickness, its readiness to flow freely through the engine and then coat all the parts which would require coating. If the level of viscosity would be high in the oil, then it would be reluctant to flow and then it would gum up the work and the oil which would have very low viscosity, it would flow through the car engine like water and then won’t stick around long enough to perform its job.
  • The viscosity of oil can also change with the temperature, it can become more viscous when it is cold and then less viscous when hot, so that’s why the viscosity can be affected by both the weather and then how warm your car engine is.
  • The tendency of the viscosity of the oil to change with the temperature is known as its viscosity index. The viscosity index improvers are utilized to adjust this index so that a change can be made in the viscosity small enough throughout the car's normal range of temperatures that the oil will prove to be useful whether your automobile has just initiated on a winter morning or has been driven at engine temperatures of over 200 degrees Fahrenheit (93.3 degrees Celsius). Generally, all the latest engine oils contain VIIs.
  • Rust inhibitors and detergents/dispersants are two other common types of engine oil additive. The latter one would help to disperse the sludge which can start building up in the engine with the passage of time. There are a lot of motor oils in which zinc is added so that it can protect the surfaces of the car engine. A lot of these “additives” would be there in the oil as it would come from the manufacturer, so there is no need to technically add them, at least not by the owner of the car. But if you will walk and explore a car supply store, then you will surely find a lot of bottles of aftermarket engine oil additives which would claim to enhance the performance even further and would make your car engine cleaner than the detergents which are present in your car oil are already making it.
  • Now you must be thinking that are these additives worth buying? Will they actually perform better than the additives already in your oil? Or would they be just redundant and possibly even harmful?
  • This subject of some controversy, but on the whole, they probably won't make a lot of difference. Unless you are purchasing your car oil at inexpensive rates from a nonstandard manufacturer or there are special additive needs of your car engine noted in your owner's manual, then those additives on the store shelves would surely have more of a placebo effect on the driver than a genuine effect on the car engine.

Top Brands For Additives

Most of the people have a nature to avoid risk and seek safety. That is the reason why they would go with a familiar auto parts brand than a new one. It would prove to be safe and they know what to expect. Have a look at our top brands for Additives which would offer safety and at the same time decrease the risk of disappointment.