4x4Review Off Road Magazine
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Whoever said that certainly never turned wrenches for a living, or had something better to do with their time.
For several years our project Land Cruiser has had its fair share of drips and leaks. The rear main seal on our fuel injected Chevy 350 motor seeps (surprise surprise), the rear axle vent tube drips because I’m too lazy to put a proper vent tube on it, the twin-stick Dana300 transfer case leaks and the source is eluding me, and the transmission pan on the Turbo 350 slush box had to be cut and welded to clear the front drive shaft – and guess what – it leaks too.
“An ounce of prevention…” you know, you can keep that pound of cure because I’d rather be wheeling or doing another feature article. Our cure used to be cardboard boxes, drip pans and the kitty litter lying under our Land Cruiser, but the oils and fluids still found their way through the rags, cardboard and kitty litter, and stained our garage floor.
Score: Oil one, Garage Floor zero.
Tired of hearing my wife nag about the floor, I decided I had two options: One, forego several weekends of R&R and tear apart the engine, drain, clean and re-weld the transmission pan, find and fix the transfer case leak, and install a proper vent tube in the rear axle. Two, simply find a better way to collect the drips.
I chose option two.
Enter the “Oil Mask – Absorbent Garage Mat” by Poly-Tak. The Oil Mask is, quite simply, a non-woven fabric roll with a non-skid backing. Poly-Tak claims that it can absorb and old up to 10 times its weight in fluids, is easy to use and can even be trimmed to fit specific sizes. When its finally soaked to the gills with fluid, roll it up and dispose of it like you would your old oil.
We found our Oil Mask mats online at ImprovementsCatalog.com for only $9.99, so we quickly ordered two. Shipping and handling was pricey at $17.75, but it’s still cheaper than replacing the rear main seal on our motor, let along tear everything else apart.
How well does it work? I’m glad you asked… We’ve been using our Oil Mask mats for about 45 days now and it’s doing its just as advertised. The mats absorb and trap the oil, and you can simply roll them up and move them out of the way. Zero oil or fluids have seeped through the non-skid backing either.
So, if you find yourself too lazy or too busy to fix those stubborn, messy oil leaks, pick yourself up a couple Oil Mask oil mats, pitch them under your truck and get busy doing other cool stuff instead.
| Poly-Tak Protection Systems, Inc. |
| 16632 Hale Irvine, CA 92606 Tel: 800-899-0871 Fax: 714-842-7128 Email: support@polytak.com Web Site: www.polytak.com |
