Fuel / Engine Additive (Automotive Addition)

RyanB

RyanB

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In my opinion I think it's mostly snake oil and marketing.
 
Racerx said:
In my opinion I think it's mostly snake oil and marketing.
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I used to have that notion, but I’ve seen the results from GumOut and it certainly works as advertised. Piston heads would be coated in carbon, use a few cans of that stuff over the course of a few tanks of fuel and borescope the cylinders again and the heads were significantly cleaner. Granted, I haven’t used it since owning my S60 and I typically run the Lucas, formula, but I do believe it’s cheap insurance to run periodically.
 
I’ve used Techron from time to time with good results.
 
If we’re talking about a modern EFI car and it’s running fine/getting the MPG it should I don’t really see much point.

If it’s not running right or MPG/power seems down I’ll do the seafoam treatment. Warm the engine up, find a vacuum port and slowly feed 1/2 to a full can of seafoam into the intake port- you have to do it slow so it doesn’t kill the motor. Then shut the engine off and wait about 5 minutes. Restart and rev the snot out of it. Any carbon will come out the tailpipe and potentially put on a smoke show.
 
On the ancient and almost forgotten carbureted engines , I would warm up the engine, then use a spray bottle and spray the water down the carb, using the other hand to rev the engine.

After a bottle full, the heads, spark plugs and the top of the pistons would be sufficiently steamed clean. Saved lots of cleaning time for replacing the head gaskets.

I never tried that on a fuel injected motor so unsure how that would work.
 
Zeldman said:
Saved lots of cleaning time for replacing the head gaskets.
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A blown head gasket is often good for cleaning one of the pistons/cylinders. :)
Zeldman said:
I never tried that on a fuel injected motor so unsure how that would work.
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I guess it depends on whether it’s throttle body injection, port injection or direct injection.
 
Presuming you have a Corolla (if I remember correctly from a previous post), with a 1.8L engine (the most common one they are selling.

You are dealing with a proven design with sequential fuel injection. You are less likely to have the build up in the intake and valves that many modern direct fuel injection engines are seeing and, while carbon will happen over time, its likely not an issue you will need to deal with soon.

Having said that, I have seen best results with Chemtool B12, Seafoam and Gumout (I use them mostly interchangeably). But typically by the time I get my hands on a car, it has at least 150K miles on it and I am trying to clean up after an owner that neglected the car by putting off oil changes or letting the fuel go bad (I'm kinda cheap when it comes to my cars).

In your case, I would recommend 3 things: If your gas is going to sit in the tank for more than 60 days, use a fuel stabilizer (like the Lucas). Change the oil regularly, at least as often as the maintenance manual calls for and use the recommended type of oil or better. (I think many Toyotas are calling for synthetic oil on an extended oil change, if that is the case, don't cheap out on the type of oil used). Last check your oil level (I do this every time I get gas), minor repairs (like bad PCV valves) become engine replacements if your oil level gets too low to do its job.
 
I understand that techron and products like it do actually work, particularly in cleaning the fuel injectors, which can get gummed up just like the ones in airplanes. Supposedly running a bottle of the stuff through every 10k or so is a good idea. Alternatively just occasionally fill up with a name brand gas that's on the "top tier" list and contains the same additives. This is the reason gm and a few other manufacturers came up with the "top tier" branding; their first injected engines actually need the cleaning agent.

My wife's car gets the better fuel by accident because she happens to be close to a station when she needs gas. My pickups that live on a steady diet of Casey's and co-op fuel do occasionally get a bottle of the cleaner as I doubt those sources are buying the higher end additive packages.
 
Don’t waste your money, time at the store, and time to use it. What are you trying to gain or accomplish?

I’ve got 2 vehicles, one I’ve owned since new and the other bought when it was 1 year old. They have over 1/2 million miles combined, never used any of that stuff.

My opinion. Yeah, I’m a gear head.
 
Add me to the list of never using any kind of additive in my gasoline in the last 40 years.
I do use and store classic cars and small engine equipment with ethanol free 90 octane gas though and never any kind of stabilizer. I also have used leaded 110 octane racing gas to store old cars with. I currently have one sitting in my hangar full of 100LL. Keep your tanks full on stored equipment.

Back in the day with carburated vehicles used to buy these cans of carbon cleaner from the new car dealers that you would pour down the carb until the car stalled out. Leave it sit for an half hour and restart and it would blow out the carbon and slow down the pinging for a while. I think water does the same thing?

Yea snake oil comes to mind...
 
I've used the Chevron w/Techron stuff as a preventative in some of my previous vehicles but never as a fix for poor running condition. I only threw in a bottle every 30K or so, dunno if it did a thing.
 
Also back in the olden days of carburetor engines, taking it out on the open road and WOT would clean out a lot of carbon....
 
My fuel gauge stopped working on my 04 ford diesel had to fill and track miles. Did this a few months debated dropping and replacement but thought why not add a few ounces of fuel system cleaner. Added a can of diesel fuel cleaner and its still working five years later.
 
Notrub said:
My fuel gauge stopped working on my 04 ford diesel had to fill and track miles. Did this a few months debated dropping and replacement but thought why not add a few ounces of fuel system cleaner. Added a can of diesel fuel cleaner and its still working five years later.
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Interesting that fuel cleaner fixed the fuel sending unit, lol. Just watch out for the fuel pickup that generally fails over time leaving about 1/5 of the tank unusable unless it's repaired.
 
Agreed always thought the fuel sender was a magnetic devise driven by a float like in planes or boats. Thought it may have been hung up somehow. I am a fan of additives when necessary. Thanks for the heads up it looks like a fun repair.
 
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Notrub said:
Agreed always thought the fuel sender was a magnetic devise driven by a float like in planes or boats. Thought it may have been hung up somehow. I am a fan of additives when necessary. Thanks for the heads up it looks like a fun repair.
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Most fuel senders are still some sort of rheostat, I think. Airplanes have used them for a very long time. Cessna still uses them. Cars and trucks used them for decades, though my '51 International had a thermal sender. The float lever rotated a tiny cam that moved a contact closer or farther from a bimetal strip. Close meant that the strip, which carried the gauge current, had to heat up more before it bent enough to break contact, and that longer time drove the gauge higher and kept it there. It cycled on and off, with contact becoming shorter as the fuel level went down. The contact was not in the fuel space. The gauge itself was also thermal: more time being energized bent the bimetal strip more and pulled the needle up.

The diesel fuel cleaner might have cleaned off the resistive strip in the sender. They're immersed in the fuel anyway and can get varnished up a bit. When rheostats get old they start sparking. Inside the tank. In the fuel vapors. But the fuel/air concentrations are far above the combustible range.
 
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Dan Thomas said:
Most fuel senders are still some sort of rheostat, I think. Airplanes have used them for a very long time. Cessna still uses them. Cars and trucks used them for decades, though my '51 International had a thermal sender. The float lever rotated a tiny cam that moved a contact closer or farther from a bimetal strip. Close meant that the strip, which carried the gauge current, had to heat up more before it bent enough to break contact, and that longther time drove the gauge higher and kept it there. It cycled on and off, with contact becoming shorter as the fuel level went down. The contact was not in the fuel space. The gauge itself was also thermal: more time being energized bent the bimetal strip more and pulled the needle up.

The diesel fuel cleaner might have cleaned off the resistive strip in the sender. They're immersed in the fuel anyway and can get varnished up a bit. When rheostats get old they start sparking. Inside the tank. In the fuel vapors. But the fuel/air concentrations are far above the combustible range.
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It's a standard rheostat fuel sender. It's also in a tank of diesel, so there's not any fear of fuel vapors and combustion.
 
Changed the plugs in our Ford Fusion at 90,000 miles, as preventive maintenance, still running fine. No carbon on the old ones.

106,000 miles so far, and never added oil between changes, Mobile One or Ford synthetic, and changed at about 7,000 miles.

No additives, ever.

Quit that when I bought my first EFI car, and the results have been about perfect, as none of them had any deposits issues, period. Over 600,000 miles so far. Non leaded gas has been revolutionary for engine internal cleanliness, and EFI provides a very lean burn, so no carbon.
 
455 Bravo Uniform said:
Don’t waste your money, time at the store, and time to use it. What are you trying to gain or accomplish?

I’ve got 2 vehicles, one I’ve owned since new and the other bought when it was 1 year old. They have over 1/2 million miles combined, never used any of that stuff.

My opinion. Yeah, I’m a gear head.
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I haven't noticed since they took MTBE out of the fuel, but I tracked miles and gallons and such for every tank. Our 90 Jeep Cherokee would start to see a decrease in gas mileage. I would run a tank of Mobil Premium or toss on some Techron and the tank after that was back up to better gas mileage.
 
455 Bravo Uniform said:
Don’t waste your money, time at the store, and time to use it. What are you trying to gain or accomplish?

I’ve got 2 vehicles, one I’ve owned since new and the other bought when it was 1 year old. They have over 1/2 million miles combined, never used any of that stuff.

My opinion. Yeah, I’m a gear head.
Click to expand...

I haven't noticed since they took MTBE out of the fuel, but I tracked miles and gallons and such for every tank. Our 90 Jeep Cherokee would start to see a decrease in gas mileage. I would run a tank of Mobil Premium or toss on some Techron and the tank after that was back up to better gas mileage.
 
cowman said:
If we’re talking about a modern EFI car and it’s running fine/getting the MPG it should I don’t really see much point.

If it’s not running right or MPG/power seems down I’ll do the seafoam treatment. Warm the engine up, find a vacuum port and slowly feed 1/2 to a full can of seafoam into the intake port- you have to do it slow so it doesn’t kill the motor. Then shut the engine off and wait about 5 minutes. Restart and rev the snot out of it. Any carbon will come out the tailpipe and potentially put on a smoke show.
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Heard of people doing that on their Jeeps (TJ) to 'blow out the soot' with noticeable improvements afterwards.
 
Pinecone said:
I haven't noticed since they took MTBE out of the fuel, but I tracked miles and gallons and such for every tank. Our 90 Jeep Cherokee would start to see a decrease in gas mileage. I would run a tank of Mobil Premium or toss on some Techron and the tank after that was back up to better gas mileage.
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There’s some data there, so I defer to your info.
 
I’ve heard good things about all three here. I use MMO, AKA “snake oil” in the DeLorean from time to time (no pun). Figure it can’t hurt.

 
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