Fuel Additives Good or Bad?

[camaro_speedemon]

I have heard that fuel system/injector cleaners are bad for you car. I have always noticed an improvement whenever I use them, but my friend was saying that it's actually bad for your fuel system.

[Merlin]

I never heard such a thing. In fact I just put an injector cleaner in my car yesterday.

[Dominic]

I do it every oil change.

Two of the better OTC products are Chevron Techron Concentrate and Valvoline Injector Cleaner.

The best you can find at most all Chevrolet dealers and on the web... BG 44K. Its not cheap but doing it every 15,000 miles or so is an excellent and easy way to keep the system in perfect condition.

[TheV6Bird]

I think you are reffering to OIL additives. They aren't all they are hyped up to be. I'd post a link to the Engine Oil Bible, but I'm not home right now.

[bu-bye]

Those fuel additives are just fine for your car and should be used when you suspect a performance lose. Most cars will not need injector clean until 40K. Using an oil additive in your car with low miles can be bad for it. The seals in your engine may not have set yet and putting that stuff in your car will cause the seals to expand like they should but if your seal are not set right they will expand out of place. My Autoshop teacher always told us never to use that stuff in a car with less then 50K miles.

[ January 27, 2003: Message edited by: bu-bye ]</p>

[good2Bking]

High Performance Pontiac mag had a Q&A on this a few months back. The ed. recommended a can of Chevron Techron (which is what GM uses as its private-label injector cleaner) every 7,500 miles.

[gladiator]

I have tried a lot of fuel additives (injector cleaner) and I have found that in general the STP Full Fuel System Cleaner works best. You can find it at wal-mart in a silver bottle.

[1998silverbird]

I like the Lucas fuel injector cleaner..

[strobhen]

Actually, stp is among the worst out there

One of the few I would recommend against using. Its cheap & can cause corrossion.

[ChillPhatCat]

From all I've read, Techron is as good as they get... I use it about every 6k miles.

[F1GT]

yea, a few years back my girlfriend's business teacher was talking about how STP had to apologize to the public and stuff after a lawsuit of some sort.

The only one I really trust out there are Chevron's Techron™ and Restore's 2-in-1 Octane Booster and Fuel Injection cleaner.

Techron was actually tested by BMW and an indepenent laboratory where they bought used cars(BMW used their own), took out the valve pins and checked out the walls. Then they reassembled them, drove them for 3-5 tankful of miles with Techron and disassembled them again for inspection. The deposits on the valve pins lessened dramatically.

Restore's 2-in-1 is from personal experience. My previous car, several years back, was hesitating like crazy. When I step on the gas it would rock back and forth and won't accelerate. Only if I give it very light throttle did it SLOWLY accelerate, along with some rocking. I went to Kragen, bought the Restore, went to the gas station, put it in. As soon as I left the station, there was a slight improvement already. And as I used up the tank it went away.

Don't even bother with oil additives like Slick 50, Duralube, Z-Max,.,.,.They are being sued by the FTC last I checked.
[img]graemlins/burnout.gif[/img]

[gladiator]

I havent heard about the corrosion from STP fuel additives. When I service generators with THOUSANDS of hours on them I would use STP fuel additives. It always did the trick. When it came time to tear them down(thousands of hours later), I did not notice any type of corrosion. These are generators are basically a small-block V6 with a generator end connected. Although i am always open to new information. Just learned something new today [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[CamAroFaNaTic]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr> like the Lucas fuel injector cleaner.. <hr></blockquote>

I just added that stuff about two tank fulls ago [img]smile.gif[/img]

[gladiator]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr> I just added that stuff about two tank fulls ago
<hr></blockquote>

Did you like the Lucas fuel additive? Did it make a difference?

[strobhen]

I dunno how much I like lucas after seeing something on bobistheoilguy.com

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/images/lucas/lucas.htm

Just makes me loose faith in the company as a whole.