Fuel Additives Poll

[JanGeo]

He almost never adds air to the tires and this is well beyond his normal trip mileage that he has ever gotten with the truck. He has made this same trip for several years with the truck also. Plus usually the mileage going north to Vermont is lower for some reason. He also borrowed my scan gauge and has 287 gallons of mileage readings on it prior to this trip. Of course the next few tanks should go lower since he didn't add more GP-7 to the gas. As for driving speed he ran cruise control and although he said he never went over 65 the SG had something like 78 in it for a peak speed. This was a significant increase in mileage!

[bowtieguy]

we have a tie in the voting so far...need more voters!

[add|ct]

FWIW, a lot of guys over on BITOG use MMO, Regane, and a product from Red Line(fuel injector cleaner?). Any comments on any of those in the gas?

[VetteOwner]

i voted periodically but in reality its like once every few years or when i get a new vehicle (kinda like starting a clean slate ya know)

E10 has been around for at least 30 years now, we've always had it around me and noone i know has had any fuel issues, even my 80 chevette has run it most of its life with no ill effecs. Same with all our small engines (from 1950's - new) both 2 and 4 cycle.

I aint that old but in the teens thru ohh 80's were there many fuel cleaners or fuel related issues? Seems nowadays everyone's freaking out about dirty fuel system / gas and it sounds like some of you are running way to often of fuel cleaners like gas is gonna clump up like a sink drain if you don't clean it out every month. Back 60 years id imagine gas was alot dirtier (but cars could handle it for the most part) :P)

[bowtieguy]

i agree that E10 likely keeps things cleaner, but water and lube could be a concern.

[theholycow]

add|ct: IMO, MMO and other multi-purpose products are a waste when diluted into the fuel. The same results can be had from premium, or possibly even cheap, fuel system cleaners, all of which cost less than MMO (and Seafoam etc).

Also, I agree with VetteOwner's post in entirety. I think the size of the fuel system cleaning industry has marketing, not actual utility, to thank. Like so many other things it gets more attention than it needs (while other things go lacking).

[add|ct]

^I see where you are coming from. I do believe the 'concern' generally, in a well-maintained fuel system, would be the elevated situation for perhaps water absorption with ethanol blended fuels.

UCL concerns, any merit to it, yes/no?

[trollbait]

If water is a concern, 91% rubbing alcohol will work just as well, or even acetone.

Until I came across some clearanced injector cleaner, I was just going to use the above and mineral spirits, either mixed or solo, with maybe a little outboard oil.

[add|ct]

^The problem with that is the 'warnings' about raising the amount of additives to your gas that increase it's percentage of 'water retention' chemicals to beyond 10%, E10>. Alcohol is soluble with water. Now, I've used Sea Foam for instance, but it apparently can contain 10-20% of Isopropyl alcohol.

Does anyone buy into that? Sure, if you have water in the form of intrusive moisture, but if I use something like that or anything that 'could' retain water or potentially attract moisture, wouldn't the that only be a concern if I put that in the fuel and let it sit?

That seemed to be the concern from the fuel testers. How much I believe their concerns to be overtly founded, I'm not sure. I have used Sea Foam before, for example, and never thought once about it potentially retaining water until finding out it's contents. No idea if it actually does, but I always figured it left behind a lube with the pale oil it contains.

[theholycow]

What's wrong with a little absorbed water? It's better than having the same water mixed in rather than absorbed.