I've seen these engine and fuel performance additives at the store. i have doubts if they really work, anyone have any experience?

 

don't bother. period. Save your money for Mobil 1 synthetic.

 

Yup, don't waste your money.

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89 IROC 5.0 TBI
89 RS 5.0 TBI, T-Tops, Soon to be a IROC clone.

 

Junk. Snake Oil. Waste of Money.

Run Mobil 1 and forget about about it.

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1990 IROC 350
Mods: Too busy trying to make it run right to mod it.
Airfoil, Dynomax cat-back, MSD coil, 180 t-stat, Bald Eagle tires,
Hypertech fan switch, Accel 23# injectors, Holley module, ported plenum,
Ported Daytona Yellow stock base, Moroso valve covers, other stuff,
Streetdampr, Ruger P95DC, hot wife, new oil filter, !cats, !TBC, !AIR.
18.0 @ 85MPH since I'm one big-a$$ MF
"It's better to have and not need than to need and not have."

 

Some of the engine performance additives really do work! The best ones I've found are JE pistons, CompCams, and ported cylinder heads. Then again, YOU might not consider those "additives".

Most of the liquid additives are useless crap, however. Unless you already have a significant engine problem, like excessive oil consumption, bearing knock, leakage, etc., the additives not only are useless but may actually promote damage. The only exception to this might be the cleaners that are intended to be mixed with the engine oil just prior to draining, and even those are suspect. Over the years, I've tried several of these concoctions hoping that something new was invented and would actually work. Yeah, right, whatever...

I'd much prefer using synthetic lubricants to clean my engines than additives, but have used transmission oil, kerosene (diesel fuel), and a Wynn's preparation to clean really sludgy engines just before tearing down for repairs or work. Of course, all of that gets drained before the car is driven and replaced with real lubricants.

Save your money, as suggested.

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Later,
Vader
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If you want to beat the World, it might reach up and pull you down...
Adobe Acrobat Reader

[This message has been edited by Vader (edited October 24, 2001).]

 

Anyone find carburetor cleaner or fuel injector cleaner actually worth every so often.

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"Rice burners are like tampons...Every pu$$y has to have one"
'86 IROC
T-TOPS, TINTED WINDOWS, BRAKE LIGHT BLACKOUTS
GM GOODWRENCH 350
EDELBROCK TES HEADERS
3" Hooker CatBack w/Aero Chamber muffler
EDELBROCK 600CFM CARB.
KN AIRFILTER
ACCEL HEI DISTRIBUTOR
160* Stat, just switched to 180* b/c of winter coming and going to college in the mts.
3:73 Posi
Rebuilt 700R4
B&M Megashifter, 5" Autometer Tach w/shift lite

 

Theres a product at NAPA called seafoam. It will remove water and clean injectors. But the biggest thing it does and does well is remove carbon. Stuff dissolves it. Seafoam was originally made to de-carbon evinrude 2 cycle outboards.

This is about the only product I'll use in an engine. There is a product for transmissions though, made by Lubeguard. It raises the burning point of transmission fluid. 60s and early 70s tranny fluid contained whale oil. This stuff replaces that. Its a protective product, in other words if your tranny dont work this wont fix it.

I wouldnt use any other products in working vehicles.

 

I've had reasonable success with spray-type carburetor cleaners, but the ethanol in my fuel more or less cleans everything as well as any other additive might.

I've used Sea Foam in some older engines with high mileage. It didn't seem to do any damage, but didn't seem to cause any positive changes either.

Applying fuel system cleaners is probably a lot like changing oil in your crankcase. As long as you maintain the oil properrly, you'll never notice any improvements in your performance. However, if you neglect to maintain your oil, you can expect massive changes, but they won't be positive. If you use a fuel with cleaners and demoisturants blended in, you probably don't need to add anything. If you happen to get a tankful of "raw" gasoline at the wrong time, you may have problems. Very soon, we should start to get winter blends of fuel, so moisture and lack of lubrication of injectors shouldn't be a big problem until next summer.

------------------
Later,
Vader
------------------
If you want to beat the World, it might reach up and pull you down...
Adobe Acrobat Reader

 

Have you guys seen this 'Z-Max' stuff? I kept seeing those infomercials so I bought some to humor myself. Like he said, if the engine isn't neglected you shouldn't see any improvement. You'd only see an improvement if it was added to a car who's owner is like 'Oil? What's Oil???' or 'Did you know if you don't put oil in a car, it blows up???' When my dad was younger he had a neighbor who had this theory that as long as there was oil in the car, it was ok since the oil was in there. He never changed his oil, then the car stopped working. Took it to my grandpa's shop and they took the engine apart. They asked the guy to come look at it, they took a big putty knife and scraped a bunch of really thick sludge out of it and told him 'This is what happens when you don't change your oil'

 

I started up a 301 pontiac that was sitting for 6 years w/o ever being run. It was completely internally blocked with sludge not to mention an acorn fell down into the distribter hole. I started it and ran it with 0 oil pressure for 30 minutes, even reving it a bit, shut it off, started it the next day and let it warm up and drove it across the street, (I didn't believe the OIL light, but it really wasn't lying this time!)

She made it about 8 miles before seizing. The funny part is that after it cooled, it started right back up again for 4 more miles to finish it's journey to the j-yard!

What I noticed is that any motor will run w/o oil at idle for very long periods of time. It's when you start loading the motor down that makes a difference.

 

being a tech myself the only time you really should add fuel additives would be at a major t-up the pontiac shop i work at uses
44K made by BG Products,inc. part number 208
we had cars notpass emmisions come in used the product and then the car actually passed
this product should be used according to the instructions. it will clean the upper valve train as well

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87 gta 5.7ltr
edelbrock headers
gutted cat
flowmaster 3in drivers exit
8.8mm wires/accel
accel 300+digital ignition system
msd pro billet distributer
hypertech stage 2 racing chip
slp cold air intake
maf has no screens
52mm bbk throttle body
extruded plenum, runners, intake all matched
high flow fuel pump
afpr @ 50 psi
ALL MODS DONE BY ME FOR ME
waiting on hotchkis rear susp package
and sfc before i run hard at track

 

i heard on the news there was some kind of lawsuit against zmax cuz it is bull****, tests showed it actually HARMED the engine. i'm not puttin **** but oil in my engine. anyone ever tried the STP fuel products?

 

Generally, when a chemical is put into the gas tank, and it magically passes emissions, it's because it's burning the chemical instead of gasoline. Few hundred miles later (if that) and the engine would probably fail again.

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89 iroc-z 305 tbi
k&n filtercharger, open element air filter. nuffin' else

 

I know I'm gonna get some arguments as to why it worked, but here it goes.

I had a 74 Camaro with a built 406. Solid cam, 64cc Edelbrock heads, single plane Edel. intake, yatta yatta yatta. I had bought it this way.

It had infamous heating problems. Not over heating, but just running pretty hot, period. I had the car about 3 yrs and took care of it like crazy. Change oil every 2K miles, Changed antifreeze every spring, tune-up every spring, adjusted valve lash every 500 miles., etc. I even went to a 160 deg t-stat trying to get it to run cooler. I only ran it in the summer months.

Well I had watched the DuraLube info-mercials a few times and was curious. So I bought a quart at the local parts store. THE CAR ACTUALLY RAN COOLER AFTER I PUT IT IN!!!! AND I had to adjust the idle mixture and idle speed again because it idled higher after I added this ****. I added it in the spring and it was amazing. All through the summer it never once spit anymore coolant out the overflow tube. (I didn't have a resevoir) Before and after I added it I ran Havoline 10-40W. So it wasn't due to oil brand. And I always used Havoline Coolant.

I can only say that it worked for THAT motor, for THOSE reasons. But ya gotta admit that the higher idle must have been due to a decrease in friction. And again, I ain't saying it'll work all the time, but it did that time.

I was Shocked. & Confused , but certainly happy.

AJ

[This message has been edited by AJ_92RS (edited October 25, 2001).]