Hey all, I'm rather new to fuel additives, well kindof. The only time I used them was wit my friend, in his truck. He filled up his tank with super 92, put two fuel injector cleaners in (the 59cent kind as we called, dunno brand ), and octane booster (STP I think), we just saw this stuff, and said eh, fvck it lets try it. And honestly when that gas started flowing, we tried to shake the car to get it nice and mixed. Then before we knew it, it sounded like mustang! Well thats the sound it was like, it was good, and loud. He has a dodge durango 5.2ltr. The truck was peelin out around corners and everything, much better acceleration. It was awesome. Later that day we had to refill (SUVs suck at mpg lol). Put normal gas 87 in, and the sound was gone, damn.

Now I'm sure all those additives together made it sound like that, but my main question was do fuel injector cleaners really work? I was thinkin of puttin some in my car, and "restore lost power" as it states. Plus clean up my engine and fuel lines, sparkplugs, sounds pretty good to me. But do they work? I have an STP Fuel Injector cleaner right here next to me, its not the one that cleans both carbs and injectrs, just injectrs, black bottle, not white.

It states this: "help remove power robbing deposits in all foreign and domestic fuel injection systems. Without cleaning, these deposits can lead to hard starts, lost acceleration and rough idling."

Thats pretty much all it says, it doesn't state ingredients, but it says it contains petroleum distillates... isn't that the stuff thats in car wash stuff, to make our cars look shiny without wax. So do they really work, I'm not asking if its worth my money worth 5,6 dollaz aint much to me. But does it clean my engine and everything? I was also wondering if maybe it could damage the engine, make it worse??

 

Gas additives are a waste of money. All pump gas today has detergents in it to help prevent fuel injector clogging.
Do the gas detergents work? Maybe.
Am i an expert? Certainly not.
I never buy any of those miracle bottle products, some of my friends do, and I laugh my *** off at them, its just a waste of money.
The reason your friends truck ran so much better on that gas is because it was a higher octane, 92.
Most octane boosters are crap also.

Save your money.

 

All I can say is that when I put injector cleaner into my laser (For probably the first time it's seen it) my mileage was noticeably higher.

 

I ran 2 bottoms through my car when I first got it, it made a big difference. I was running lean and had no power till I did that a couple of times. I'd recomend the stuff that's about$10 abottle and do it 2 times in seperate tanks of gas.

 

Gas additives do work. I use heat 39 cent stuff with a tank full and it helps alot to stop detonation. If your injectiors or really dirty try some 44k. That stuff works the best and if you mix it with only a gallon of gas in your car you will feel a big difference.
SSC

 

44k? Who makes that, havent seen it, only stp, snap, and others.

 

He's talking about BG44k, I guess the manufacturer is BG... I used to buy it at the pontiac dealer for about $12 a bottle, great stuff by the way, but you should be able to pick it up at just about any autoparts store.

 

Anyone ever use Seafoam? You know that green stuff in the metal can????

 

They work to a point, but they're not a miracle product, and certainly not worth $10 a bottle. I'd just use it once, then stick to quality gas (no Texaco..hehe).

 

I run a bottle of the 10.00 stuff about 2 times a year. I don't think it really does anything. The key is quality of fuel you buy. I do feel better the day I put it in. (in my mind)

 

When I bought my 86 IROC (305 TPI/700r4) last year the owner started it up and it died. During our conversation it died 2 or 3 more times. He said he didn't know why it did that but it was only a problem when the car was cold. He also said he got about 17 mpg on premium gas. It was too pretty and ran too good to pass up so I bought it. After 3 or 4 bottles of fuel injector cleaner (followed by a bottle every 3 or 4 fill ups to keep it running right) I have no problems with it dieingafter start up and the mileage 9back and forth to work here in the Richmond, VA area) is usually 20 to 21 mpg (sometimes just under 20 and sometimes just over 21). That's 20 mpg in town, man. And I've never learned to treat one easy and do the speed limit either!

 

Here we go again. Lots of testemonials for and against the use of fuel additives, and no empirical data to support any of it. It looks half like a congressional debate and half like a late-night infomercial for ProLong.

Do fuel injector cleaners work? Yes. And No. They are best as a preventive measure. If you have a system that may be clogging or has some minor flow problem, you might get lucky and have success with a bottled product. Then again, you might just have the same luck with alcohol blended gasoline.

If you have an injector that has a really poor spray pattern, tip fouling, or some serious flow problem, it isn't likely going to work for you. At ten bucks or so a bottle for the better cleaners, it's usually worth a try. It's certainly easier than removing and cleaning injectors. If it doesn't work, you're only out ten bucks.

I hope everyone is really confused now...

 

I wait until the tank is near empty; put in a gallon of lacquer thinner, and run the car for a mintue until it gets all through the fuel system, which si usually easy to tell; park it overnight; then fill it up with gas in the morning. This even helps carb cars, just by getting rid of the varnish that builds up in small passages.

No fuel injector cleaner will clean out corrosion or dirt particles from the fuel system. They only work on deposits of additives and stuff that has settled out of the gasoline. Like Vader said, they can't hurt and might be worth a try sometimes, but the only sure thing is to have them professionally cleaned. I use www.cruzinperformance.com for mine.